Russian-made Kord 12.7 heavy machine gun placed in the ruins of a building destroyed and less available one and a half miles An observation post of Russian troops The last line of defense in the east of the Ukrainian army Kharkiv province close to town Kupayansk. At first glance, the place seems very obvious, considering not only the proximity of the occupying forces, but also the absence of any protective walls. enemy firean intuition that becomes certain when a hole is observed at one of the ends of the position surrounded by graffiti From the language of Leo Tolstoy, where you can read details such as “Shave your dick.”
“It was an artillery hit this morning,” one of the two soldiers standing guard on this cold morning with snowstorms and snowfall in northeastern Ukraine confirmed. Since the defeat of Russian troops from the logistics center in and around Izium last September, the war front in this area has hardly moved, but military activities continue in the form of clashes. special forces group carries out most of the harassment operations.
Unit members divide their time among themselves. advanced locationAlso a few meters away is a well-guarded basement, where they have an underground shelter equipped with bunk beds and heating, where they rest between rotations. detached house already in the security of the urban area Kupayansk, fifteen kilometers south. Here, they spend their time doing sports. dumbbell, dumbbell And gym benches to stay good physical shapeFeeding on borsch (boron soup) and buckwheat and preparing their weapons, they were all Russian made and were abandoned by the invading Army when they were actually withdrawn from here at the end of the summer. in the rout.
“Battle Trophies”
“The only thing we have as a weapon spoils of war who left Russians When They went“, To explain Vladislav Leinerbut a 26-year-old big man and two meters high, while proudly placing a grenade in front of the same camera. on garage shelves, ammo for semi automatic rifles until grenade launcher And anti-tank Weapons, passing tripods And other military accessories. “As a rule, an Army should destroy any weapons it cannot take with it when retreating to avoid falling into enemy hands, but (in September) the Russians have not even had time to take it. I’m taking your 200 woundedthe margin they had to take or destroy their own weapons was much less”, continues vladan abbreviation of Vladislav, as it is known to his colleagues.
Vlad, like his colleagues, prefers the freedom to be part of a volunteer unit. fully integrated in the ranks of the Ukrainian Regular Army, which they saw as very rigid structure And bureaucratic. And even if it means eating donated by civilians not getting paid like regular soldiers. “We deploy not where we are ordered, but where we choose and believe we are most needed; we coordinate with ukrainian forces deployed there,” he continues. talent with weapons and battlefield activity This is evident because of the grueling and arduous process of joining the unit.
Originally from the occupied Crimean peninsula, Andrii prefers not to reveal his real name for security reasons and only agrees to be photographed. backwards. thanks to you muscular and muscular silhouettehe’s capable of doing dozens of push-ups at the impromptu gym while he’s in all his gear, including a bulletproof vest, and he has half of it. body covered tattoos. His, yes, is an artifact surrounded by mythology in the history of world war conflicts: he is the group’s sniper.
Andrii was an amateur marksman in peacetime. The Remington XP-100 is an American-made high-precision long-range weapon. “like kalashnikovhe explains. Now with different types of rifles according to his mission, he defines his duty as “observing the enemy and seeing what is happening”, in most cases “supporting the artillery”, while despising some. movie legends Created around elite shooters like the Soviet sniper story Vasily Zaitsev In the movie ‘Enemy On Watch’ during the Battle of Stalingrad. “The movie ‘The Sniper’ is much more real,” emphasizes Clint Eastwood. When asked about the number of enemy soldiers he had killed and the possible regret this might cause him in the future, he simply shrugged: “I don’t know how many, I think dozens; no, I don’t feel anything, maybe A protection mechanism“.