A bottle of syrup made from Siberian berries, legions of dirty socks and “For Victory!” A military-issued tea bag stamped with
For Ukrainian soldiers, one of the benefits of making at least crawling progress in the now-month-old counteroffensive in southern Ukraine is the acquisition of ready-made fortifications by the retreating Russians.
For Ukrainians, oddly enough, this means living and fighting in positions long held by the Russians – with military remains and personal belongings of Russian soldiers scattered about.
“It’s not very pleasant,” Pvt. Maxim, a soldier in Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, has collected several curiosities, including what he thinks are talismans: several bullets covered in lightning and attached to a key ring.
“This is our land but it is not very comfortable to be here,” said the private, who like other soldiers gave only his first name and rank for security reasons. “It doesn’t feel like home.”
In early June, Ukrainian forces, including thousands of troops trained and equipped by the United States and other Western allies, launched a counteroffensive aimed at driving a wedge through Russian-occupied southern Ukraine. Thousands of Russian troops waited in miles of trenches and other fortifications amid tank traps and thousands upon thousands of mines.
Ukrainian forces are attacking at least three places along the Russian defensive front. In their farthest advance, they pushed south to form a bulge about five miles across the defensive lines.
Ukrainian commanders wanted to reach the Sea of Azov, about 55 miles away on open plains that offered little cover. If they succeed, they will split the Russian-occupied south into two zones, cut off the land bridge from Russia to the occupied Crimean peninsula, and greatly compromise Russia’s ability to resupply its forces to the west.
As they advanced, the Ukrainians captured firing positions in Russian trench lines, bunkers, and abandoned buildings, but under constant artillery bombardment they had little time to clear the debris and abandoned clothing, body armor, ponchos, bedding, and remaining military rations of their enemy.
Take, for example, the village of Novodarivka in the plains of the Zaporizhia region of southern Ukraine, south of the city of Orikhiv. A month after soldiers with Ukraine’s 110th Territorial Defense Brigade and other units retook it, the village still remains vulnerable to occupying forces.
The village looked deserted in the scorching sun on a recent day, with occasional military vehicles kicking up dust on a single dirt road between ruined, abandoned houses.
Amidst a flurry of artillery shelling, Ukrainian soldiers plunged into captured Russian trenches. There was a burnt-out Russian tank on the village’s main road; In a nearby field, two detonated American-supplied MaxxPros mine-resistant vehicles.
Retrieving the remains of Ukrainian soldiers who died defending the village in the first months of the war as Russian forces rapidly advanced was a grim task.
Seven bodies have been lying around since April 2022, said one of the soldiers, Lt. Volodymyr.
The Ukrainians had occasionally flown drones over the village while it was occupied to make sure the Russians did not move the bodies. On Wednesday, he finally got a chance to retrieve them. “They were just skeletons” that had to be identified by their DNA, Lt. Volodymyr said.
As for the Russian dead, he said, the Ukrainians retrieved those they could safely remove and were covering others in piles of dirt to try to control the foul smell. Nevertheless, a terrible stench spread around the trenches and swarms of flies buzzed everywhere.
In an abandoned house, Russian soldiers had scratched the names of their towns or regions into the plaster walls: Vladikavkaz in southern Russia, and Primorye on the Pacific coast near Japan.
Pvt. Ltd. Interviewed in the trench, Maxim collected a small pile of surviving curiosities, including cowberry syrup made in the northern Siberian region of Yakutia. “For victory!” Beckoning to the Russian tea brand, he said of its previous Russian owners, “They didn’t have time to drink it.”
Talking about the back-and-forth of the fight, Prof. Maxim said, “We push them back, they push us back, we push them, they push us, etc.,” adding: “They had plenty of time to dig in.”
Soldiers said in interviews that slow progress could be expected given the minefields, trenches and open countryside.
The 110th Territorial Defense Brigade has been fighting in southern Ukraine for more than a year, against newly trained and well-equipped units specially deployed for counterattacks.
A soldier with the 110th, who identified himself as Sgt. Igor said his unit was crawling forward to the relative safety of the tree lines between the fields to attack the Russian trenches, moving in small bursts a few dozen or a hundred yards at a time. Such slow progress, he said, was worth all-out assaults.
“We have to advance a little bit with the infantry and break them this way,” Sgt. Igor said. “Crawl forward, fight them, then dig in again.”
He said it would take time for Ukrainian soldiers trained by Kyiv’s Western allies to become skilled at fighting in open farmland.
Soldiers deployed in the area develop a finely tuned ear for the whistles and booms of incoming and outgoing artillery, “you hear it and know in a split second whether to go down or not,” he said.
Soldiers must steel themselves to maneuver in trenches and fire their guns at approaching enemy troops in an attack, even as bullets zip overhead, he said.
“Training abroad is not the same as actual combat,” he said. “They are now gaining battle experience,” he added, and as they do, the advance may gain momentum. U.S. officials said Ukrainian commanders were reassessing tactics after a slow start to the offensive and soldiers running into minefields.
Green recruits are discouraged when fellow soldiers are wounded or killed, Sgt. Igor said. “Their morale is affected quickly,” he said.
“Soldiers learn,” he said. “Very complicated. And yes, it’s going slowly. But most importantly, it’s happening.”
Yuri Shaivala and Maria Varennikova contributed reporting.
