Meeting with recruits preparing for war

For the past 72 hours, the storm of danger above our heads has been that of Russian fighter jets, overtaking and taking down their targets.

Now the chaos comes from a Ukrainian drone that was not sent to kill, but to transmit images from the training ground to the commanders back at the base.

We are brought to a secret training facility in the Chernihiv region where the latest military recruits are fast-tracked onto the battlefield in a renewed effort to blunt Moscow’s advance.

As there is a hail of gunfire and orders from instructors, the most striking aspect of the scene is the age of the new recruits. Most appear to be in their 40s and 50s.

Among the gray-haired group, Rostyslav, his wife and two children are waiting for him at home in the Odesa region.

Last month he was a driver. Next month he may find himself fighting on Russian soil, with Ukraine vowing to hold on to the land it seized from the Kursk region when it raided the lights last month.

“I think this is the right thing to do,” he said of the surgery.

“Look at how long they have been in our world. We have suffered for a long time, we must do something. You can’t just sit there while they take our place. So what are we going to do? Shall we be their slaves?”

The training schedule we’re seeing shows an accelerated program of new recruits continuing as Ukraine struggles to cope with the influx of men Russia is committing to the front.

The Ministry of Defense in London estimated that 70,000 Russians were injured in Ukraine in May and June alone.

Under a hot sun, new Ukrainian soldiers jumped out of American-made armored fighting vehicles and opened fire on enemy positions.

The military, concerned that the location of the training remains a secret, asked to see the video we filmed at the location before the story was reported all over the BBC news – but they have not seen any documents or had editing control.

In a nearby forest, a simulated Russian attack on Ukrainian trenches plays out while a live grenade practice rumbles across the plain.

Two and a half years into the war, and Ukraine is desperate for more soldiers and a new conscription law went into effect that lowered the age of enlistment for men from 27 to 25. Women’s military service is not compulsory.

Seeking to recruit young people has not yet reached this group of men.

All the recruits we see before us have already had 30 days of basic training and today the most advanced care – dealing with broken bones, gunshot wounds and catastrophic bleeding – is using medical equipment imported from the UK.

Light-hearted moments – a wonky tourniquet cut here or there – punctuate the heavy atmosphere.

There is no escaping the fact that the simulated emergency care provided under the shade of the spruces can be made into a harsh reality in the coming weeks and months.

Another soldier who accompanied us in this area says that if the new players do not get enough fighting skills, they will not be taken to the front.

“We will not send them to death,” he said.

However, we have heard complaints, especially from professional soldiers, that non-recruited soldiers are sent to other fields without adequate training and thrown into the war prematurely.

Ukraine is on the back foot in key parts of the battlefield at home, especially around the key city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk.

But last month’s invasion of Russia raised morale and added a new dimension to the war.

However, Kyiv is now fighting another war and this is a big personal gamble for President Zelensky.

His generals have tough strategic decisions to make about where to send their new men.

Maxim, a 30-year-old architect by trade, seems to be the youngest of the group.

“We have to train again, train again. When we train more we will learn more here. It will help us move forward.”

Where will that be, I ask? “We are ready to defend our land in Donbas – or Kursk,” he said proudly but with a nervous laugh.

Earlier, in the Ukrainian region of Sumy, we had marched under military escort to a new Ukrainian settlement just a few kilometers from the Russian border.

On the way, we passed all the roads that had been blown to pieces by the previous fire of Russian artillery.

The villagers were long gone, and the only human alive was wearing green and driving military vehicles.

As we arrive at the camp, the armored personnel carrier (APC) that just attacked Kursk roars to life and retreats from its hiding place.

It spins and speeds off through the canopy of the line, leaving behind a large plume of copper-colored dust.

“The Russian soldiers asked for mercy, we took them as prisoners of war. The Russians attacked us, we killed them.”

A vague synopsis from a Ukrainian commander who goes by the symbol “Storm”.

His 22nd Mechanized Brigade was the first to enter Russian territory and now he is back to tell the story.

“We went far to the Kursk region. We were alone as a forward group. We were in another country and we felt like strangers. Not in our home.”

A father of five with five degrees, Storm cuts a distinct figure in the dense jungle.

The giant of a man with a gray goatee and military tattoos on his skin can be covered by his army fatigues and body armor.

“That’s us, there,” he said, showing us a video on his phone of an APC driving through the Russian countryside.

What was it like to fight the Russians on their own soil, I ask?

“I was worried about myself and my team, about my staff, about everyone. Yes, there was fear. “

Like all Ukrainian soldiers I met, Storm is understandably reluctant to provide any operational information that might help the Russians.

So when I ask if he knows how long he’ll be in Russian territory when he returns, it’s a predictable answer that’s long on patriotism and short on specifics.

“We are fulfilling the order. We will be there as long as we are told. If we are told to move forward, we will move forward. If they say we should withdraw, we will withdraw.”

He continues in the same way: “If we have the order to move forward, we can reach Moscow – and we will show what Ukraine means and what our boys are like – real Cossacks.”

Ukraine has reportedly sent up to 10,000 troops to Russia as part of its rapid expansion.

The Russian Defense Ministry says Kyiv has lost thousands of people.

The head of the Ukrainian army, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, announced that the Russians have now sent 30,000 troops to defend Kursk. All these statistics are difficult to verify.

In another hideout, the group gets out of a German-made Bergepanzer armored recovery vehicle.

The driver, who goes by the name “Producer”, is a father of two who has not seen his two children for three years.

They fled to Italy with their mother in the weeks following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Although we cannot determine the extent of Ukraine’s losses, it is clear that the Producer has been busy recovering damaged and destroyed vehicles inside Russia.

“I want this war to end,” he tells us wearily in perfect English.

“That is because there is no reason for this (war). One man, Vladimir Putin, attacked our country. So what should we do? We have to protect our home. Protect, protect, protect. But Ukraine is a small country.”

The standoff between Moscow and Kyiv remains a key thread in President Zelensky’s bid for greater Western aid.

By taking the war to Russia, Ukraine reinvigorated its own society but worried some allies who are still nervous about Vladimir Putin’s response and the prospect of a wider conflict.

So far, President Putin has ignored, at least publicly, the wound inflicted on his country’s side.

Ukraine says, unlike Russia, it does not have unlimited borders for those recruited to reach the front.

We saw with our own eyes a glimpse of the problem of the deployment of workers in the places we visited this past week.

President Zelensky says that greater US and European assistance in air defense is more important than ever and that permission to use foreign-made ballistic missiles to continue entering Russia needs to be granted immediately.

Especially now that Kyiv is fighting a war at home and abroad.

As we leave the training ground, weary soldiers are crying on the ground – a bottle of water and a cigarette in hand for many.

Rostyslav, who wishes to return to his Odesa, believes that his president is right.

“The Russians can reach our territory with long-range weapons and we do not have a weapon that can reach their territory. We will not be able to stand this anymore” he explained.

“We would like to hit Moscow to end this dirty war. Children and citizens suffer, everyone suffers. “

Another rocket-propelled grenade rumbles through the dry training ground.

Next time, it won’t be a drill.

Additional reporting by Kyla Herrmansen, Anastaciia Levchenko