The Sun
HERO frontline troops entrenched just 50 yards from a vast army of Russians set to invade Ukraine vowed to fight to “their last breath and bullet” last night.
A Sun team was granted access to a crack Ukrainian unit dug into World War One-style trenches closest to Vladimir Putin’s 175,000-strong force.
And shots rang out as the outgunned and outnumbered defenders vowed to hold back the menace threatening to trigger a World War III escalation.
A Russian heavy machine gunner opened up over the maze of barbed wire and sandbag defences through a pall of freezing fog as we took cover in a bunker.
But a burly Ukrainian lieutenant grabbed his Kalashnikov assault rifle to counter the threat – and shrugged: “The bastards are sending us their Christmas cards again.”
The quip typified the incredible resilience of the band of fighters who have held back the might of Russian-backed separatist forces for nearly eight years.
More than 13,000 from both sides have died in the bloody conflict which has evolved into a Somme-like stand-off along a 250-mile “contact line” snaking through contested Donbas.
The world has held its breath in recent weeks as Putin ordered his huge high-tech force ever closer to Ukraine’s borders.
Tensions had risen yesterday to the point where 444 breaches of a long-ignored ceasefire were recorded within 24 hours.
Military experts believe the defenders will be quickly overrun by the sheer scale of Russia’s land, sea and air power.
But Ukrainian morale was high in the dank trenches in the frontline town of Avdiyivka yesterday.
Crack 25th Airborne Brigade soldiers have built an astonishing array of hybrid fortifications around the ruins of a bomb-blasted industrial estate.
Commanders communicate using antique wind-up phones wired together in mud-clogged trenches lined with duck boards which are identical to the trenches of 100 year ago.
The primitive phones are used because it is impossible for the Russians to hack into calls.
Yet the zig-zagging defensive line is ringed with hidden cameras relaying every movement of the enemy to batteries of computer screens.
‘WE MUST WIN’
And drones from both sides fill the sky ensuring no soldier can operate without the scrutiny of a hovering electronic eye.
Senior Lieutenant Mihail, 25, who – like all troops serving here declined to give his family name – told The Sun: “It looks like we have turned the clock back more than 100 years.
“But technology and battlefield tactics have come a very long way since then and we have had eight years to prepare our welcome for the Russian forces should they attack.
“We are well trained and know exactly how we will respond – and can guarantee we will take many lives.
“There is shooting here every day and there is never a single moment when you feel safe but we are fired up and ready to resist.
“It is a fight we must win.”
We joined surveillance teams amid a bullet-riddled jumble of smashed factory machinery in hides just a few feet from the Russians and peered through periscopes at the enemy.
The device was proffered with the warning that raising your head to peek through a window at such close quarters invites instant death from a sniper’s bullet.
Read the full story in The Sun
