Many of the soldiers carry the old Soviet assault rifles from Brezhnev’s times that fall apart right in the middle of battle. Ukrainians use house doors, iron gates and other similar items as makeshift shields. Watch any World War II movie where the communication operator drags a roll of wire. Can you imagine this going on in a 21st century army? But this is exactly how the Ukrainian Army operates today.
I did not notice any heavy military vehicles on the Ukrainian side; either they are well hidden, or the Ukrainian Army is indeed surviving on bare enthusiasm. Only in one garage in a coastal town did we see a couple of rusty Soviet armored personnel carriers.
The pro-Russian forces, on the other hand, are well-equipped with assault weapons; there is a Russian tank in every garage, my companions tell me pointing at deep craters left by the merciless Grad rockets.
Just like World War II
Now I should add a few words about the Ukrainian checkpoints and headquarters. The checkpoints are built from ordinary concrete blocks stacked one onto another, with gaping holes for observation and shooting.
And this is the best-case scenario. Normally Ukrainian fortifications consist of logs or sandbags. Here and there you can see dugouts with stovepipes sticking up from the ground. Today’s Eastern Ukraine would be a perfect location for Hollywood moviemakers to shoot another World War II blockbuster.
We travel on roads beaten up by time and artillery shells. We stay on our predetermined route because the road shoulders and the fields are mined. My guides tell me there have been incidents with civilians stepping on landmines.
About a half of the fired artillery shells remain in the ground unexploded. This is the main danger of this “hybrid” war, as it is called in the West.
“The insidiousness of the Russian shells is that they stay unexploded in the ground or inside buildings,” says a chaplain who goes by the name Albert. “They can inflict harm at any moment.”
Dozens of unexploded mines are stuck right in the road daily traveled by frontline missionaries such as Albert and Gennadiy. We drove over at least ten of those mines.
As one of the Ukrainian soldiers told me, “Putin’s warriors” in Donetsk are launching mines and rockets without aiming, just to spend the ammunition and report a job well done. Experts say it will take at least ten years after the war to clear the area of unexploded ordnance.
It is said neither side in this conflict has a map of their minefields. First the area was overtaken by rebels who fought against local militia. Those volunteers mined all the important routes. Professional soldiers and saboteurs have also left mine fields behind them. And now the regular army and the National Guard are operating in the area. This is why Ukrainian minesweepers set up bright red and white signs saying “Danger! Mines!” through which no one passes.
The trees on the front line are shaven by a barrage of bullets and artillery shells. Those few locals who decided not to leave the dangerous area stay away from the forest to avoid exploding traps. Soldiers are unable to use chainsaws because the tree trunks have numerous lead bullets embedded in them.
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We carefully step down into one of the trenches dug by Ukrainians back in 2014 when the front line was close to Mariupol. I try to walk step-in-step with my guide. The trenches go in a zigzag pattern so an exploding artillery shell would cause as little damage as possible. Anti-tank fortifications were built by local people, including Gennadiy Mokhnenko, to keep rebels from entering the town. Everyone, including children and teenagers, participated.
Ukrainian volunteers implemented a unique method of protection from tank fire. They use a regular wire fence, make it into a cube 1.5 meters wide, line it with sackcloth and fill it up with sand and rocks. These defense devices can stop the direct hit of almost any artillery shell. This NATO technology is probably the only sign of the mighty Western alliance in East Ukraine.
Pastor Mokhnenko is outraged. “This is surreal! I am a Russian, and I have to build a line of defense from the Russian troops attacking my town!”
According to Gennadiy and his comrades-in-arms, the reason why the Kremlin was unable to overtake the town is that its entire population stood united to protect their motherland.
Russian troops in the Eastern Ukraine
Try telling any Ukrainian there are no Russian army or Russian weapons in Eastern Ukraine. That would be the same as telling a New Yorker you do not see any skyscrapers or taxi cabs in Manhattan. You would be considered insane or, at the very least, deaf and blind.
