‘Here on the Eastern Front we are ready for a counterattack’

With a few mouse clicks, Maksim Grebennik zooms in on a Russian tank near a row of trees. In another camera image, the 43-year-old commander sees the outskirts of Donetsk. From an underground bunker near the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, Grebennik and eight colleagues use outdoor cameras to monitor movements by the Russian army. The men and women in the bunker do their work seven kilometers from the battle line.

For security reasons, the exact location of the bunker should not be disclosed. It is an excavated space of earth, wood and tree trunks. In this underground office, documents, laptops and cables are everywhere. The desks and benches are made of pallets and cork wood. The eight men and a woman have taken off their gear. Their Kalashnikovs, helmets and body armor hang on hooks by the door. The atmosphere is giggly, relaxed. After more than two months of fighting, they got used to the war. “When are you coming to stay here?” someone jokes.

The West gives us very cool stuff, like the anti-tank weapon the Javelin

Denis Kovalenko Ukrainian soldier

The mood is at odds with the above-ground fighting in eastern Ukraine, the Battle of the Donbas, announced in mid-April by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At Popasna, and further north from Izyum, Russian forces try to force a breakthrough but fail. On the other side, in the Donbas, the Russian threat from the south lurks for Ukraine. The front forms a semicircle around the Ukrainian troops.

The environment of Pokrovsk is no different than war. A gas station and building are still destroyed after fighting eight years ago between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists, backed by Moscow. Since then, the front between the two parties has been behind Pisky. On the other hand, in 2014 the separatists proclaimed the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. The front at Pisky is like frozen and does not move in the war.

Underground bunker

Above the underground command center, the soldiers are recovering from the fighting. The military has been using the site – which includes a building and courtyard – since November. From the courtyard there is an entrance to a second underground bunker, to shelter from shelling. In the building the soldiers can sleep and wash their clothes. Outside they hang out, chat and smoke. Once rested, they return to the Donbas Front. All interviews are conducted in Russian without any problem. No soldier cares about that.

Outside, above ground, Commander Grebennik does not want to say how many soldiers are on the site. Here in the courtyard it’s not about computers, it’s about the raw, human side of war. “We’ve lost people: killed, captured.” The chatty Grebennik falls silent, sighs and looks at the ground. “That’s war. War looks beautiful in the movie, but not in real life. Watching someone die right in front of your eyes sucks. Every loss hurts. They are boys with children. I think of them with every death.”

In the courtyard, the booming artillery shells come through from miles away. In the vicinity of the main building and the two bunkers it seems safe. But safety guarantees do not exist here. The location can be fired upon at any moment. A few yards behind Grebennik, in the courtyard, is a Russian Grad missile that landed outside the site a day and a half ago. There were no casualties.

Even less safe are ten soldiers in an open field, less than a 10-minute drive from the underground command center. On the way a cyclist passes, two people work in a vegetable garden, the neighbor’s is raked in. A mini supermarket is open.

Further on you arrive at the field, what appears to be a nature reserve with trees, shrubs, croaking frogs and chirping birds. Trenches and two underground bunkers cut through this image. One of the two bunkers serves as a kitchen. Pans are bubbling on the stove. On the menu are pea soup and buckwheat. There is food everywhere – beans, lentils, potatoes, milk, bread, tomato soup – which, after being collected all over the country, has reached its final destination seven kilometers from the battle line.

The second bunker is for sleeping. Six soldiers can be accommodated on two bunk beds and two separate beds. Two soldiers are sleeping next to their Kalashnikov. “Sometimes we sleep three to four hours, sometimes eight hours,” said soldier Artyom Kukhtarjov, 31, during a tour of the camp. “We are wise soldiers. You should rest when you can. Because you may not be able to do that at all if you have to fight.”

artillery sound

Kukhtarjov has been camping in the field since November. “We had long expected the war to break out. The first days were horrible, frightening. You didn’t know what was going to happen. Now we are used to the shelling. We recognize the artillery sound and know when it becomes dangerous. Then we go inside. Or we check to see if anyone has been injured, and if we have to, we fight back. No one has died here.”

As if to show it off, hanging on a wall are two western Stingers, which you can use to fire anti-aircraft missiles from the shoulder. The military aid from abroad is clearly visible here. Under a camouflage net is also a British medical car. Kukhtarjov calls the foreign support invaluable. “This is a great plus for Ukraine.” Private Denis Kovalenko (27) agrees: „We are getting very cool stuff, like the Javelin, an anti-tank weapon. You shoot it and it hits.”

Also read: In the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the wounded are being cared for from three fronts

Outside the underground command center, Deputy Commander Myroslav (25) does not venture to predict the course of the war. “Every day can be different. But we are standing.” And then confidently: “We are ready to launch a counterattack.”

A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 4, 2022