From his muddy shelter on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, an officer stares at the horizon, pointing to the lines of the Russian army, which are preparing to besiege the city.
To his left, the lands under Ukrainian control. To his right is the area where the Russians have fortified their positions, pounding Kharkiv with constant shelling, which has claimed dozens of lives in recent days.
Petro, a 42-year-old captain, stands at “ground zero”, the place where the two belligerents meet in combat in this border region.
“How long all this will last, I don’t know. The enemy has fortified their positions, creating a front line, trying to gain an anchorage,” he explains.
The army asked AFP not to reveal the exact location of their position, or identifying details, following a visit to the front line on Sunday near Kharkiv.
A group of soldiers dwell here, holed up in fortified positions, surrounded by craters, under a silvery, rain-laden sky.
They only venture out in small groups so as not to attract the attention of the Russian lookouts who could launch artillery fire, the incessant crash of which is expected in all directions.
Before the war, Petro was a cabinetmaker working in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe. Today, the captain carries arms with four ammunition magazines hanging from his chest.
“We want and we do everything to destroy the enemy as soon as possible,” he says, observing the landscape where the future of Kharkiv will be decided.
– “It’s like chess” –
Russia ended its offensive in northern Ukraine at the end of March, giving up on taking kyiv, the capital, in order to concentrate its forces on the assault on Donbass, in the Russian-speaking east of the country.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city with nearly 1.5 million inhabitants, is located in the northeast, just 21 kilometers from the Russian border. She is now one of the Kremlin’s priority targets.
On Sunday, six people were killed there by shelling in a residential area in the center. The missiles fell there moments after AFP journalists left “ground zero”.
The Ukrainian soldiers who have taken up residence there have endeavored to provide a semblance of comfort there. A man sleeps there in a hammock, while another cleans his weapon under a desk lamp.
In a makeshift kitchen, the steam from a pot on a filthy stove casts dappled shadows on patriotic children’s drawings, distributed to soldiers to boost their morale.
Around a table on which sits a bowl of grated carrots, a can of condensed milk and a plate of butter, the men discuss.
“War is like chess, who will play better than the other,” said a 39-year-old lieutenant who uses the nom de guerre “Chamil”.
He said he was surprised by the Russian strategy, “without apparent logic”. He warns, however: the recent progress of the Ukrainian army could be the result of a Moscow bluff, of a strategic withdrawal.
“We don’t have any particular emotions or vain hopes about this. Our task is to push the enemy back to the border,” he said.
– Ready for battle –
As the men prepare to leave their shelter, the Russian forces play their new card: a salvo of artillery falls nearby. Taking cover, the Ukrainians prepare their response.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine will soon enter its third month, both sides seem to be preparing for a brutal and bloody fight.
In Kharkiv, the Ukrainian forces are hopeful of repelling the Russian forces, even though entire neighborhoods have already been devastated by the explosions.
Many of the city’s residents who did not flee are now confined to the corridors of the subway, waiting for the war to end on the surface.
And looking at yourself like a faience dog at “point zero” will not lift the partial siege of the city.
“The longer they stay in the same place, the more they fortify their positions and the more difficult it will be to repel them”, notes Sergeant “Orechek”.
His enthusiasm is not affected: “My fighting spirit is strong. I’m always ready to attack,” he says.