Live Updates: Russia’s War in Ukraine
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A Ukrainian reconnaissance team squats in a modest house in a village near Mykolaiv. Machine guns and army backpacks line the walls, sleeping bags are rolled out on the floor, and a pot of soup warms on the stove.
Outside, the garden shed is filled with javelins and other shoulder-thrown anti-tank weapons.
The soldiers smoking on the porch barely notice the rumble of artillery shells coming ten kilometers away. Today it is not their turn to fight on the southern front of Ukraine.
The owners of the house, who fled to Poland after the outbreak of war in late February, are happy to know that their village is now back in Ukrainian hands.
Senior Lieutenant Andrii Pidlisnyi was one of the soldiers who drove the Russians out two months ago. « At first it was a defensive operation to stop them, » he says. « After that, we found good places where we can do offensive operations and take back our territories. And now we are doing that. »
Pidlisnyi commands a 100-man unit responsible for identifying Russian positions, often by drone. They then call in the artillery.
On his computer, he shows CNN body camera footage of his missions earlier in the war. He’s had a few setbacks, but says his spirits are good after his recent successes. American hardware helped.
A video shows Pidlisnyi sitting in a trench, using his drone to locate Russian tank positions. « Call the American gift, » he says over the radio.
Russian troops are now on the defensive in this southern part – unlike in the east, where Ukrainian troops are the ones forced to give ground.
Read the full story here.
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