2023-10-09 05:48:47
Published on October 9, 2023 at 07:48. Modified on October 9, 2023 at 11:50.
Khomyak and Fin, two officers from the Skala battalion, have just returned from a mission south of Robotyne, in the vicinity of Novoprokopivka, their faces drawn, their uniforms rinsed by the first rains of autumn. “Two Russian tanks take turns firing at our outpost. Hundreds of shells every day, hell. And my men are in there,” says Khomyak, a nom de guerre that means “hamster” in Russian. The positions have changed little since the end of August. The prospect of reaching Melitopol or Berdyansk on the shores of the Sea of Azov before Christmas has faded. Even the small town of Tokmak, regarding fifteen kilometers south of Robotyne, seems out of reach for the moment. But as a commander in the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, present on this portion of the front, explains, “the maps don’t tell everything.” Ukrainian strikes on Russian supply lines and using precision missiles, the SCALP-EG of Franco-British manufacture in particular, have wreaked havoc the extent of which might prove dangerous for the Russian occupying forces.
In the city center of Orikhiv on October 8, 2023. Russian bombings completely devastated the city in Zaporizhia Oblast. — © Adrien Vautier / Le Pictorium
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