On the Ground at the Russia-Ukraine Border

On the Ground at the Russia-Ukraine Border

Michael Schwirtz📍Reporting from the front

With the threat of Russian invasion looming, I traveled last week to the front lines of Ukraine’s war with Kremlin-backed separatists.

That’s where I met First Lt. Ivan Skuratovsky, a stoic 30-year-old →

On the Ground at the Russia-Ukraine Border

Michael Schwirtz📍Reporting from the front

“I’ve seen what people are capable of in the 21st century,” the lieutenant told me. When the war began in 2014, he was a gunner on an armored troop transport. Many of the soldiers he fought alongside are dead.

On the Ground at the Russia-Ukraine Border

Michael Schwirtz📍Reporting from the front

If Moscow invades Ukraine with overwhelming force, ∫Skuratovsky said, he and his fellow soldiers will be unlikely to repel it. But they will fight anyway, he added, “because behind us are our families and friends.”

On the Ground at the Russia-Ukraine Border

Michael Schwirtz📍Reporting from the front

Life on the front is arduous. For years, Ukrainian troops have been fighting a grinding war of attrition with Russian backed separatists from an ant farm of muddy trenches in the east. “It is classic trench warfare,” the lieutenant said.

On the Ground at the Russia-Ukraine Border

Michael Schwirtz📍Reporting from the front

Machine gun fire and the thud of grenade launchers broke the silence on the night that I visited. Ukrainian soldiers are under strict orders not to return fire unless absolutely necessary. “This really annoys the soldiers,” Skuratovsky said.

On the Ground at the Russia-Ukraine Border

Michael Schwirtz📍Reporting from the front

He spoke often of his two young children. He likely won’t see them until April. They give him strength, but he fears what would happen if he didn’t come back. “I’m a human,” he said. “I know I’m not immortal.”