On a lengthy day in October, our team, led by Alex Gatopoulos from Al Jazeera, journeyed through several front-line locations. The mission was to meet the commander of a mechanised brigade situated near Robotyne, a village on the southern front. This brigade, a combined arms formation, comprised artillery and armoured units, combat engineers, and mobile infantry, making it a self-sustaining unit capable of swiftly leveraging any advancement made by Ukraine in the ongoing conflict.
The journey to our rendezvous was marked by fighter jets flying overhead and increasingly fortified checkpoints. Our escort ensured we passed through effortlessly, leading us to our meeting with the brigade commander to discuss filming permissions. Post our brief interaction, we were informed that we could return the next day to see preparations for a pre-dawn assault. Our guide for the day, a watchful man named Stepan, agreed to take us to interview a T-72 tank commander.
The T-72, a Soviet-legacy tank, along with the T-80, forms the heart of Ukraine’s armoured units, despite talk of Western tank donations. We found ourselves amidst a convoy of military vehicles, with a constant flurry of military traffic on the roads. In the midst of this, we came across two T-72 tanks, one refurbished after being captured from Russian forces, and the other donated by the Czech Republic.
The team had an unexpected encounter with a black cat, considered a mascot by the tank crew. The tank, a tight squeeze with its main gun, aiming sights, and equipment, seemed like a formidable beast that you either fight in or perish. The tank’s departure, under the guidance of a soldier, was a sight to behold – it roared out from under the camouflage netting, leaving behind a cloud of engine smoke.
Our journey continued, leading us to a front-line trench system in a relatively quiet sector. The ride, on the back of a pick-up truck, was a bumpy one. Once there, amidst the littered surroundings, we found soldiers dug in on a treeline, a necessary precaution in the open grounds of southern Ukraine.
The trench was alive with activity, with food preparation underway and the occasional booms of an artillery battery firing at Russian positions. Amidst these sounds, we shared a bumpy ride back with soldiers, engaging in a light-hearted conversation on music, and discovering shared tastes in Metallica and AC/DC.
Our final destination was a local commander’s interview in the neighbouring town. The devastation was palpable – burned cars, destroyed walls, and rubble strewn about painted a picture of what the apocalypse might look like. Yet, amidst the devastation, the humming of distant generators told us that life goes on. This journey offered a stark glimpse into the harsh realities of war and the resilience of those living through it.
