“We will strike [the Russians] with their own tank,” said chief executive Oleksander Harmatko, looking pleased as he put the finishing touches on the redesigned combat vehicle, which just days earlier fired on its own troops near the Russian-held city of Izyum. “This tank came to the front to ‘work’ our positions,” Harmatko told CBC News. “But our infantry shut it down.” He said the Russian gunner and tank commander were killed trying to escape from the vehicle after his gun jammed, while the driver managed to get out alive and hid in tall grass hoping for a chance to escape. Instead, he surrendered to Ukrainian forces after a night out in the countryside, Harmatko said. WATCHES | CBC talks to Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines in Donbass:
A look at the war in Ukraine, from the front line in Donbass
As the fighting continues in Eastern Ukraine, every weapon and every ounce of resolve counts for this Ukrainian unit fighting on the front lines in the Donbass region. Ukrainian officials would not discuss the number of men or the amount of equipment they have to face Russian forces on the front line in eastern Ukraine. But they confirmed that this platoon of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade operating near Izyum, which is located in the Kharkiv region, recently captured three such Russian tanks and quickly returned them to service. Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by the CBC in their frontline positions say Russia’s triumphs in the Luhansk region have masked hard military successes elsewhere — including in the neighboring Izyum region.
Russian profits
Russia’s war in Ukraine has become a bitter battle of attrition, marked by a 1,000-kilometer front line and punctuated by an ongoing Russian offensive in a relatively narrow 90-kilometer stretch near the eastern city of Lysychansk. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the eastern region of Luhansk, a day after Russian state media claimed the army had driven Ukrainian defenders from the town of Lysychansk, the last bastion of resistance in the province. Ukraine’s military says its forces staged a strategic retreat as the city was destroyed. However, the capture of Lysychansk represents a victory for Russia, as it now controls all of the territory in Luhansk Oblast, as well as half of neighboring Donetsk. Looking ahead, the question is whether the Russian military can continue to push further into the Donbas, or whether a combination of exhaustion and Ukrainian resistance will force it to stop. A CBC News team walks past ammunition left behind by retreating Russian soldiers near Izyum. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News) A team from CBC News was granted unprecedented access to the Ukrainian positions where the Donbass and Kharkiv regions meet. The trip involved a high-speed drive along a bumpy dirt road littered with fresh artillery hits. On both sides, vast areas of fallow sunflower fields showed the signs of heavy shelling, including many craters and fires from Russian munitions. WATCHES | The countryside in eastern Ukraine is littered with craters from artillery strikes: Drone video shows the sealed landscape near the front line around Izyum in Eastern Ukraine. The sound of incoming Russian artillery mixed with outgoing Ukrainian fire behind our position created almost continuous explosions.
“Gradually, we are moving forward”
In April and May, Russian troops drove hard across the rolling countryside to try to capture the nearby city of Sloviansk, aiming to encircle a large part of Ukraine’s army. But soldiers from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade halted the Russian advance – and since then, Ukrainian forces have been slowly regaining lost ground. “Gradually, we’re pulling forward,” said the sergeant. Iryna Rybakova. “Almost every week our battalions advance a few kilometers.” Rybakova, 38, is a former journalist who worked for a Ukrainian anti-corruption agency before the war. He said that over the past two weeks, Ukrainian forces have pushed back Russian troops at least five kilometers toward Izyum. Sgt. Iryna Rybakova, 38, is a former Ukrainian journalist and anti-corruption activist who is now a full-time soldier in the Ukrainian army. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News) But the Russians did not give up the ground easily. Among the broken buildings and discarded, empty ammunition cases at a former Ukrainian command post are the remains of a Tochka-U ballistic missile that Rybakova says caused massive damage to soldiers there. “We are losing people, villages and weapons because of the heavy shelling,” he said. Other Ukrainian soldiers tell the same story, of harsh conditions at the front mixed with modest progress. “We kill them and they kill us,” said a troop commander nicknamed Yashchir or Lizard.
“I understand the scale of this war”
Yashchir led his platoon in an attempt to repel a Russian counterattack that resulted in the capture of this T-80 tank — albeit at the cost of the life of one of his soldiers.
This Ukrainian platoon commander, who goes by the nickname Lizard, says he has been holding front-line positions for the past 70 days. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News)
He said the driver of the surrendered tank was a 32-year-old soldier from Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city.
“The prisoner told us that his salary is 200,000 rubles [a month],” said Yashchir, which is about $4,000 Cdn — a large sum in Russia.
“But we are fighting for our land, not money,” said the platoon commander.
Ukraine’s military claims that Russia is recruiting young men, including teenagers, in territories it holds and forcing them to fight against Ukraine.
But soldiers we spoke to said while many of the enemy fighters they encounter are in their early 20s, they haven’t spotted anyone who appears to be conscriptable.
Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines the CBC spoke to said at night, Russian scouts come as close as 150 meters to their lines — so close that Ukrainian observers can make out their faces.
“At first it was very scary,” said a Ukrainian soldier passing by Arsen, of the experience of being on the front lines. “But now I’m experienced.”
A Ukrainian soldier who goes by the name Arsen says that Russian sentries sometimes come within 150 meters of Ukrainian positions. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News)
A former history teacher, Arsen said that unless the war ends and Russian troops are expelled from Ukrainian soil, it will be impossible for him to return to life as a civilian.
“I understand the magnitude of this war,” he said.
Waiting for western weapons
Ukraine has not disclosed how many of its soldiers have been killed or wounded, but at the height of the fighting in Donbass, officials claimed it was losing several hundred soldiers a day.
Russia claims to have killed 23,000 Ukrainian soldiers, but those numbers are impossible to verify — as are Ukrainian claims that it has killed more than 35,000 Russian soldiers since the invasion began on February 24.
The British government, which publishes a daily update on the conflict, has put Russian military deaths at about half.
Ukrainian soldiers on the eastern front say they were expecting the arrival of more weapons supplied by Western nations, including Canada. Only then will Ukraine have a realistic chance of recapturing lost cities like Izyum or those in the Donbas, said a soldier named Marcel.
“In our area, I heard there are M777 shells,” he said, but so far there is no indication of long-range missiles such as the US M142 High Mobility Artillery Missile System (HIMARS). “The front is too long and we don’t see much.”
A Ukrainian soldier appears with an anti-tank weapon. Soldiers told CBC News they have seen little evidence of Western weapons on the front lines so far. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News)
The only western weapon our team observed were soldiers with AT-4 anti-tank missiles, which are useful for defense and close combat, but not for countering Russia’s massive artillery advantage.
Ukraine’s military claims Russia has fired more than 200 missiles at Ukrainian targets in the past two weeks alone, as part of an effort to stop these Western weapons from reaching the front lines.
As part of an agreement with the Ukrainian military, CBC News cannot identify where our team visited on the Izyum front or describe specific landmarks.
But the forward positions were bare, with a shallow network of trenches and small command centers buried in the ground, set among a dense line of trees and brush.
There were no obvious places to rest or eat, and many of the soldiers CBC spoke to appeared exhausted from lack of sleep.
“We all want to go home,” said the platoon commander named Lizard. “We are here for 70 days and we want to return to our families as soon as possible.”
However, despite the fatigue, all the soldiers said that Ukraine must continue to fight until the last Russian leaves their soil.
title: “As Russia Declares Victory In Luhansk Ukraine Seizes Tanks And Reclaims Territory In Neighboring Region " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-21” author: “Geraldine Morrison”
“We will strike [the Russians] with their own tank,” said chief executive Oleksander Harmatko, looking pleased as he put the finishing touches on the redesigned combat vehicle, which just days earlier fired on its own troops near the Russian-held city of Izyum. “This tank came to the front to ‘work’ our positions,” Harmatko told CBC News. “But our infantry shut it down.” He said the Russian gunner and tank commander were killed trying to escape from the vehicle after his gun jammed, while the driver managed to get out alive and hid in tall grass hoping for a chance to escape. Instead, he surrendered to Ukrainian forces after a night out in the countryside, Harmatko said. WATCHES | The Ukrainian commander describes the capture of the Russian tank:
Ukrainians capture Russian tank
Ukrainian soldiers near Izyum describe how they captured a Russian tank and what they plan to do with it. Ukrainian officials would not discuss the number of men or the amount of equipment they have to face Russian forces on the front line in eastern Ukraine. But they confirmed that this platoon of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade operating near Izyum, which is located in the Kharkiv region, recently captured three such Russian tanks and quickly returned them to service. Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by the CBC in their frontline positions say Russia’s triumphs in the Luhansk region have masked hard military successes elsewhere — including in the neighboring Izyum region.
Russian profits
Russia’s war in Ukraine has become a bitter battle of attrition, marked by a 1,000-kilometer front line and punctuated by an ongoing Russian offensive in a relatively narrow 90-kilometer stretch near the eastern city of Lysychansk. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the eastern region of Luhansk, a day after Russian state media claimed the army had driven Ukrainian defenders from the town of Lysychansk, the last bastion of resistance in the province. Ukraine’s military says its forces staged a strategic retreat as the city was destroyed. However, the capture of Lysychansk represents a victory for Russia, as it now controls all of the territory in Luhansk Oblast, as well as half of neighboring Donetsk. Looking ahead, the question is whether the Russian military can continue to push further into the Donbas, or whether a combination of exhaustion and Ukrainian resistance will force it to stop. A CBC News team walks past ammunition left behind by retreating Russian soldiers near Izyum. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News) A team from CBC News was granted unprecedented access to the Ukrainian positions where the Donbass and Kharkiv regions meet. The trip involved a high-speed drive along a bumpy dirt road littered with fresh artillery hits. On both sides, vast areas of fallow sunflower fields showed the signs of heavy shelling, including many craters and fires from Russian munitions. WATCHES | The countryside in eastern Ukraine is littered with craters from artillery strikes: Drone video shows the sealed landscape near the front line around Izyum in Eastern Ukraine. The sound of incoming Russian artillery mixed with outgoing Ukrainian fire behind our position created almost continuous explosions.
“Gradually, we are moving forward”
In April and May, Russian troops drove hard across the rolling countryside to try to capture the nearby city of Sloviansk, aiming to encircle a large part of Ukraine’s army. But soldiers from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade halted the Russian advance – and since then, Ukrainian forces have been slowly regaining lost ground. “Gradually, we’re pulling forward,” said the sergeant. Iryna Rybakova. “Almost every week our battalions advance a few kilometers.” Rybakova, 38, is a former journalist who worked for a Ukrainian anti-corruption agency before the war. He said that over the past two weeks, Ukrainian forces have pushed back Russian troops at least five kilometers toward Izyum. Sgt. Iryna Rybakova, 38, is a former Ukrainian journalist and anti-corruption activist who is now a full-time soldier in the Ukrainian army. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News) But the Russians did not give up the ground easily. Among the broken buildings and discarded, empty ammunition cases at a former Ukrainian command post are the remains of a Tochka-U ballistic missile that Rybakova says caused massive damage to soldiers there. “We are losing people, villages and weapons because of the heavy shelling,” he said. Other Ukrainian soldiers tell the same story, of harsh conditions at the front mixed with modest progress. “We kill them and they kill us,” said a troop commander nicknamed Yashchir or Lizard.
“I understand the scale of this war”
Yashchir led his platoon in an attempt to repel a Russian counterattack that resulted in the capture of this T-80 tank — albeit at the cost of the life of one of his soldiers.
This Ukrainian platoon commander, who goes by the nickname Lizard, says he has been holding front-line positions for the past 70 days. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News)
He said the driver of the surrendered tank was a 32-year-old soldier from Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city.
“The prisoner told us that his salary is 200,000 rubles [a month],” said Yashchir, which is about $4,000 Cdn — a large sum in Russia.
“But we are fighting for our land, not money,” said the platoon commander.
Ukraine’s military claims that Russia is recruiting young men, including teenagers, in territories it holds and forcing them to fight against Ukraine.
But soldiers we spoke to said while many of the enemy fighters they encounter are in their early 20s, they haven’t spotted anyone who appears to be conscriptable.
Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines the CBC spoke to said at night, Russian scouts come as close as 150 meters to their lines — so close that Ukrainian observers can make out their faces.
“At first it was very scary,” said a Ukrainian soldier passing by Arsen, of the experience of being on the front lines. “But now I’m experienced.”
A Ukrainian soldier who goes by the name Arsen says that Russian sentries sometimes come within 150 meters of Ukrainian positions. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News)
A former history teacher, Arsen said that unless the war ends and Russian troops are expelled from Ukrainian soil, it will be impossible for him to return to life as a civilian.
“I understand the magnitude of this war,” he said.
Waiting for western weapons
Ukraine has not disclosed how many of its soldiers have been killed or wounded, but at the height of the fighting in Donbass, officials claimed it was losing several hundred soldiers a day.
Russia claims to have killed 23,000 Ukrainian soldiers, but those numbers are impossible to verify — as are Ukrainian claims that it has killed more than 35,000 Russian soldiers since the invasion began on February 24.
The British government, which publishes a daily update on the conflict, has put Russian military deaths at about half.
Ukrainian soldiers on the eastern front say they were expecting the arrival of more weapons supplied by Western nations, including Canada. Only then will Ukraine have a realistic chance of recapturing lost cities like Izyum or those in the Donbas, said a soldier named Marcel.
“In our area, I heard there are M777 shells,” he said, but so far there is no indication of long-range missiles such as the US M142 High Mobility Artillery Missile System (HIMARS). “The front is too long and we don’t see much.”
A Ukrainian soldier appears with an anti-tank weapon. Soldiers told CBC News they have seen little evidence of Western weapons on the front lines so far. (Fred Gagnon/CBC News)
The only western weapon our team observed were soldiers with AT-4 anti-tank missiles, which are useful for defense and close combat, but not for countering Russia’s massive artillery advantage.
Ukraine’s military claims Russia has fired more than 200 missiles at Ukrainian targets in the past two weeks alone, as part of an effort to stop these Western weapons from reaching the front lines.
As part of an agreement with the Ukrainian military, CBC News cannot identify where our team visited on the Izyum front or describe specific landmarks.
But the forward positions were bare, with a shallow network of trenches and small command centers buried in the ground, set among a dense line of trees and brush.
There were no obvious places to rest or eat, and many of the soldiers CBC spoke to appeared exhausted from lack of sleep.
“We all want to go home,” said the platoon commander named Lizard. “We are here for 70 days and we want to return to our families as soon as possible.”
However, despite the fatigue, all the soldiers said that Ukraine must continue to fight until the last Russian leaves their soil.
WATCHES | CBC talks to Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines in Donbass:
At the forefront of Ukraine’s struggle in Donbass
CBC News has rare access to a Ukrainian military unit operating near Izyum, a Russian-held town and gateway to the Donbas region.
