In muddy trenches under fire from Russian forces 200 meters away, wounded Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmout, in what is the bloodiest battle of the war launched 13 months ago by Moscow, are evacuated to extreme conditions.
"If one of us has a problem, we have to carry him one to three kilometers to the nearest place where he can be taken care of", explains a Ukrainian soldier answering the code name "Beguemot" ("Hippopotamus" in French) in this part of the front located a few kilometers from the city of Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine.
“Even a slight wound can be fatal in these conditions,” he adds, as the artillery thunders not far away.
This kind of difficulty is only one example of the problems that the Ukrainian military must solve in the preparation of the counter-offensive that they have been promising for weeks against the Russian forces. It is necessary in the first place to accumulate ammunition, to recruit new units of assault troops and to train them with the handling of the weapons and armored vehicles delivered by the Westerners.
Observers of this war believe that after defeating a Russian offensive in the Donetsk region, of which Bakhmout is a part, Ukraine could counter-attack in the coming weeks.
But in these regions with waterlogged land at the end of winter, the soldiers who are in charge of holding the front in the face of Russian pressure say: not yet.
"Any heavy weaponry that ventures here will get bogged down and become a target. There can be no question of a counter-offensive yet," Beguemot said.
AFP journalists heading towards the front line in the Bakhmout area were able to see Ukrainian soldiers busy freeing their stuck vehicle.
But, observing the images of the area sent by drones, Evgueni, the commander of a Ukrainian battalion, believes that the assault is inevitable.
"It will come, it's obvious. The situation on the front requires it. But a counter-offensive can only be launched when the enemy's forces are exhausted," the 42-year-old officer told AFP. .
"We have to pin them down so they can't regroup their forces," he said, explaining that Russian forces are sending waves of worthless recruits to his positions before launching more experienced fighters there.
Based on radio intercepts and footage from his drones, he believes that Russian forces, while maintaining their push to take full control of Bakhmout that has eluded them for months, are in fact preparing for a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“The enemy has started laying mines in front of their positions, which means they are at their wits end. They are preparing to defend,” he said.
Evgueni Prigojine, the founder of the Russian mercenary group Wagner which is on the front line in Bakhmout, did not say anything else this week.
"The ideal solution would be to announce the end of the conflict and tell everyone that Russia has achieved its objectives - in a sense we have achieved them," said the sulphurous businessman known to be close to the Kremlin, in a message on social networks.
"Now only one thing remains to be done: get good positions, and dig in the areas we have control over," said Prigozhin, 61.
For civilians who have refused to flee and have already endured more than a year of fighting, the prospect of a counter-offensive does not change much.
A few kilometers west of Bakhmout, in the village of Kalynivka, Vera Petrova, 71, points to her already partially gutted house. "If my house is destroyed, I will live in the cellar", she says, without reacting to the detonations of shells.
There are only about ten inhabitants left in this street lined with cherry trees and abandoned houses.
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15/04/2023 18:45:10 - Kramatorsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
