Journalist Consten Gonecharov worked with DW until 2022, when he returned home to join the Swayamsevak army, like several Ukrainians, defended against Russian invaders. The following is his personal report on a three -year war in his country.
Nothing, international sanctions nor a loud political threats, can prevent military aggression towards Ukraine. Nor Vladimir Putin has deteriorated due to the loss of his own troop. In contrast, the defeat of every battlefield has forced the Russian Federation to see new ways to incite damage rather than leaving the war.
In about three years I have seen how the Russian army has changed, how the battlefield is changing, how our rescue is favorable for war – like a living organism that has landed in a hostile environment.
The Ukrainian army has not only learned to survive in this area, but has also learned how to use modern techniques to turn the environment for its benefit. Nevertheless, no technique can replace the most important thing in this war – listed soldiers, who stand with their or their motherland, despite pain and fear.
Ukraine is favorable for war: from gun to drone
You never forget your first deployment: the ground rubs under your feet, the sky is separated from the explosions, the burn in the burning houses, the pieces of shyle whistle loudly as soon as they raise them in the past, you in the distance Shout.
This was the moment when I first experience real war, with all its chaos and interesting. I can remember the first round-short, shaft-like, like a frequent exploitation of reality. Shots Pierce Tree Branch, Hit Metal. The smell of fire and gunpowder fills the lungs and appears on someone’s tongue – bitter, sulfuric, such as dozens of fireworks were closed at the same time. But there is nothing to celebrate here. This is the bitter reality of war.
My career in the army began with an airborne brigade in reconnaissance aircraft, which freed Kherson and Mycolive region and Fougat in Donnetsk and Zaforizia. First we fug for every square centimeter, then every waste home in a city destroyed in artillery clashes and bomb blasts.
After an injury and rehabilitation of months, I was transferred to a unit responsible for radio-electronic surveillance. Now, information is my weapon, not machine guns. By analyzing radio signals, we can observe enemy movements, control points, drones and all other activities that you need to execute the war.
Not only my role in war has changed, war is the war. And now, a decisive new factor has arrived in the battlefield: drone. The cameras that have been fitted with the cameras that broadcast a pilot in a pilot shortly after the invasion drone, looking like a forced blessing, a desperate attempt to compensate for ammunition deficiency. Today they are high -tech weapons with anyone else. The trenches, hidden-out, tank-everyone is being targeted in the battle of some drone pilots: who can find the enemy faster, can fix and finish?
Another challenge comes with the development of drones – defend against them. Electronic war, destruction of radio signals is improving at an arbitrary speed and forces drone pilots to change daily frequency, improve communication algorithms and come up with new ways for pilot drones. No benefit is long. Drone used to take endless hard work from programmers and engineers.
Limitations of human capacity
Nevertheless, none of these technical benefits can restore strength and energy to those who are constantly under the press on the lines of the front. Three years later, rotation of infantry units has become a problem for the Ukrainian army. Tied tied soldiers, for weeks, sometimes for months, strict waiting, losing vigilance and fighting morale. Sleepiness causes the mind, the body becomes weak due to lack of food and water. In such moments you do not think of any situation or do not analyze any more, you simply work, react to intense threats and the following orders.
Sainik fights for months, for a few years, without getting a chance to return to their normal life for a few days. Even it will be possible to return to the front with more strength than a small brake, but the thesis is a word in gold every fight-day unit.
On most classes with the front, Ukraine’s battle force is engaged in strategic defensive maneuvers, which means that commanders do not have the right with Draw Troops only. If they did, a difference would open, which the enemy wanted to exploit immediately. As long as the war is fierce, the soldier will remain where they are and continue to undergo supernatural trials.
Contradictory, the war seems to be the most violent in completely basic rural cities. All the wind-and-alarm tied to the alarm, peaceful inhabitants go about their daily lives as they were expecting some tragedy-which they are unable to stop-to-at any time. It is easy on the front, everything is clear here. One order, a task, a enemy. The main objective is to be efficient, not only your own existence, so it determines that it can be won more quickly.
Protest
The war has changed me. Something that began as abstract and disable, has become a everyday core with a cruel reality, with a place for moments of happiness: a cup after a cup, a cup of tea, water chance, between the explosions A flour of silence. A true bliss is the vision of a drone that targets our fortifications to take out the enemy’s projectile.
Of course, I want to return to my family, my peaceful life and my favorite past, never have to shovel, freeze in wet trenches, ever dreams immediately noodles, hot water, a bathroom or clean clothes again dreams Does not be seen. Each of us is exhauset, but we cannot give up. For the right to live in freedom.
I do not believe in a quick peck because I look at any common base to compromise between the two sides. What will be the end of the aggressive “creeping aggressive” keeps distributing more and more of Ukraine? Russia will not automatically return, it can only be stopped by organized resistance. This only occurs when the feeling of infantry, drone, technology and invincible fighting is combined that the enemy has no chance to move forward.
At the same time, every distribution of international assistance gives the enemy time to strengthen its position. This is clear at any time on the front side. But our fight will continue despite political change and the hesitation of our foreign partners. Even if some major politicians try to blame us for this war of aggression, our opposition wants it not to be related. Ultimately, we are not only on the region, but our right to our identity and future.
This article was the original published in Russian and was translated from German by John Shelton