Some outtakes, if you will, from my latest visit to the Donbas. Here’s Oleksiy, 38, from Donetsk city, showing us his Italian and Polish munitions at a position near Izyum. He’s quite pleased with their range and ability.
Ukrainian jets zipping over the Donbas on their way back from attacking Russian positions.
A bit of what it’s like moving around out in the east. This was between artillery volleys.
The roads are filled with military equipment, including tanks.
…and trunks carrying pontoon bridges.
The closer you get to the front the more it looks like this on the roads. Black smoke all around. Shelling audible from everywhere. Nowhere is completely safe and there’s no direct route or straight path to any place.
It’s Ukraine’s industrial heartland, so there are countless factories, smokestacks, and slag heaps.
But there plenty of natural beauty too.
… a lot of it actually.
And amid the devastating fighting there is life and there are people going about their business somehow. Life, in a way, goes on.
One thing you quickly realize is that the air raid sirens not only wail frequently, but they do so consistently for several minutes or even hours without a break. Here’s the siren in a very empty and eerie Kramatorsk.
And because some people have already asked and others might also in the future, every video was filmed many days ago and with military present or with military permission, in line with all rules and regs.
And the siren in Druzhkivka just to the south. It wailed for hours that evening. The airstrike never came. Not there at least. But the threat persists and that is what is mentally exhausting for so many people.
Bonus Kramatorsk scooter footage. 🛴 They’re everywhere and people like them even more now with fuel as rare and expensive as it is.
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