– War is war, says field commander Viktor Yegorov, who believes in Ukrainian victory in the war against Russia in 2023. – If you remember Oleg, the bright and happy boy, he was killed in the battles for the town of Borivske. – Bogdan, who slept in the bunk above you, he disappeared during the fierce fighting this spring, and he has either been killed or captured by the Russians. – Arthur, who chopped wood for the stoves, he is also dead. It is a grim summary of 10 months of war that Viktor Jegorov tells news, where we speak to him at a convalescence center safely behind the front in Ukraine. Viktor was the site commander who, at the beginning of February, received news outside the village of Krymske, manned by the 28th motorized brigade of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. . A day in the trench Artur made sure that there was enough wood to keep the heat in the trench. Photo: Lokman Ghourbani/news In the course of a day, Viktor and his second-in-command Artur let us see what was happening along the more than 500 kilometer long front line, or contact line, as it was formally called at the time, in eastern Ukraine. – Everything depends on what Putin decides, Viktor Yegorov said at the time. And now both Viktor and we know the answer to that very question all too well. news has been in contact with both Viktor Yegorov and his family since the Russian president launched a massive military attack against neighboring Ukraine on 24 February. The advanced position outside the village of Krymske eventually had to be abandoned. Slowly, the Ukrainian forces were pushed out of large parts of Luhansk county in the far east of the Donbas area, including the cities of Sievjerodonetsk and Lysytjansk. Many died, every single day. International media often referred to the Ukrainian defence, which reported heavy losses for the advancing Russian forces. But eventually it emerged that the Ukrainian defense also suffered enormous losses. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj admitted in June that the losses were up to 100 soldiers every single day, while 500 were injured. And these are not just numbers. Three of the four soldiers that news came into close contact with over the course of a day outside Krymske are thus gone. Viktor Jegorov, together with his comrades in the 28th brigade, in the midst of the fierce fighting at the end of June 2022. Photo: Private Oleg, the day we spent most of the day with him was whether he should take the vaccine against covid-19 or not . He was worried about what he had heard about the side effects, but in the end had to go into the village and the first aid station there, to get the important injection, otherwise he had been told by Viktor that he might have to leave the front. So now Oleg is gone, confirmed dead in the fierce fighting that raged in this part of Ukraine in the spring of 2022. Oleg dragging a gas cylinder in the advanced Ukrainian position at Krymske. Now he is one of many thousands of soldiers who have lost their lives in the war. Photo: Lokman Ghourbani/news Bogdan’s wedding has been canceled Bogdan told me that he had found a girl at home in Zhytomyr that he was thinking of marrying, perhaps already this summer. He had learned some English which he would like to practice, and said that there was no cause for concern when he put the Kalashnikov machine gun into the pillow where news’s emissaries were supposed to sleep. Bogdan was killed in the fierce battles in Luhansk leading up to St. Hans 2022. Photo: Morten Jentoft/news So now Bogdan is gone, at best in captivity with the Russian forces, says Viktor. He knows nothing more about Artur, his second-in-command, than that he is dead. Artur together with news’s Morten Jentoft in the trench in Luhansk in February 2022. Artur is one of many thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who have lost their lives in the fight against the Russian invaders. Photo: Lokman Ghourbani – I myself have been in the front line both in Donbas and in Kherson, says Viktor Jegorov, without wanting to make himself a hero. He has received some minor injuries, but he does not think that is anything to talk about. Fighting at several front sections Now he has been two months behind the front after his dentition was reduced to four bad teeth, due to the unhealthy diet and the water in the trench. Novatoshkivsk, Sievjerodonetsk, Lysytjansk. These are places and cities that Viktor Yegorov and his division fought to defend, and then finally had to give up during the Russian offensive in this area until the summer of 2022. Artur and Viktor Yegorov in February 2022. Now only Viktor is in live. Photo: Lokhman Ghorbani Later he fought further south, near the town of Popasna. This autumn he also spent a period at the front in Kherson in the south, but now it has been about getting his teeth in order. He received the treatment in the nuclear power plant town of Yuzhnoukrainsk, not far from his hometown of Abuzinka. So finally it has been possible to see a little more of his wife Valentina and the three daughters Iryna, Viktorija and Elizaveta and grandson Aron. Their two boys, Jevhen and Denis were both in the military when the war broke out. Jevhen has managed well, but they haven’t heard anything from Denis since March. Will find the grave of Denis Denis Jegerov was probably killed in connection with the fighting for Mariupol in March. Photo: Private – We don’t know how things have gone with Denis, says Viktor Jegorov. I know that he agreed to cover for his comrades who tried to flee from the superior Russian forces and that he was posthumously awarded a medal for bravery, 2nd class. This happened when the advancing Russian forces already in March succeeded in encircling Mariupol, the important port city in the south of Donetsk county. – There is a woman in the town of Pokrovsk who, using DNA analyses, is trying to find out something about him, whether he is dead or not. – We also work via international organisations. We believe he is buried somewhere near Mariupol. Maybe we have to wait to get a final answer until we have liberated the city, says Viktor Jegorov. Victory in 2023? And he has no doubt that Ukraine will win this war. He has seen up close the poor morale of many of the Russian soldiers, who had – They had been told that they would be received with cheers in Ukraine and that it would all be over in a few days. Now they have seen up close the resilience that we Ukrainians have. Says Viktor Yegorov, a barely 50-year-old Ukrainian soldier who believes that Ukraine will decide the biggest war Europe has seen since 1945, in 2023.
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Almost all the soldiers news met in eastern Ukraine a year ago are dead – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
