Volunteering in Ukraine alongside soldiers fighting the Russian army, a Frenchman testified this Sunday on LCI.
It tells the story of how the Ukrainian infantry operates on the ground and provides exclusive footage of battles on the front line.
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War in Ukraine: a thousand days since the Russian invasion
If no sending of French troops on the ground in Ukraine has so far been decided by the authorities, men have chosen to enlist and lend a hand to the Ukrainian army. Volunteers include French people, including a young man who calls himself “Kan”. Questioned this Sunday on LCI, he gave an exclusive testimony on how the fighting is taking place on the front line against the Russians.
Slow and delicate progress on hostile terrain
Attached to a Ukrainian military intelligence reconnaissance unit, Kan has filmed a series of videos in recent months which were broadcast on LCI. These images, which you can find at the top of this article, illustrate the very slow progress of the ground troops and the impressive quantities of ammunition which are used in these wooded areas to repel the enemy. “These are terrains that are very difficult, […] we use tree lines to create positions, to be covered from drones”he testifies.
This is a “endurance work, which is very long, which requires a lot of ammunition and which exhausts us. We are going to advance really meter by meter, from the last Ukrainian position to the first Russian position. We are going to have to scan the area, it This is when infantry work is very important too. To progress 500 meters, “it can take almost one to two hours”adds the fighter.
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With his unit, Kan explains how missions are organized during which Ukrainian soldiers serve as bait. The idea? Report their presence, particularly to enemy-piloted drones, in order to attract Russian troops to the area. This is when the drone operators take over: as soon as the Ukrainian forces have been able to withdraw, the enemy soldiers are targeted, which requires considerable work of “coordination” and a redefinition of the role of the infantry in these highly contested terrains.
In the images provided by the French fighter, we can observe the trenches in which the soldiers protect themselves, as well as the very low visibility from which they benefit during their advances, due in particular to very dense vegetation.
Asked to react to these exclusive sequences, Colonel Michel Goya underlined the considerable difficulty of succeeding in locating the adversary and protecting oneself from his attacks. “Two thirds of the infantrymen are killed or wounded without seeing an enemy”he recalls. “It really is a ghost fight, even though we are very close.”
