‘Shells, drones — the Russians are throwing everything at us’
It took only moments after the Ukrainian flag was hoisted over Blahodatne for the Russian shelling to erupt again. Soldiers dashed for cover behind wrecked buildings, in ditches and inside their prized American armoured MaxxPro vehicles as the fire rained down.
“They are throwing everything at us,” said Stepan, a former bus driver. “Shells, mortars, missiles, rockets and drones. They haven’t stopped.”
Airstrikes too, sometimes ten a day, including one that set off an alert in Blahodatne yesterday, sending soldiers scurrying for cover in a basement in this village in southern Donetsk. Russian attack helicopters fire rockets at troops as they attempt to fan out through the village, taking over the positions the invaders have left behind.
Ukraine may be celebrating its first few successes
