Ukraine: Soldiers on the front line have little hope of peace

By Deutsche Welle (Europe) | Created at 2025-04-03 19:04:14 | Updated at 2025-04-04 14:28:18 20 hours ago

As soon as it gets dark outside, the first wounded soldiers arrive, their faces and hands black with dirt. They arrive from a section of the front near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, one of Ukraine's main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region.

They have come to seek help at a stabilization point, one of dozens of centers that have been set up along the front to provide soldiers with medical care.

Here too, politics is a big topic of debate. Referring to the ceasefire negotiations that began in Saudi Arabia on March 11, a military doctor named Ivan says they have had "no impact on the war" between Russia and Ukraine. He says he would be glad if "it all ended quickly."

"At least for one day. That would already be good."

'We saved his leg'

A seriously injured soldier lies on the operating table. Both his legs were fractured when the armored carrier he was travelling in hit a landmine. His four other comrades escaped with a concussion. It took two hours for them to be evacuated.

Ivan dresses the semi-conscious man's wounds, while the paramedics encourage him to wipe the dirt from his face. "We saved his leg," says one of them with relief.

The next morning, the doctors doze after a difficult night. The stabilization point is quiet, and it is unlikely that any more injured people will be brought in now.

Personnel shortages make it even harder on the front.

An anti-tank ditch and green grass against a blue sky

'It's hard to get away from the front'

Elsewhere, some infantrymen from a Jaeger Brigade gather in the courtyard of a private house. At dawn, they are supposed to go to their positions and relieve their comrades. But they are told they can stay while they await their orders.

So, they go back to their rooms to get some more sleep. A commander named Roman, who once had to wait 21 days in his position before being relieved, says that this is frequent because of a shortage of personnel. "It's hard to get away from the front," he explains.

He says he first found out about the ceasefire talks after a deployment. "When you're sitting there, you're constantly waiting for someone to say over the radio: 'Guys, ceasefire!'" he recounts, adding that his impression is that fighting has intensified, not let up, in recent weeks.

Roman explains that his brigade is keeping up the defense near Pokrovsk, a city that is just 70 kilometers (about 43 miles) away from Russian-occupied Donetsk. "We're not moving, but that's difficult enough," he says, adding that he did not believe there would be a ceasefire any time soon. "I can't even imagine it."

Another commander, whose nickname is Milka, remarks that he does not expect much from the negotiations. "I will only believe one thing: If my boys come back from their positions and say: 'They didn't shoot, it was quiet.'"

Roman Horodetskyi, an officer who heads the department for psychological support for soldiers, tells DW that the start of the negotiations initially caused some doubt but that it also had a positive effect on the soldiers' motivation. "They realize that everything depends on them," he says. In his view, only a return to Ukraine's 1991 borders, after it declared independence from the Soviet Union, would be a fair end to the war. "All war criminals must be held accountable."

'A just peace is impossible'

A soldier who goes by the name of Haskhuk says that in his view "a just peace is impossible." His drone battalion is setting off in the direction of Velyka Novosilka, a settlement located west of the city of Kurakhove, which the Russians occupied on their advance towards Pokrovsk.

"All this time, a lot of territory has been lost, many people have died. Personally, I would find it unjust if the war was simply ended," he comments, adding that there is no point in a temporary ceasefire. "That would definitely just give time to prepare for the next attack. After the ceasefire expired, the Russians could attack us with greater force."

He also thinks that the negotiations so far have had no effect on the situation at the front. "The Russian advance continues unchanged," he points out, adding that the Ukrainians have managed to hold back the Russians along the entire front.

The commander of a reconnaissance unit near Pokrovsk, whose nickname is White, describes the situation at the front as being "permanently bad." He explains that the Ukrainians are on the defensive: "We only carry out attacks when we lose positions. When our infantry doesn't manage to hold out, we try to recapture the positions before the Russians bring in their reserves."

Working out of a narrow ditch, Ukrainian soldiers use a drone to observe how the Russians have accumulated soldiers at the rear. "We can see something coming towards us quite early on," a drone pilot called Huzul says. "We detect the movement of enemy equipment, the location of artillery and soldiers. The information is transmitted to attack drones and the artillery, which repels the attacks."

In the morning, when the sky is still clear, the pilots are about to map the positions of the Russian infantry, but when it clouds over, the drone missions are suspended.

While the pilots rest, they talk about the peace talks and their expectations. "Unfortunately, I don't have any personally," says a man called Mirzoyan.

"I want Europe, America and the whole world to agree that the aggressor must not be allowed to occupy foreign territories and kill people there. Anything else would be a signal to anyone like [Russian President] Vladimir Putin that they can do what they want, and that you can simply agree on some kind of freeze."

This article was originally written in Ukrainian.