“You never know if you’ll come back alive the next night.”

Andrey doesn’t want to talk about the war Because, after several meetings with this reporter since the first phase of the invasion, he has great news to share: He has recently become the father of a girl, When we met him in May 2022, he had a girlfriend, DFriends of his tank crew and hoping to drive the Russians out of his country.

A few days after that meeting, a few kilometers north of the spot where we conducted the interview, his tank surprised and destroyed three Russian armored vehicles. Then, in the fall, his brigade, 92nd Kharkiv Mechanized Brigadeand his unit, were key to the liberation of his entire realm In the lightning counterattack, but One of his two friends, EvgenyOne of the heroes of the first report, He died when his car was hit by a Russian shell., After a helicopter attack in which he is seriously injured, Andrey takes the opportunity to marry his girlfriend in the hospital. He is now celebrating the birth of his daughter, whom he will go to see the next day.

– Is this the most complicated moment of the war for you?

– Of course, in two years we have had casualties, but this is normal in such a conflict. The biggest problem is ammunition, We will hardly shoot anymore. we have to ration it,

– What happens if you don’t get those projectiles soon?

, that we will lose this war,

Of the first three-man crew of ‘Toads’, as they called their T64 tanks, two survive. The deceased was Evgeny Gunner, Victor is a driver And Andrey is a commander, but they both no longer serve in the same tank.

To see Andrey you have to drive a long way from Konstantinivka, very close to the martyred town of Bakhmut, now in Russian hands. The place we reached was surrounded by frozen lakes, there was no sign of life there. To see them you have to enter a forest of leafless treesCovered with camouflage nets, some with superficial shrapnel holes like wounded animals, many battle tanks of Soviet origin.

Here and there, among the tanks, there are small clouds of smoke rising from the stoves heating the underground shelters. We go into one of these projectile-proof holes To be able to communicate without the cold of artillery and the sound of nearby explosions preventing us from talking with their crew.

Andrey’s mood has darkened. He has not only accumulated two long years at the front, but Knows that this war may take a long time, In the darkness of the shelter, the spark from his companion Olek’s cigarette causes the vibration to draw a small shadow of light that affects his right hand. The stress of war is taking its toll on frontline fighters.

– Is the tank no longer useful for winning battles?

– not anymore. If it could shoot, the Boston Dynamics robot dog would be perfect for this war, but its price (over 70,000 euros per copy) prevents us from including it.

To meet Victor again, the other protagonist of this story, we have to reach another situation, also with Cold War armored vehicles, hidden by camouflage nets. The cold wind blows through the ocher-coloured marshes and freezes the puddles. A few days ago these roads were a trap of black mud for vehicles, but now the snow hardens the soil until it becomes as solid as granite. “Many things have changed since we last saw each other.”he says by way of greeting.

– What things?

– At that moment you felt safe inside the tank, with that powerful feeling of being in an armored vehicle. Now anything destroys you, Drones rule the battlefield and number in the thousands. Our daily endeavor is to survive.

– Are you more scared than before?

– Too much. The tank is now the weakest weapon of war. they will soon go out of use, In fact, since we are almost out of ammunition, and the Russians know it, we use them less and less.

– Do you think that Russian tankers will be equally afraid of you at this stage of the war?

– I am convinced. We have destroyed thousands of Russian tanks. But earlier also their tankers used to do ridiculous work and even now Looks like they’re learning to fight,

At the age of 23, the winner He is already a war veteran. Ha saved lives many timesEspecially after the impact of the ‘Lancet’ drone on its armored vehicle, which usually causes the detonation of the internal ammunition. He married his girlfriend and was also a father., Their son is 10 months old and his name is Vladislav. He puts on his ‘Shlemophone’ with headphones, as it is called, over his tank helmet and shows us the interior, a narrow and oppressive museum piece without any kind of electronic support, the cannon chamber next to his seat and some of the exterior. With the periscope the perception of an environment full of dangers is based more on instinct than on actual vision of the battle.

Victor says, touching one of the skirts full of holes, “When you first came to see us, our tanks were freshly painted and inspected. There was not a single scratch on them. Now They are full of shrapnel from the impact of the drones.” And several kilos of soil on top.. I try to ask about the first battle tank ‘Sapo’ they had. “I already have three different models. Some are destroyed and others are broken,” he says. They, like their battered battle tanks, are not the same. He has hardened himself by sleeping less, eating poorly, and killing enemies. As they try to survive every day. Dark circles under his eyes and a vacant gaze are two signs of a fighter’s existence.

“We move with our armored vehicles at night because in daylight we are sold out. You never know whether you will come back alive or not. The anti-drone net (a type of grid that protects the turret) is something Work to some extent, but the only thing really effective are frequency jammers, which cause the suicide drone to lose contact and fall down before impact. The problem is that they are very expensive. We only have a few, And the tanks we installed them in are exactly the ones that survived the attacks,” says Victor.

– Will we meet again?

– I hope soon. And when peace comes, let it be.