Battle of Chasiv Yar begins under a drone-infested sky

Details: Written by: Francis Farrell; 02.May; Hits: 26

Editor’s note: In accordance with the security protocols of the Ukrainian military, soldiers featured in this story are identified by first names and callsigns only. CHASIV YAR, DONETSK OBLAST – As he creeps between rubble-strewn garages near the central square of Chasiv Yar, the eyes and ears of the reconnaissance commander are glued squarely to the overcast midday sky.From the east, the unmistakable sounds of heavy fighting roll in without pause: not just artillery fire, but a full orchestra of machine gun and rifle bursts, anti-air cannons, and the occasional Russian airstrike.Most of that, though, is unfolding at a distance, — around two and a half kilometers away to be precise — where Russian forces pound the residential neighborhood on the edge of the city.What bothers the commander, 41-year-old Andrii “Yankee,” more are not the sounds of explosions but of propellers; those belonging to the hundreds of drones, enemy and friendly, constantly surveying the battlefield.

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“I can’t take you any further,” he says, pointing to a five-story building just 30 meters away. “Even two days ago you could walk pretty freely between these buildings here. Now it's just a matter of time before they mark us (on the map) and start hitting us with whatever they want, they are really f***ing generous when it comes to that.” With just five kilometers of open ground separating Chasiv Yar and Bakhmut, which Russia took in May last year after 10 months of heavy fighting, the city was always seen to be Moscow’s next target in the sector. A destroyed five-story building in Chasiv Yar, Donetsk Oblast, on April 26, 2023. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)Two years ago, it was here in Donetsk Oblast that Moscow, having failed to take Kyiv by storm, embarked on its new strategy: to grind the Ukrainian military down through a sheer advantage in soldiers and firepower.

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