Soldiers feel abandoned! In Donbas, there are clear signs of what is being prepared on the Ukrainian front

Donbass. The road to the front line passes by excavators, with the help of which new defense facilities are being built 30 kilometers from the combat zone. This is a clear sign of what Ukraine is preparing for, writes the deputy editor-in-chief of the German BILD newspaper Paul Ronzheimer in a report from the front line in Ukraine.

The military are talking about a possible breakthrough at the front, about a rapid advance of the Russians. Partly because the situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is becoming increasingly bleak: soldiers feel abandoned by both the West and their own government.

In some areas, the Russians are making significant progress: according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), they have been advancing much faster recently than at any time this year or last.

We meet with the Ukrainian officer Andrey, who serves in the 68th brigade - it fights in the Pokrovsky district of the Donetsk region. Andrei's brigade has been here for eight months and controls 15 kilometers of the front line. According to the military, the fighting has never been as intense as now.

"Maybe it has something to do with the US election. The Russians overwhelmed us with manpower. We kill up to 30 Russian soldiers a day. In the summer we felt a rotation. The new units [of the Russian army] immediately launched an attack - massive artillery fire, then tried to break through our positions and capture them. "But we don't have enough people, we don't have enough weapons, we don't have enough ammunition," says Andrey.

At the same time, according to him, the Russian command has changed its offensive tactics compared to last year.

"They fight at the same level as us. They learned. Today, their tactics are as follows: they find our positions and open massed fire. Sometimes they hit and it is very painful for us. After the shelling, they send a reconnaissance-assault group of three to five soldiers”, explains the Ukrainian officer.