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Transcript/Script EnglishUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: Ukraine Front Line TV
HEAD: Ukraine Battles Fierce Despite Chaos in Russia
SUBHEAD: On the frontlines of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, soldiers say fighting continues apace from both sides.
PUBLISHED AT: Monday, 06/26/2023 at 06:45 EDT
BYLINE: Heather Murdock
DATELINE: STOROZHEVE, UKRAINE
VIDEOGRAPHER: Yevhenii Shynkar
VIDEO EDITOR: Jon Spier
SCRIPT EDITORS: Steve Hirsch, SV
VIDEO SOURCE: VOA ORIGINAL
PLATFORMS: WEB _x_ TV X RADIO x_
TRT: 2:54
VID APPROVED BY: pcd
TYPE: TVPKG/RADIO
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO))
[[As tensions soared inside Russia between the government and private military group Wagner, front-line Ukrainian fighters say their fight with Russia has not subsided. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports with videographer Yevhenii Shynkar in Storozheve, Ukraine.]]
((VOA VIDEO: FRONTLINE VIDEO, SOLDIERS TRAVEL TO SHELTER, SHELTER))
((NARRATOR))
While many Ukrainians anxiously watched the recent chaos in Russia, hoping their foe will defeat or at least weaken itself, soldiers on the front lines battled on.
They say there have been no observable changes in the field, and Russian forces continue lob artillery at Ukrainians, who are now on the offensive.
((FOR RADIO: Here is Bogdan, a combat soldier taking shelter in the battle zone.))
((Bogdan, Ukrainian combat soldier)) ((Young male in Ukrainian))
“When we are on the offensive, conducting an assault, our artillery works first, and most of the Russian soldiers flee their positions. Only a few stays, maybe two or three soldiers. But then we throw a couple grenades and that is the end.”
((FOR RADIO: He says when Ukrainian forces are on the offensive they fight Russians back with artillery at first and then grenades.))
((VOA VIDEO: FRONTLINE VIDEO, STABILIZATION POINT))
((NARRATOR:))
Like many soldiers fighting in Ukraine weeks-old counteroffensive, he says he has overheard panicked Russian soldiers complaining about lack of ammunition and reinforcements.
But soldiers also say the battles have been fierce, as Russian troops have had more than a year to build fortifications and devise strategies to hold this area.
((FOR RADIO: At a combat medical unit set up in what was a small grocery, Ivan, a medic says Ukraine is moving forward, albeit slowly.
((Ivan, Ukrainian military Medic)) ((Male in Ukrainian))
“If you are also monitoring the situation, you know that the offensive and the liberation of cities are not progressing as fast as we would like. But they are progressing quite well.”
((VOA VIDEO: DESTROYED FRONTLINE VILLAGES, ZAPORIZHZHYA))
((NARRATOR:))
Once a picturesque string of quaint villages, Ukraine’s battle here is for what has become an abandoned wasteland.
In more peaceful Ukrainian cities and towns, locals say they hope that Russian infighting will speed the end of this war but it’s hard to say if that will happen.
What’s obvious, they add, is that the death and destruction they have already suffered make it impossible for it to ever end all that happily.
((REST OPTIONAL))
((FOR RADIO: In a park in Zaporizhzhya city, 75-year-old Valentina Yefimenko says Ukraine can one day rebuild its towns and cities, but it cannot replace the lives it has lost.))
((Valentina Yefimenko, Zaporizhzhya resident)) ((Female in Ukrainian))
“How many young people died? How many became disabled? The things can be rebuilt, but we cannot bring people's lives back.”
((FOR RADIO: She says she wonders, in the end, how many will have died and how many will be permanently injured.))
((VOA VIDEO: ZAPO, RESERVIOIR, COMBAT ZONE))
((NARRATOR:))
Besides more than a year of shelling, Zaporizhzhya has suffered from the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam that killed dozens and turned this region’s reservoir into a massive desert, leaving locals to try to stave off what is now a looming food and water crisis.
But in the combat zone, soldiers say as battle rage on, it’s impossible to look beyond what they say is their most immediate goal.
((FOR RADIO: This is Yuri, a combat soldier))
((Yuri, Ukrainian combat soldier)) ((Male in Ukrainian))
“We are doing everything to make it all end as soon as possible. I would say we are motivated. We want to go home. We understand that we will not go home until our mother Ukraine is free and intact.”
((FOR RADIO: He says their goal is end the war and go home, when their country is “free and intact.”
((VOA VIDEO: FRONTLINE AREAS))
((NARRATOR:))
He says for soldiers, the war will only end if or when Ukraine is victorious, which means, for them, retaking all of the land internationally recognized as Ukraine.
((Heather Murdock, VOA News, STOROZHEVE, UKRAINE))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Embargo DateJune 26, 2023 06:53 EDT
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
