The Ukrainian sky defenders in Sumi are stuck in an uncompromising battle

With the deviation of evening light, a handful of Ukrainian forces came out of the trillin to counter an unequal battle. Their mission – shooting off deadly aircraft in the twenty -first century with weapons designed in the days of death in the First World War.

In the northeastern Sumi region of Ukraine, on the border with Russia, this is a night battle.

After joining the forces, there was a danger in the sky, tension and adrenaline on the ground.

The leader-named Jaeger-was affixed to a screen that shows groups of red points, each indicating by early evening, there was already 30 in the sky over Sumi, and the area adjacent to Tirhnhev.

Two flat trucks were taken out to a clearing – on the back of each machine gun and a cannon, wiping the sky. Trucks were surrounded by light machine guns and guns on the ready -made side.

We could hear the dodes of fans before we saw the drone – barely visible because it shines in the sky. The forces opened fire – all the weapons that ignited in complete harmony – but drones disappeared at the distance. These long -cost long -cost weapons intimidate Ukraine.

As in the war, there were flashes of humor. “You will know when the next drone comes, when this short man feels nervous,” said Jayger, referring to one of his team, referring to one of his team.

With the closure of the darkness, the drones continued and the forces continued to try – they sent a fire in the sky. But how do they feel when these drones pass suicide?

“Good, not too good,” says Jayger. “You feel slightly sad but to be honest – as you saw – you have no time for emotions. One comes, the other comes behind him directly. You are working in this rhythm. If it is dropped – good, if not, you know that there is another difference behind you and that you will also occupy.”

He and his men are a “mobile fire unit” from the regional defense brigade in Ukraine – all the local population who are trying to defense not only their birthplace but their country. Most Russian drones fly across this region and deeper in Ukraine.

“They come in huge waves, and they often fly at different altitudes,” says Jayger. “When there is a heavy cloud cover, they fly over the clouds, and we cannot see it. It is extremely difficult to discover it when it rains.”

One hundred drones per night are a standard for a heaven.

Its unit includes a farmer (“Now I do something else in the fields,” which is joking) and Bani. Jayger himself is the former forest goalkeeper, and mixed martial martial fighter.

Now he fights an enemy he can barely see.

He says, “It is the same every day, over and over.” “For us, it is like the day of the earth.”

“The worst thing is that the years are going through,” adds Corban, the originator, “we have no idea about the time when all this will continue.”

Many drones in the sky above the name that night went to the capital, Kiev. Jayj and his men knew that. And so we did. Knowledge was chilling.

Alerting an air raid from Kyiv’s residents of unmanned drones. Russia was aimed at more than 300 in the capital during the night, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, in an attempt to overcome its air defenses. By morning, six sites were hit, and the victims were recovered from the rubble. In the days after that The death toll rose to 30.

In the fourth summer in Ukraine in the war on a large scale, the fields are spread around Sumi with atom and sunflower, and have not yet opened, and a group of dragon teeth – concrete triangles that can stop the tanks in their paths.

The image was very different last fall. The Ukrainian forces had transformed the tables with a cross -border attack on Russia, as they seized lands in the vicinity of Corsak.

By March of this year, most of them were forced to go out, although the Ukrainian military chief recently said that he still maintains some lands there. By May, President Zelinski warned that 50,000 Russian soldiers had been collected “in the direction of Sumi.”

By June, more than 200 villages and settlements were evacuated in Sumi, where the Kremlin men urged their way slowly forward.

President Putin wants a “buffer zone” along the border, talking about the threat of Sumi.

“The city … is the next, the regional center.” “We do not have a task to take Sumi, but I do not exclude her.” He claims that his forces reach 12 km (7.5 miles) inside the area.

Warning: The following section contains sad details

The head of the Ukraine Army, General Olksander Serski, claims that his forces have stopped the Russian progress, but the war has already closed in Margareta Hosakova, 37, who threatens its village. Her sister warned against coming because there are explosions.

“It came anyway, and everything was fine for a month, quiet and peaceful, until we reached that bus,” said Margareta.

On the morning of May 17, the sisters set out with other relatives of a trip to the city.

“I remember how we came, entered the bus, how we laughed, and it was happy,” said Margareta. “Then we started leaving, and it happened.”

The bus rupture by a Russian drone, In an attack, nine people – all civilians – including her mother, uncle and sister.

Margaryta was pulled from the debris with a shattered right arm – which is now collected by steel bars.

She is tormented by what she lost, and what she saw. Its description is a drawing.

She said with her voice, her voice began to secede: “I opened my eyes, and there was no bus.” “I looked around me and torn my sister’s head. My mother was also, she was lying there, and I hit the temple. My uncle fell from the bus, and his brain was exposed.”

We met at a sand reception center to be evacuated in Sumi. Margarita sat outside on a wooden bench, in search of comfort from a cigarette. She told me that she was planning to leave for another nearby house, but she was afraid that her eight children would not be safe there too.

“Maybe we will have to escape further. It is frightening everywhere.”

“I am terrified, not for myself but for children. I have to save them. That’s what matters.”

When we talked about the sirens of the weather, it slowed down in its sky – the sound was so familiar that Margareta did not respond. Not anyone else around us. “We only run for explosions now,” the Ukrainian journalist explained, and only if they are noisy and close.

There is little conversation in Sumi to a ceasefire, not to mention ending the largest war in Europe since 1945.

US President Donald Trump no longer claims that he could surrender peace in Ukraine in one day. He became involved in a new war, where he bombed Iranian nuclear sites.

The talks between Russia and Ukraine were not spared only the exchange of prisoners and the return of the bodies. President Putin seems to encourage him and increase his demands.

As the summer sun continues, those who are trying to save Ukraine expect more winter from the war. We followed a preaching path in a forest to meet the fresh forces from the front lines. They were getting a revitalization course in arms skills in a remote training land. There was a 35-year-old child with a shaved head and a full beard among the group-a “student” communication mark.

He told me: “I think the war will not end in the next year or two years,” he told me. “Even if it ends in six months with a kind of ceasefire, he will start again in four or five years. President Putin has imperial ambitions.”

War causes wounds – seen and invisible.

The “student” sent his family abroad for safety after a short period of the comprehensive invasion of Russia in February 2022 and has not been able to see his two daughters since then.

He and his wife are now absolute. The other soldiers we also met about the broken relationships and marriage that were pressured.

The student summarizes war as “blood, dirt and sweat” and does not try to hide the cost. He told me: “We have joined our battalion, as a picture of 30 neighbors.”

“Today, four of us are still alive.”

Share in additional reports from Wietske Burema, Moose Campbell and Volodymyr Lozhko