Ukraine facing 'tough' enemy in battle for key city
Behind the frontline near Kreminna, a strategically located Russian-controlled city in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's troops say they are facing a tough enemy.
"We fight them every day, in any weather. We attack in the direction of Kreminna, but they are not easy to defeat," says a 24year-old Ukrainian soldier, who goes by the call sign "Kulak" or "Fist".
"They are good, they are tough," he tells AFP in Yampil, a village located some 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of Kreminna and recaptured by Ukrainian forces in late September. The city in the eastern Lugansk region-which Moscow claimed to have annexed along with three other Ukrainian regions-has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days.
"We had some successes on the Ukrainian side, but nothing huge. The enemy is not giving up," Kulak says, smiling. For the past few days the region's governor, Sergei Gaidai, has been posting encouraging-if slightly contradictory-messages on social media.
He wrote that Ukraine's troops advanced 2.5 kilometres in the direction of Kreminna in a week. A day earlier, he said Russians had sent reinforcements to the area, while adding that the city could be retaken early next year.
According to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces "appear to be preparing for a decisive effort" in the Lugansk region.
Military vehicles criss-cross the main street of this largely destroyed village. There are nearly as many soldiers as there are civilians.
In a field behind several half-abandoned houses, soldiers are busy keeping two tanksnicknamed Natalya and Salvador-in fighting shape. The tanks have been captured during the Russian army's retreat.
"If we liberate Kreminna, we will cut off the Russians' supply route in Rubizhne, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk," says one of the soldiers, Vlad, referring to other occupied towns in the region.