SHYROKYNE, Ukraine—For months, pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces have battled for the beachside town of Shyrokyne, which is about eight miles east of Mariupol.
The fighting has been intense. Most of the town has been left in ruins. Nearly every vertical surface is pockmarked by shrapnel, and almost every window is broken. Artillery craters dot both the streets and the soft sand of the beach. Of the town’s more than 1,300 original residents, only about 30 remain.
Despite the Feb. 12 cease-fire, fighting has continued daily—including sniper and machine-gun fire, and the use of heavy weapons.
At a hill above the beach, the Ukrainian National Guard Azov Regiment has dug in, setting up a series of trenches which are reminiscent of images of trench warfare from World War I.
Soldiers sleep in dugouts, and duck their heads as they walk to avoid sniper fire.
A tree line at the top of the hill, immediately behind the Ukrainian trench network, has been razed. Most trees are burnt and snapped in half like matchsticks. The ones still standing have been stripped of their branches by the shrapnel of the almost daily artillery and mortars. The ground beneath the trees looks like it has been plowed, the bare earth upturned by the constant blasts.
The battle for Shyrokyne has evolved into a static stalemate. (Photo: Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)
The battle for Shyrokyne has evolved into a static stalemate.
Both sides are dug in and refuse to back down. And as casualties mount and soldiers continue to live in trenches within earshot of their enemies (sometimes as close as 100 meters from each other), the fighting has become increasingly personal.
At night, soldiers on opposite sides trade insults and challenge each other to hand-to-hand combat.
The constant proximity to each other has not had a humanizing effect or lessened the animosity between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian soldiers.
In fact, the close contact has hardened the resolve of Ukrainian soldiers, who claim they are fighting for freedom, their country’s territorial integrity, and the memory of their dead.
The Daily Signal’s foreign correspondent Nolan Peterson traveled to this devastated town on the front lines to find that the Ukraine war, and the soldiers fighting in it, are far from finished.
See the video report above for a deep look inside the fight for Shyrokyne.
