Press TV in Donetsk: Battle rages on for key city

Pro-Russian soldiers and Ukrainian troops are engaged in trench warfare over the city of Adievka, which is situated right in the center of the disputed Ukrainian region of Donetsk.

“We’re on our way to the frontline, outside the key Ukrainian stronghold, Adievka. We pull up by the side of the road. It feels like no-man’s-land,” Press TV’s correspondent Johnny Miller reported from the battlefield on Wednesday.

“The town is fortified well, but we’re working on them, dismantling their dugout with artillery. We’re making passages in their defenses and going deeper. You can hear our volleys now,” a pro-Russian soldier confided to Miller.

In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military operation in Ukraine aimed at “demilitarizing” the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which together form the Donbas region.

In 2014, the two regions declared themselves new republics, refusing to recognize Ukraine’s Western-backed government.

Ordering the operation, the Russian head of state said the mission was aimed at “defending people who for eight years were suffering persecution and genocide by the Kiev regime.”

“It’s too dangerous to take the car on this road. It can be a target for anti-tank missiles…so we’re going on foot," Miller said.

Fighters from Donbas, now loyal to Russia, have been fighting against Ukrainian nationalists for eight years.

Trench warfare has returned once again to Europe. "While some of the world’s most advanced weapons are slaughtering dozens of soldiers every day, the best defense remains underground," Miller said.

Adievka, he said, is so well fortified that risking a frontal attack would cost so many lives indeed.

Press TV in Donetsk: Street by street battle rages in eastern city

Ukraine

That’s why the Russian army is trying to encircle the Ukrainian army to the north of here. "And then if it does that, if it’s able to do that, they plan to come down here and take Adievka," he added.

If the Russians take the whole Donbas, they have to major fortifications built for years.

According to our correspondent, Russia is clearly winning the war with overwhelming air and artillery superiority.

He said Russian soldiers are being dehumanized by Ukrainian propaganda, leading to atrocities being committed against Russian POWs.”

“Upon hearing I was British, one of the soldiers appealed to me to tell the truth about what was happening here to people back in the UK," he told us.

“I asked them what that truth was," he recounted.

The pro-Russian soldier said, “There’s a genocide of the Russian-speaking population going on here."

"The Ukrainians have been shelling our people for eight years. They are trying to extinguish us. Tell them about this at least. At any moment, I can die here, but I’m on my land and I will fight for it."

According to Miller, no doubt, the Ukrainian soldiers in their trenches across the field will have a very different version of the truth.

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