A Ukrainian soldier surveys the aftermath of a Russian attack on the icy frontline in eastern Zaporizhzhia. The earth was covered in ice at the middle of January 2024. An 18-person Russian assault squad had breached the line two weeks prior, taking three positions, killing five Ukrainians and losing ten Russians before returning the little area to the Ukrainians a few hours later. On a landscape of craters and torn trees, the three positions that had changed hands were each merely a few foxholes in the ground.
As he examined the bodies of his dead friends, the Ukrainian soldier recorded. His callsign was the deceased man’s. “the small one,” he said. He looked at another corpse.
