Original subtitles

SEAN LANGAN: Two years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine,

an estimated 500,000 soldiers on both sides

have been killed or wounded.

The scale of human suffering is staggering,

and many towns on the eastern front now resemble a desolate moonscape.

I watched the invasion unfold on my TV screen at home.

But we've only really seen one side of this war.

I wanted to see the other side.

That's why I've travelled to Russian-occupied Ukraine.

I'm now on the front lines.

The sounds here are so much more terrifying

than the sounds I heard in Donetsk.

I was warned not to go in with the Russians.

And some people asked

should we even be telling their side of the story?

But when I found myself riding into battle with the Russian army,

I began to think I may have gone too far over to the other side.

But at that point, it was too late to turn back.

IN RUSSIAN:

LAUGHTER

EXPLOSION

EXPLOSION

NEWSREADER 1: Vladimir Putin has just ordered

a partial mobilisation for the Russian military,

stepping up his campaign against Ukraine.

NEWSREADER 2: It follows a counterattack

in the northeast of the country

that led to significant setbacks for his forces,

and he warned the West not to come to Ukraine...

I arrived in Russia

a few weeks after Putin ordered a mobilisation.

The war had been going badly since the invasion,

and according to the headlines,

Ukraine seemed to be winning and could even win this war.

I'd read all the reports on war crimes.

But as I drove down from Moscow, I didn't really know what to expect.

'My name is Sean Langan.

'As a young foreign correspondent,

'I'd covered the break-up of the Soviet Union.

'That was more than 30 years ago,

'and this was my first time back in Russia.

'I'd finally been granted a press visa

'by the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Moscow,

'and I'd hired a local fixer from Donetsk

'in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

'Sasha was my translator, and my eyes and ears.'

SPEAKS RUSSIAN

'The only problem was I didn't know if Sasha was working for me

'or the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Moscow.'

OK.

OK.

OK.

Sasha, can I use the word "war" now? Or are we not allowed?

SASHA: War? Am I allowed to use the word "war"?

OK.

MUSIC ON RADIO

We're at the border now, so I have to stop filming?

I've noticed you've, er, put the Z on the window.

Now, why's that?

These are the local... Oh, my God, these are Chechnyans.

Do I have to be careful?

Er, no, they're friends of mine. Really?

Dobry den. Dobry den.

OK, you can film now.

DRIVER SIGHS

The closer we come to Donetsk, the more this feels like a war zone.

On my first night in Donetsk,

the constant barrage of outgoing artillery fire and rockets

sounded like rolling thunder on the horizon.

That night, Russia unleashed cruise missiles across Ukraine,

cutting off the power supply to over 1.5 million people.

It was the beginning of Putin's campaign

to rain down rockets on Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine.

MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN ON TELEVISION

First day in Donetsk.

So, I've got all the home comforts - TV, lights, heating...

er, can make my coffee...

but no, er, water.

No running water there.

I think the water comes on one day and then is off for three days.

So I've got drinking bottled water in the fridge,

and you have a shower, flush the loo,

and then three days, just, er... face wash.

But the good news is

the sound in the distance of artillery fire, rocket fire,

that's fallen silent today. And it was all outgoing,

but it begins to fray on your nerves.

NEWSREADER SPEAKING RUSSIAN

'I'd been told I wouldn't be allowed to show the truth,

'and the barrage of propaganda on Russian TV was a reminder

'of what I was up against.'

NEWSREADER SPEAKING RUSSIAN:

'There'd been very few reports from Donetsk since the war began...'

MAN ON LOUDSPEAKER:

WOMAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN ON LOUDSPEAKER

'..and the locals feel their side of the story has been ignored.'

Er, we decided to get off the bus.

Hello. Hello.

SASHA:

SASHA: She said, "Yeah, you should come before.

"We wait for you for a long time."

'As far as the locals were concerned,

'Putin's invasion in 2022 was a continuation of the war

'that's been simmering here in the Donbas since 2014.'

SEAN:

So, Donbas? Da.

SASHA:

SASHA: The day after tomorrow.

So, like a two-days weekend.

SEAN: How was his weekend?

After a popular uprising in Kyiv

overthrew the pro-Moscow president in 2014,

separatists here in the Donbas region

launched an armed insurrection with the support of Moscow.

More than 2 million Ukrainians living in the east

voted with their feet and headed west.

We can see "Russia", and they put around,

er, good words like "future", "life", "friendship",

"brotherhood", "kindness", "protection".

After Putin's invasion,

the occupied parts of Eastern Ukraine

were formally absorbed into Mother Russia.

You can see the names of Russian cities,

and they're now mixed with cities of Donetsk People's Republic.

It's like they all equal.

You can see Mariupol there, other cities from Donetsk Republic,

and also big and small cities from Russia,

which are well known. Right.

SASHA: Where are you from?

Ah! London.

London!

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

My father's from... Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

SASHA SPEAKS RUSSIAN, EXPLOSION IN DISTANCE

MAN SPEAKS RUSSIAN No, this is London.

Why is he reacting like that? What, can you explain it to me?

How would he describe himself now?

Is he Russian? Ukrainian?

HE LAUGHS

So, now he suppose he came back to the Soviet Union.

'Putin's promise to rebuild the Russian empire

'after the break-up of the Soviet Union

'resonated deeply with many people both here and in Russia.

'The Great Patriotic War has been used as a propaganda tool

'to justify the invasion.'

RUSSIAN NEWSREADER:

NEWSREADER SPEAKING RUSSIAN

But this war was never about fighting Nazis.

Putin was very clear about his real intentions -

to prevent Ukraine from joining the EU

and to stop the eastward expansion of NATO.

'Sasha and I were still trying to figure each other out.'

I like these Soviet-era elevators.

'He thought I might be working for London,

'and I knew he was under pressure from Moscow to keep an eye on me.

'But I was starting to warm to Sasha.

'He genuinely loves his country.

'He was born in Donetsk, and his auntie lives in Kyiv,

'but he's also loyal to the Russian motherland.'

It's a nice place, Sasha.

'Life on the borderlands here in Donbas

'was a lot more complicated than I had imagined.'

Yeah, shark-infested waters.

LAUGHTER

PHONE RINGS

Hello.

Five minutes' drive up the main boulevard,

we reached the Soviet-built suburbs surrounding the city.

EXPLOSION IN DISTANCE

The people here are living on the front lines.

EXPLOSION

Da.

SASHA SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN That's an expl... Wow.

She didn't move.

SASHA: She's asking God for, er...

to be secure to throw out garbage, when she go out.

Wow.

She's saying we should be careful?

She heard there was a whistle.

Artillery, I did not hear it. Oh.

EXPLOSION

What's her name?

I'll make the tea.

Does she like her tea with a bit of lemon in?

DOORBELL RINGS

Is that the doorbell?

'Yulia is Nina's granddaughter.'

'She popped over for tea and wanted to meet me.

I am do journalist.

My first, er... specialist... Yeah.

..it was television, and I'm studying.

Oh.

I am your colleague.

Yes! Well, it's lovely to meet you.

You can speak in Russian, if you want.

Do you now stay at home more than you did before?

All time at home. Ah.

I'm tiring.

So you'll spend all day in your apartment

with your family, your mother?

Yes, er...

If I want to go downtown,

I can, er...

IN RUSSIAN:

She can die. Yes.

But I'm just wondering if you're scared to go into town,

but this feels more close.

What is your native land?

Er, Ukraine.

Ukraine.

Spasibo. Spasibo vam. See you later.

The next day, I went to Moscow to renew my visa.

But relations were now so bad between the UK and Russia,

their Foreign Ministry insisted I could only do it in London.

I wasn't sure if they would let me back in.

I'm back now a few days.

Hadn't turned my camera on till tonight.

And there seems to be even more caution, more suspicion.

The Interior Ministry now want to meet Sasha and me.

Now, that's...

They've drawn a long list now... HE CHUCKLES

..so, there's the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

Ministry of Defence, the Interior Ministry, the FSB.

EXPLOSION

PHONE RINGING

Hi, Sasha. Two rockets, I think, quite big rockets.

EXPLOSION

DISTANT ALARM BLARES

Are those incoming?

'Yes, yes, they are here in Donetsk.'

SEAN LAUGHS

You... 'Maybe I come up.'

Well, be careful cos they're landing quite close.

DISTANT ALARM BLARES

I don't want to stand by the window in my living room,

so I've come into the corridor.

HE EXHALES SHARPLY It's... It's quite a shock.

And I feel embarrassed for those...

..on the other side

because I've been sitting here listening to outgoing,

most of the time, barrages that they launched...

..at targets in Ukraine and knocking out the infrastructure.

And so large parts of Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine...

EXPLOSION

..are without electricity or power.

EXPLOSION, SEAN EXHALES SHARPLY

DOORBELL RINGS Hang on, Sasha.

Hey. Hello.

THEY LAUGH

Why...? You heard the rocket on my phone.

There are rockets, yeah, yeah.

I heard it also from my window, from my apartment.

So, why...

Surely, most normal people would get in a car and drive away, not...

SASHA LAUGHS

Sasha had arranged an embed with local forces.

Formerly part of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic,

they've been fighting since 2014,

but are now part of the Russian army.

Thousands of soldiers have been billeted in their little dachas

on the outskirts of Donetsk.

'As we arrived to the dacha,

'the men were getting ready to go out on a mission.'

IN RUSSIAN:

Spasibo.

SASHA:

So, he was in the independent Ukrainian Navy.

He's now fighting what's called the Ukrainian army.

Can he help me understand that?

What does he hope?

Is he fighting now to be independent,

or to be part of Russia, or...?

EXPLOSION

Can I ask, is he tired of this war?

IN RUSSIAN:

HE SIGHS

What's he fighting for?

DISTANT EXPLOSION

The local fighters have been dismissed

as pro-Russian separatists and collaborators.

But they would argue it was the revolution in Kyiv in 2014

that overthrew the elected president of the time,

who was pro-Moscow.

IN RUSSIAN:

Yeah, they're NATO.

'But there is a darker side to the pro-Russian fighters in Ukraine.

'The Wagner Group was originally set up

'to pursue Putin's proxy war

'in support of the separatists in 2014.

'Some of these men joined the Wagner Group

'and were still with them at the time of the invasion.'

PHONE RINGING

Yeah, but what were they doing in Kyiv? If they are...

I didn't know the DNR were there.

Ah.

OK, say it.

Well, so, he was in Kyiv at the beginning?

And he was with, er...

not the Donetsk People's army, with the Wagner Group?

We heard a lot about Bucha... Yeah.

..that it was on the news every day about how,

when the Russians left,

there were all these bodies, and they were accused...

They were accused of war crimes there.

IN RUSSIAN:

'The UN documented at least 73 cases of unlawful killings

'and executions of civilians in Bucha.

'But I realised it wasn't the right time or a safe place

'to ask about war crimes.'

He was just telling me he was in the Wagner Group,

that mercenary group which is quite sinister.

They were fighting in Kyiv and in Bucha...

..which we've heard a lot of.

'The men were now heading out to the trenches,

'which were less than two kilometres away, and they agreed to take me.

'Hundreds of thousands of soldiers

'have been slaughtered in the trenches

'and in artillery duels since the war began.

'And as we drove the short distance to the front,

'I felt like I was travelling back to 1917.'

IN RUSSIAN:

Throwing grenades, and then... No! In this trench?

EXPLOSION

Russia? Outgoing?

Ah.

THEY LAUGH

Oh, fuck!

Oh, nice! Ho-ho!

It's strange having a cup of tea here.

I feel very cosy in here and safe, but it's not safe, is it?

The attrition rate on these front lines is...

..unbelievable.

It's something from wars from the past, World War I and II.

This war's a year old,

but there's estimated 300,000 dead and injured on both sides.

I mean, in fact, Bakhmut's been described as a meat grinder.

The drone... The drone's there, so be ready.

What's he heard, Sasha?

OK, so the drone is over our heads now,

Ukrainian drone, so they hiding you from big injury.

You saw it? We saw.

Bloody hell.

Are those shells Russian shells?

EXPLOSION It's all good there, is it?

Oh, look, there's a drone! Small one, yeah.

Bloody hell.

Literally, there's just little drones edged up

from the end of the trenches now above our heads.

CAT MEOWS Come here, pussycat.

Oh, my... Hello, pussycat. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

The fatigue here is a different kind of fatigue, isn't it?

Mm-hm.

EXPLOSION

EXPLOSION

EXPLOSION

SEAN LANGAN: I'd met the local fighters in Donetsk,

but I now wanted to leave the city

and meet the Russian army fighting on the Eastern front.

'Sasha knew a local commander

'who agreed to take us to a garrison town in the north.'

IN RUSSIAN:

In the weeks before I arrived in Donetsk,

the Ukrainian army had launched a lightning counter offensive

in the east and around the city of Kharkiv.

The Russian army had been routed in Izyum and Lyman

and was apparently in disarray,

and they had fallen back to the garrison town of Svatove.

NEWSREADER 1: Lyman's capture

is one of Russia's worst military defeats

since the start of its invasion.

NEWSREADER 2: Military vehicles,

these are signs that the Russians had to flee.

According to the headlines back in the West,

Ukraine was winning and could even win this war.

'The commander wanted to introduce me

'to a tank commander he knew.'

IN RUSSIAN:

See the mines there? Oh, yeah. Are those their mines?

These are the mines?

'This was my first encounter with a Russian unit

'and my first encounter with a Russian tank.'

'Neither seemed to be in good working order,

'but they had been fighting for six months

'and taken a battering in their retreat from Izyum.

'And as they stood around smoking cigarettes,

'the Ukrainians started shelling.' EXPLOSIONS

We should run now. We should go because they're aiming us, maybe.

'When we got to Svatove,

'it was full of cold and exhausted-looking soldiers

'milling around in muddy streets

'strewn with broken-down vehicles.'

Can I ask you what is it like here?

I don't like be here because, you know, it's...

..it is danger. OK. Yeah, cos how old are you?

19. Oh, you're my son's age.

What's your name? Ilham.

Ilham? My name is Sean. Nice.

Are you mobilised?

No, no, no. I am contract. Contract.

I be in Balakliya and Izyum.

And I now be here in Svatove. OK.

Can I ask what was it like for you in Izyum

because it was tough fighting?

We lost so many good...

IN RUSSIAN:

Good men. Yeah.

And... IN RUSSIAN:

You lost friends? Yeah.

'And in the centre of town,

'we met up with the tank commander we'd seen up at the front line.'

Where's he been with this tank?

IN RUSSIAN:

What was it like in Izyum?

Cos I saw that on TV. What was that like?

'I'd been warned that I would never be allowed to show the truth

'if I went to Russian-occupied Ukraine.

'Both Sasha and the commander were trying to manage my visit,

'but the cracks were beginning to show.'

IN RUSSIAN:

'The reporter from Russian TV thanked him for sharing,

'but the soldier's outspoken comments

'were later cut from her report.

'The commander said it was time to leave.'

SONG IN RUSSIAN ON RADIO:

'Afterwards, we stopped off to pick up

'a couple of what they said were NATO-made missiles.

'The driver was keen to take us back to their place

'to show off their stock of captured weapons.'

So, we're gonna go in. First, we'll talk here.

I'll turn my camera off.

So these are all weapons, NATO weapons,

that they took from the Ukrainians?

IN RUSSIAN:

And what's he gonna do with them?

Return...?

SOLDIER CHUCKLES

'As we were talking, some men stormed in.

'They were Spetsnaz, the Russian elite special forces.'

I can feel he's looking at me like, "Who the... are you?"

THEY CHUCKLE And he's right.

Never trust journalists, but I want... I want...

THEY LAUGH

The Ukrainians are saying they're winning,

and they took Izyum, Lyman.

The fighting, very close friends, family almost,

Ukraine, Russians are the same roots, the same history,

they're neighbours, does that make it harder?

OK.

THEY LAUGH

Thank you very much.

Hurry up!

My trip to Svatove confirmed the news reports at the time.

The Russian army was clearly in disarray,

but the Russians were also quietly digging in,

reinforcing their defensive lines.

As I left, I saw the convoys coming in,

bringing with them the concrete blast walls

and anti-tank barriers.

The so-called Surovikin Line,

a 1,000-kilometre-long defensive wall and minefield,

that would prove so pivotal in halting

Ukraine's counter offensive in the months ahead.

On our way back to Donetsk,

we stopped off at a forward operating base in Kreminna.

Sasha had arranged for us to meet a unit of Russian soldiers

camped out in the woods.

Is the fighting here quite intense?

IN RUSSIAN:

Is there a little bit of hurt

that the West doesn't understand their side?

So they're gonna be here for Christmas?

IN RUSSIAN:

Oh, made in England? Yeah.

IN RUSSIAN:

What's it like,

because Russia and Ukraine are so...

They're neighbours, they're family. Its history.

Does that make it harder?

Does he have children?

'As the new recruits were welcomed to the unit,

'I looked at the faces of the young men I'd met.

'They hadn't been drafted. These men were all volunteers

'from across Russia, and the former Soviet republics.

'Their next deployment would be south,

'to Avdiivka, on the eastern front,

'which has seen some of the highest casualties of the war.'

When I got back to Donetsk, I met up with Yulia

and we went for a walk in the park.

Dancing, dancing.

What, you danced on that stage?

What, performing, or just party?

Performing was, kind of, like...

It was concert.

SHE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

Yeah, you can talk.

It was a concert? In the summer, it was...

And I miss you.

Have you been to...?

'We drove Yulia back to her home on the front line.'

Oh, wow.

I didn't realise how close you were. This is the front line.

EXPLOSION

Was that incoming, Sasha?

MISSILE

EXPLOSION

Out come. Out come.

That's good.

SEAN LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

Never mind.

Do you jump when you're here?

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

Seldom. So seldom.

And when it's so close to me,

and, erm, the sound's so loud,

and the vibration,

and I can't stand normal.

Have you had a few times when you thought you might die?

'When I first arrived in Donetsk,

'it felt like a city on the front line.'

'Now it felt like a city under siege.'

PHONE RINGS

His phone's ringing. Someone's trying to call him.

Oof.

RINGING CONTINUES

EXPLOSIONS

MUSIC ON RADIO

'A well-known pro-Kremlin Russian military blogger

'agreed to take us to the very edge of the city

'so we could see the Ukrainian front lines.'

MAN RESPONDS IN RUSSIAN, SASHA TRANSLATES

IN RUSSIAN:

I don't like hanging around that window.

DOGS BARK

EXPLOSION

EXPLOSIONS

Don't be afraid. It's ours. Yeah.

What would you accept as compromise?

IN RUSSIAN:

You said something there which I find a little disturbing.

If Kyiv is friendly to you, then you will give them freedom.

I'm sorry, does that include Kyiv?

And when we kill the last Nazi... Yeah.

The war will end.

It will be the end. OK.

'As I listen to the Russian blogger's sermon on the stairwell,

'I found his views deeply disturbing and extreme,

'but they echoed the words of President Putin,

'who denied Ukraine's right to exist

'before he launched the full-scale invasion.'

Oh, it's a plane?

OK.

So, it looks like a bomb.

'We were now walking along the exposed side of the building.

'The Ukrainian positions were less than two kilometres away,

'and I was worried about snipers.'

You could get... We could get shot walking through there, Sasha.

HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN

There is an airport you can see.

Where? Through there?

Ah, we're gonna get shot doing this.

I'll go in from that side.

EXPLOSION

Now, is that Russians in that airport, or...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not... So, no-one's gonna shoot me?

Behind the airport, their position.

'This is where the war escalated in 2014 in Donetsk,

'when the separatists seized the airport

'and the Ukrainian army were sent in.

'Ten years later, these front lines haven't changed.

'As the winter months dragged on,

'the fighting on the eastern front ground to a stalemate.

'But Russia continued to attack Kyiv,

'and other cities across Ukraine.'

SEAN LANGAN: I'd gone home for Christmas,

and had to apply for a new visa.

After three months,

the Foreign Ministry finally agreed to let me back in.

When we first came here last year,

there weren't these trenches all around.

They're digging in, fortifying them.

More and more tanks, armoured personnel vehicles.

Yeah.

EXPLOSION

We might have to call it a day.

Suddenly, there's all these reports coming in

that there's been Ukrainian shelling in a civilian area near the airport.

It's like a ghost town round here, this bit.

This is a protected place. OK.

But also, I've got a feeling we should be wearing a flak jacket now.

Yep. Yeah, put it on. Yeah.

As we're putting our flak jackets on,

there's a woman across the road walking her dog.

EXPLOSION

Is she OK walking her dog, Sasha?

SASHA SHOUTS OVER

WOMAN:

SASHA:

EXPLOSION

Look, look, it's rockets. There's firing.

It's... It's... mortar.

I saw the flames.

EXPLOSIONS

Sasha...

I think we should come over.

I could see the flame coming, from here.

OK.

SASHA SPEAKS RUSSIAN

Does she want to borrow our helmet?

SASHA SPEAKS RUSSIAN

I wasn't joking! Oh, my God.

What's your name? My name is Sean.

Does she feel safe here?

SASHA:

Bye-bye.

THEY EXCHANGE GOODBYES

Oof. Sasha.

That was close to having us here, yeah?

Yeah.

EXPLOSION

It's too risky to go there.

If we now try to find the place where they were shooting,

it will be, possibly we will, like, be there

and find it much more crazy...

Yeah. ..crazy times will be had.

You know what, I just wanna say this,

we don't need to go looking for the fucking war.

Yeah, yeah, I don't want to go there.

You agree with me, then? Yeah.

EXPLOSION

I see the windows shaking when it lands.

SASHA SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN

IN RUSSIAN:

Do you mind if I smoke?

Oh!

I'm English.

Where are you from? Where are you from? London.

SASHA:

THEY CONTINUE TALKING

I thought... I thought this woman was shell-shocked.

SHE TALKS RAPIDLY

HE EXHALES

How have they come out...

EXPLOSION

..when they're still under shelling?

She said, too much mines there, it's now getting darker.

She can bring us to the front line, she said.

SEAN LAUGHS

She knows everything here. No, thanks.

No electricity now.

They destroyed the...

WOMAN TALKS

Oh, it's beautiful.

EXPLOSION

Whoa. It's quite close to the window, that fire.

EXPLOSION

Your special...

For us.

PHONE RINGS

It's very Russian, having all these...

Yeah, is it your grandchildren, children up here?

But you know what, Sasha,

on the other side, it was quite intense.

This side is safe. Yeah.

So we can relax a little bit.

Oh, lovely.

Nice coffee.

EXPLOSION

RUMBLING

I think we need to go.

Sasha, there's... There's shell fire.

EXPLOSION

We're a sitting target here.

Bye-bye.

Spasibo, spasibo.

I didn't like standing there,

that felt very open, that little bit.

They're targetting Donetsk.

Yeah.

I'm gonna miss this place.

I know you'll come back.

There is no more interesting place in the world.

I've got 12 days left,

and I'd rather not go to the front lines,

but at the same time, I feel I have to.

We spend a lot of time,

spend a lot of energy,

and we risked a lot to do this film,

so I want it to be better,

so more people can watch it. OK.

That's why I want to risk more

and show you some of the front line stuff.

It will be interesting.

Sasha had organised an embed

with combat medics near the front line

to the north of Avdiivka.

We were now finally heading to an area

that President Zelenskyy had described as hell on Earth.

A fitting place for my journey's end.

MUSIC ON RADIO

# I'm on the highway to hell... #

I like this song.

'The driver's choice of AC/DC's Highway To Hell

'seemed pretty apt.'

We arrived in a front-line village,

just as casualties were coming in.

EXPLOSIONS

Are you the medic?

IN RUSSIAN:

This is where you live and work?

Yes.

This is your operating theatre,

and this is your kitchen?

This is now operation of surrounding of Avdiivka.

So, the Russians have finally made somewhat of an advance?

Yes, here they took Sherwood, this famous position,

Ukrainians hold for a long time. Called Sherwood forest.

Really? Yeah, yeah.

It's for the joke, but it's the real name of this position.

So they took it, and they took the village after it.

What does the medic want to do?

So, he wants to go to evacuation spot.

He wants to show us, yeah,

this is like the hard front line. OK.

Battles are raging now,

and the best place to,

it's really possible to get,

is the evacuation spot for the medics. Mm.

But he also contact his commander now.

EXPLOSION

IN RUSSIAN:

You live here in this village?

You stay here all the time? Da, da.

Sasha, I say, I don't know how all these people live here.

It's so intense.

The devastation in this village...

EXPLOSION

Almost every house is...

DOG YAPS

..destroyed.

EXPLOSION

And there's something really disturbing...

..seeing the destruction of these shells,

and now this church.

It's Easter Sunday here tomorrow.

EXPLOSION

EXPLOSION

GUNFIRE

There's a drone overhead.

They're trying to shoot down a drone.

GUNFIRE

I'm surprised this has taken...

I didn't think this would affect me so much.

Well, I didn't know I was gonna find a church

in the middle of this village.

So beautiful.

'I really liked the medic,

'but when he talked about his Ukrainian brothers,

'he was repeating a Russian propaganda line

'that Ukraine isn't a real country

'and Ukrainians are just "little Russians".'

'I travelled to Russian-occupied Ukraine

'to try and understand the other side.

'But as I came towards the end of my journey,

'I realised I'd reached that point where I could no longer empathise.

'The medic may have believed

'he was in Ukraine defending the Russian motherland,

'but I couldn't help feeling the real reason Putin invaded

'was to stop Ukraine from leaving Moscow's orbit.'

I mean, I just let you know when we see in Europe

the way the Russian artillery - which it always did in history -

but when Russian artillery and rockets

bomb Bakhmut or Avdiivka,

it's quite a...

It's quite... It's quite brutal.

You know, when we were talking to the soldiers,

they told me they've been attacking those woods,

the same forest, for the last six months.

I don't know how many men have been wounded or killed for these...

Well, Bakhmut...

It's been like... It looks like Stalingrad.

'The operation was timed for 4:30 in the morning,

'and they were expecting a lot of casualties.

'Later that night, I watched the Russian drone footage

'of their previous assault on Sherwood Forest.

'We were heading up to the same location.'

'And as I watched the armoured vehicles

'advance across the fields,

'I began to feel a sense of looming dread.'

EXPLOSION

The sounds here are so much more terrifying

than the sounds I heard... EXPLOSION

..in Donetsk, which is only...

15 kilometres away. I'm now right on the front lines.

RUMBLING

THEY SPEAK IN RUSSIAN

So, er, one of the teams going in to change another which will go out.

So we're going in with this team. Right.

Happy Easter, Sasha.

SOLDIER SHOUTS IN RUSSIAN

'They told me it would be safe,

'but we hadn't even reached Sherwood Forest...'

DISTANT EXPLOSION

'..and we immediately came under attack.'

THEY SPEAK IN RUSSIAN

So, Sasha, what happened?

When we came, a mortar shell started.

So we will wait here and see the situation. OK.

We now in the trench

captured five days ago from Ukrainian forces.

IN RUSSIAN:

RUMBLING

It's a tough territory, at great cost and sacrifice,

just to get a few kilometres.

IN RUSSIAN:

EXPLOSION

THEY SPEAK IN RUSSIAN

RUMBLING

BIRDSONG

EXPLOSION

THEY SPEAK IN RUSSIAN

SASHA: Three by three.

BIRDSONG

Yeah.

There's mines all over these forests.

IN ENGLISH:

DISTANT RUMBLING

IN ENGLISH:

OK.

There are mines in this field.

Yeah?

Mines in the next field.

DISTANT EXPLOSION

Yeah.

DISTANT EXPLOSION

SASHA, IN ENGLISH:

DISTANT EXPLOSION

Following in the wake of carnage.

All these burnt-out exploded APCs.

They were blown up by mines,

and then they had incoming RPGs.

So in these fields just here, the last few days...

..it's been a lot of carnage and death.

A lot of not-exploded shit here. Be very careful.

IN ENGLISH:

DISTANT EXPLOSION

Nice forest.

SEAN EXHALES Tree stumps.

'As I followed in the footsteps of the soldiers,

'the sunlight flickering through the tree stumps

'conjured up images from wars past.

'History was repeating itself, both as tragedy and farce,

'in the same fields where millions of soldiers had been killed

'in World War Two.

'Putin has cast this war as a re-run of the Great Patriotic War,

'but now Russia is the aggressor... and the invader.'

SASHA, IN ENGLISH:

Yeah, yeah. No-one leaves their kit, do they?

What's he looking for?

It's a Ukrainian body.

They will check if there are explosions.

There's a dead soldier there. Ukrainian.

They're worried he may have been booby trapped,

so they're going to pull his body off to see,

using a rope.

DISTANT EXPLOSION

SASHA, IN ENGLISH:

Fucking hell.

DISTANT EXPLOSION

How close are we to the Ukrainians?

Around a kilometre.

'I thought I'd find some answers in the forest...

'..but all I found was more death and destruction.'

RUMBLING

SPEAKS RUSSIAN

Distance. OK.

This is a new... another new disturbing...

Here, for me, walking through these woods...

..with these tree stumps.

Twisted wood, metal, dead bodies.

Oh, my God.

FAINTLY: It's like when Zelenskyy said this is hell on Earth...

which is what the Russian bombardment looks like

to the Ukrainians.

Lots of booby traps here, Sasha. Mines, yeah.

DISTANT EXPLOSIONS

The ground is littered

with shells, spent shells, unexploded...

EXPLOSION

EXPLOSION

'We'd reached the edge of the forest.

'It had taken the Russians six months

'and thousands of men to get this far.'

THEY SPEAK IN RUSSIAN

'This log was their most forward position

'and the end of my journey.'

THEY SPEAK RUSSIAN

'There was nothing more to see.

'Just more fields stretching out across the vast plains of Ukraine.'

DISTANT EXPLOSIONS, BIRDSONG

A lot of men have given their lives to take these woods, haven't they?

DISTANT EXPLOSION

Do they feel the world doesn't... or the West doesn't understand them?

Yeah?

DISTANT EXPLOSION

MULTIPLE EXPLOSIONS

EXPLOSION

They're supporting Ukraine.

But I didn't understand until I came here.

People in Donbas saying, "This is my country."

And the Ukrainians are saying... SOLDIER SPEAKS RUSSIAN

NEARBY EXPLOSION

SEAN EXHALES

And we must go back... Let's go back.

It's pretty intense forward. Yeah, I can feel it...

They do not risk it. Yeah, yeah.

RUMBLING

EXPLOSION

The fighting's getting too intense...

..so we're withdrawing.

EXPLOSION

'Last year, the headlines were all about Ukraine winning,

'and the West ramped up its military support.

'Now they're about stalemate,

'and some in the West are talking about cutting support.

'Russia may still feel it can win.

'But what would victory look like?

'The Eastern Front has been reduced to rubble,

'and many towns now resemble Stalingrad.

'Putin has failed to bring Kyiv to heel,

'and the invasion has only strengthened

'Ukraine's sense of national identity.

'I met a lot of good men on the front lines.

'But in years to come, I couldn't help wondering

'how many would still believe in the cause.'

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