Ukraine war: ‘There is only us and them – enemies’ – Ukrainians dug in trenches on Belarus and Russia frontline
They tell us to run, and so we run. Through the scrub, the mud and the undergrowth until we stop under the shelter of trees. Out of breath, out of sight and, for now, out of danger.
This is a place of mud, weapons and nervous energy. We are in the area where the borders of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia converge. What was once a novelty on a map is now a tangible military pinch point and Russia’s next assault on Ukraine might well come through this terrain.
We are with the Ukrainian Border Force, who monitor and guard the frontier. A year ago, these people worried about customs checks on the hundreds of lorries that came through every day, en route between Turkey and Russia. It was, says a smiling, broad-shouldered man guard called Barack, “good work – interesting, not too hard”.
Now, there are no lorries and the guards have become the first line of defence. If Russian troops do pour through this border once more – and there is a growing feeling that they will – then these men and women will be the ones to greet them; to try to repel the Russian army. And so, the border guards have adapted to a new and vastly more perilous world.
“I don’t want to do this,” one of them says to me. “But I do it because I love my land and my country. If I need to fight, I will do this without thinking. It’s just work.”
But of course, it isn’t really “just work”. Through the sights of a heavy machine gun, you can see Belarus, just a few kilometres away. The Russian border is not much further away, and shells are fired over regularly. We can hear the regular booms as they land.
Many people around here have left. Those who remain have become accustomed to violence raining down on them – they use bicycles instead of cars, because bikes don’t attract drones.
Barack is a border guard stationed at the triple frontier between Russia, Belarus and Ukraine
Bonhomie, determination and adrenaline
Not far away is a small village that stands right on the border, cut off from the world. It was once home to 100 people but has been almost completely demolished. Maybe ten people remain, and they are almost unreachable.
We are the first foreign journalists to come here and spend time with these guards. What we find is a blend of bonhomie, determination and adrenaline. They’ve already seen one Russian invasion here and they fear another.
Thousands of newly mobilised Russian troops have been sent to Belarus this month to create a so-called “regional force” to defend the border.
A man in a balaclava readies a British-made NLAW missile launcher
In theory, it is a collaboration between the two countries, but few, beyond the Kremlin or Minsk, take that at face value. Just about everyone else sees it as a device for strengthening the Russian presence ahead of a possible attack, designed to stretch Ukrainian resources by opening up another offensive.
There is a precedent, of course. Back in February, Russian troops came over this border and took over the area. They formed a long convoy of vehicles that set off in the direction of Kyiv, before eventually withdrawing in April.
Since then, the border guards have been preparing. They have dug long trenches, where you walk through mud in near darkness with thoughts of World War One in your mind. And yet, in one of these underground rooms, we see computer terminals linked to the Starlink satellite systems.
Oleksander and Olga’s ceiling fell in on them after an explosion rocked their home
I talk to Barack in a room carved out from the trench. There are wooden boards on the floor and a crude bunk bed in the corner. He laughs when I say it feels like we’ve gone back a century, but agrees. I ask him about the Russian troop build-up a short distance away.
“They are becoming more aggressive, but our Ukrainian forces give them a bloody nose!” he laughs again.
‘We need more weapons’
They have a variety of weaponry – heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles, rifles, ammunition and so on. There are minefields around us and a variety of concealed look-out posts. The job of preparing to resist a huge invading army is an intimidating one. It’s not one that they’re really trained for, but it’s one they’ve embraced.
The trouble is that while the spirit is boundless, the resources are not.
“We need more weapons because we don’t know the intensity of the possible attack. We do not know how long we will need to maintain the defence on the border,” says Halyna, the spokesperson for the Chernihiv border guard unit.
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“We are reacting to the raising of the risk by the invasion with more preparation, more fortification – we want to stop them at the border.
“We need heavy weapons. If they send infantry, you can use assault rifles and machine guns and it will all be contained. The problem begins when tanks and their armoured personnel carriers come from their side.”
What, I ask, were the lessons they learned from the February attack?
“That they are unpredictable. This is the first lesson. And they are not our friends.”
Much of the infrastructure around Horodnia hasn’t been repaired since the last assault by Russian troops
It is a lesson that came as a brutal shock to many people in this region, where Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians have mixed for so many years. The nearest town to this border is Horodnia, which was the first to be taken by the Russians and the last to be relinquished.
They have rebuilt and repainted, but you can still see scars. A little out of town, we came down a rough road and found burnt out trucks, craters, shell casing and even an unexplored rocket lying in the woods.
‘No more brotherly Belarus, no more good Russia’
The houses bear witness to the violence. Oleksander and Olga remember it well. An explosion shook their house so violently that the ceiling fell in on their heads. “There are relatives of ours in Russia and everywhere but now the situation is such that we cheer exclusively for our country,” says Oleksander.
“There is no longer a friendly, brotherly Belarus, or a good Russia. There is only us and them – enemies. This is it.”
It is tempting to be intoxicated by this bravado. Certainly, Ukraine is a nation where resilience is armoured by a sense of grievance and the support of so much of the world. But it is also a nation whose heart has broken.
Nadia lives not far from the triple frontier between Belarus-Russia-Ukraine. She is Belarusian but lives in Ukraine
There is a house at the end of the street that is burnt out. It was bombed, caught fire and was remorselessly wrecked. Nadia watched all this happen from over the road, terrified. She raised the alarm, brought as much water as she could and then cried.
Not long after, her mother died.
Nadia is Belarusian but came here many years ago. Now she is fragile and scared, prepared to hide from another Russian invasion in the outside cellar where she keeps potatoes for the winter. But she fears it would simply collapse and seal her in.
“There is no rest for us here. My nerves are completely gone. What has Ukraine done to them? We have such great people here. They are peaceful people.
“So many people were killed. So many kids. So much grief.” And she weeps.
Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister, has been sentenced to death after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
It follows a months-long trial in the country that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.
The former leader, exiled in India, was tried in absentia after the United Nations said up to 1,400 people may have been killed in the violence.
Bangladesh’s health adviser under the interim government said more than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured.
The students initially started protesting over the way government jobs were being allocated, but clashes with police and pro-government activists quickly escalated into violence.
The court revealed conversations of Hasina directing security officers to drop bombs from helicopters on the protesters.
She also permitted the use of lethal weapons, including shotguns at close range for maximum harm, the court was told.
Hasina, who previously called the tribunal a “kangaroo court”, fled to India in August 2024 at the height of the uprising, ending 15 years of rule.
In a statement released after the verdict, Hasina said the ruling was “biased and politically motivated” and “neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters”.
“I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she added.
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August 2024: Protesters celebrate Sheikh Hasina’s resignation
The 78-year-old is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country to independence.
The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court located in the capital Dhaka, delivered its four-hour verdict amid tight security.
Hasina received a life sentence under charges for crimes against humanity and the death sentence for the killing of several people during the uprising.
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What was behind the protests?
The packed courtroom cheered and clapped when the sentence was read out.
The tribunal also sentenced former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan – also exiled in India – to death.
A third suspect, a former police chief, was sentenced to five years in prison as he became a state witness against Hasina and pleaded guilty.
The ruling is the most dramatic legal action against a former Bangladeshi leader since independence in 1971 and comes ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in February.
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July 2024: Bangladesh protest has ‘become a war’
Foreign ministry officials in Bangladesh have called on India to hand over the former prime minister, adding it was obligated to do so under an existing treaty between the two nations. India has not yet made any response.
Paramilitary border guards and police have been deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country, while the interim government warned any attempt to create disorder will be “strictly” dealt with.
It comes after Hasina’s Awami League party called for a nationwide shutdown as part of a protest against the verdict.
The mood in the country had been described as tense ahead of Monday’s ruling.
The protests escalated during the summer of 2024. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
At least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles were set on fire across Bangladesh during the past few days.
Local media said two people were killed in the arson attacks, according to the Associated Press.
Hasina is also the aunt of former UK government minister, Tulip Saddiq, who resigned from her Treasury job at the start of this year.
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Ms Siddiq had faced calls to step down over links to her aunt and was also said to be facing a corruption trial in Bangladesh.
She told Sky News in August the accusations were “nothing more than a farce” and said she had never been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities.
Sky News has seen multiple warehouses in the Jordanian capital Amman, packed full of critical aid earmarked for the Gaza Strip.
There are three other similar locations in the country and run by the Jordanian authorities holding aid intended for Gaza.
There are also large amounts of aid being stored separately by the United Nations in Jordan.
Both the Jordanian authorities and the UN say the majority of aid collected has been sitting in Jordan since March, with only a negligible amount of aid being allowed into Gaza because of Israeli restrictions on aid going into the Strip.
The news comes as tens of thousands of families living in tents in Gaza have been affected by flooding following heavy rains across the region.
The stored aid is equivalent to thousands of trucks’ worth of aid – in Jordan alone.
And the United Nations says there’s even more aid being held back in Egypt too – in total, enough aid to provide food for the entire Gaza population for about three months, according to the deputy commissioner general for UNRWA, Natalie Boucly, who was interviewed by The Guardian.
Sky’s special correspondent Alex Crawford, who is in Amman, said: “The aid in Jordan alone includes critical supplies such as tents and tarpaulins as well as blankets, mattresses, medicines like paracetamol as well as baby formula… all being stored here and held back, according to the UN here in Jordan and the Jordanian authorities, all being refused entry by the Israelis.”
What has UNICEF said?
The UN aid agency for children has called on Israel to allow all of its supplies into Gaza.
Writing on X, UNICEF said it had already distributed more than 5,000 tents, 220,000 tarps and 29,000 winter clothes kits.
The Israeli defence body in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza, COGAT, has said it is allowing in winter materials including blankets and tarps, which are water-resistant sheets made of canvas or plastic used for protection from the elements.
But aid organisations have warned the efforts are completely inadequate and vastly outnumbered by those in need – an estimated 1.4 million people are classified as vulnerable by aid agencies.
In contrast, on X, COGAT said it had “facilitated close to 140,000 tarpaulins directly to the residents of the Gaza Strip” and had spent the past few months coordinating with the international community.
It went on: “We call on international organisations to coordinate more tents and tarpaulins and other winter humanitarian responses.”
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But the UN insists Israel is in breach of international humanitarian law and has the responsibility as the occupying force to ensure the safe distribution and coordination of life-saving aid.
What does the Israeli military say?
An Israeli military official told Sky News that aid was stopped from Jordan after the main border crossing with Israel was closed following an attack there in September, which saw a Jordanian truck driver kill two Israeli soldiers.
Although both Jordanian officials and UN figures in the country say hardly any aid – a “negligible” amount – was allowed into Gaza from Jordan many months before this, dating back to March.
The Israeli military official said the crossing will not be opened until an investigation is concluded into the incident. They pointed out that there are other routes for aid to enter Gaza along the Egypt border, and hundreds of trucks enter the strip every day under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.
However, the UN and multiple aid organisations say this is a fraction of what is required to meet the huge need inside Gaza and there are thousands of trucks’ worth of aid also piled up and waiting to be allowed over from Egypt too.
Meanwhile, in the sprawling Muwasi tent camp in Gaza, winter’s first strong rainfall sent water cascading through the flimsy tents, which are now homes to tens of thousands of displaced families.
Residents tried to dig trenches to keep the water from flooding their tents, as intermittent rains that began on Friday poured through tears in tarpaulins and makeshift shelters.
A Palestinian child walks through the rain in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City. Pic: AP
‘Water puddles are inches high’
Assil Naggar said he “spent all (Friday) pushing water out of my tent”, adding his neighbours’ tents and belongings were wrecked.
“Water puddles are inches high, and there is no proper drainage,” he continued.
Tents used by displaced Palestinians, on a rainy day in the central Gaza Strip. Pic: Reuters
The UN said Muwasi was sheltering up to 425,000 displaced Palestinians earlier this year, the vast majority in makeshift temporary tents, after Israel’s war with Hamas displaced most of Gaza’s population of more than two million people.
The bulk of Gaza’s infrastructure is estimated to have been destroyed or badly damaged during the Israeli bombardment.
What’s the latest with the ceasefire?
The first stage of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on 10 October, is now nearing its end with Israeli forces pulling back to a ‘yellow line’ and Hamas releasing all living Israeli captives who were held in Gaza.
Hamas has yet to return the remains of three more hostages, which Israel is demanding before progressing to the second stage, which includes an international stabilisation force to oversee security in Gaza.
On Monday, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on a US proposal for a UN mandate for such a force despite opposition from Russia, China and some Arab countries.
The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has gone on for more than two years, killing nearly 70,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian territory’s ministry of health, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military campaign came in response to attacks inside southern Israel by Hamas militants on October 7 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage.
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