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.
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World
More than 600 dead in Indonesia and Thailand after floods and landslides – and Sri Lanka reporting more than 200 deaths from cyclone
The death toll following flooding and landslides in Indonesia and Thailand has risen to more than 600 – with nearby Sri Lanka also reporting more than 200 deaths after a cyclone.
Three people have also died in Malaysia, officials have said, due to the extreme weather in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
In total, Indonesian officials said 442 people had died and Thai authorities reported 170 deaths in the southern part of the country, as of midday UK time on Sunday.
People move a car damaged by floods in Songkhla province, Southern Thailand. Pic: AP
Rescuers search for flood victims in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Pic: AP
Rescue efforts were ongoing throughout the day, with more than four million people affected – almost three million in Southern Thailand and 1.1 million in Western Indonesia – by the effects of a tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait.
Indonesian relief and rescue teams have used helicopters to deliver aid to people they could not access because of blocked roads on the western island of Sumatra.
Rescuers search for victims at the site of a landslide in Adiankoting, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Pic: AP
Many areas have been cut off, while damage to telecommunications infrastructure has hampered communications.
Officials said on Saturday that they had received reports of people looting supply lines as they grow desperate for relief in other areas.
Hat Yai, the largest city in Thailand’s Songkhla province, received 335mm (13 inches) of rain on Friday last week, its highest single-day tally in 300 years.
After days of rain, meteorological authorities in Malaysia lifted tropical storm and continuous rain warnings there yesterday, forecasting clear skies for most of the country.
However, there are still about 18,700 people in evacuation centres, according to the country’s national disaster management agency.
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A road heavily damaged by a flash flood in Bireun, Aceh province, Indonesia. Pic: AP
A soldier uses ropes to cross a river during a search operation in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Pic: AP
More than 200 dead in Sri Lanka
Across the Bay of Bengal, Sri Lanka’s disaster management centre said in a situation report on Sunday that 212 people had died as a result of Cyclone Ditwah.
Another 218 people have been recorded as missing across the South Asian country’s 25 districts, and more than half a million people have been affected nationwide.
World
Death toll rises to 146 in Hong Kong apartment complex fire as more bodies found in burned buildings
The death toll from a fire that tore through a Hong Kong apartment complex has risen.
Investigators are searching for bodies in the residential towers of Wang Fuk Court, where the blaze erupted on Wednesday.
Authorities say 146 bodies have now been found, rising from a previous reported total of 128.
A girl places flowers in front of the fire-damaged residential blocks at Wang Fuk Court. Pic: Reuters
Shuk-yin Tsang, the head of the Hong Kong police casualty unit, said another 100 people remained unaccounted for, and 79 people were injured.
Flames spread through seven of the eight towers of the complex, and the fire was not fully extinguished until Friday.
Police said they had completed searches through four of the affected buildings.
But a city official said they expected the search process to take three to four weeks.
People line up to offer flowers and prayers for the victims of the fire at Wang Fuk Court. Pic: AP
The burnt towers
Cheng Ka-chun, the police officer leading the search, said bodies had been found both in apartments and on the roofs.
He said: “It is so dark inside, and because of the low light, it is very difficult to do the work, especially in places away from the windows.”
Before the fire broke out, the towers had been undergoing renovations and were clad in bamboo scaffolding, draped with nylon netting, with windows covered by polystyrene panels.
Residents say they repeatedly warned about the potential flammability of the materials, but were told by the authorities that they faced “relatively low fire risks”.
Smoke rises after a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court. Pic: AP
Firefighters work to extinguish the fire. Pic: AP
Now the authorities are investigating whether fire codes were violated amid growing public anger over the blaze.
Beijing has warned it will use a national security law to crack down on any “anti-China” protests that result.
‘Give justice to the families’
Over 1,000 people turned out on Sunday to pay tribute to the victims of the fire, which was Hong Kong’s deadliest in more than 75 years.
Mourners queued for more than a kilometre to lay flowers, some with sticky notes attached addressed to the victims.
People leave notes with well-wishes after the deadly fire. Pic: Reuters
Joey Yeung, whose grandmother’s apartment burned in the fire, asked for justice.
The 28-year-old said: “I can’t accept it. So today I came with my father and my family to lay flowers.
“I’m not asking to get anything back but at least give some justice to the families of the deceased – to those who are still alive.”
Another mourner, Lian Shuzheng, said: “This really serves as a wake-up call for everyone, especially with these super high-rise buildings.”
People offer flowers for the victims. Pic: AP
People offer flowers and pray for the victims. Pic: AP
‘Serious deficiencies’ in safety
An online petition demanding an independent probe into possible corruption and a review of construction oversight drew over 10,000 signatures before it was closed.
Another petition with similar demands attracted more than 2,700 signatures with its plea for “explicit accountability” from the government.
Read more:
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More arrests in deadly Hong Kong tower block blaze
City officials have announced they were suspending 28 building projects undertaken by the contractor that was renovating Wang Fuk Court, the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company.
They said the fire had “exposed serious deficiencies” in the safety of the company’s sites, “including the extensive use of foam boards to block up windows during building repairs”.
The burned towers and makeshift flower memorial. Pic: Reuters
The day after the fire broke out, two directors and an engineering consultant from a construction firm were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
Police said they also suspected the company’s leaders of gross negligence, without identifying the firm by name.
The three men were released on bail, but then rearrested by Hong Kong’s anti-corruption authorities, who made a further eight arrests.
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