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♪

[soldier singing]

[radio chatter]

[explosion booms]

[soldier muttering]

[indistinct speaking over radio]

[soldier spits out debris]

[sighing]

[distant gunfire]

-[chatter] -[explosion booms]

[chatter on radio]

[gunfire echoes in distance]

[nearby gunfire]

[gunfire continues]

[rapid firing]

[soldier exhaling]

[chatter on radio]

[explosion booms]

[mortar whistles]

-[distant men shouting] -[mortars exploding]

[man exclaiming]

[men shouting]

[engine revving]

[engine continues revving]

[engine continues revving]

[soldier grunts]

-[explosions boom] -[men screaming]

[thunder rumbles]

[distant gunfire and explosions intensify]

[Piro shouts]

[groaning in pain]

[Piro groaning in pain]

[distant explosion booms]

[mortar whistles by, explodes]

♪

[wind blowing]

♪

REPORTER 1 [voice-over]: Both Ukraine and Russia

are reporting fierce fighting along the frontlines.

REPORTER 2 [voice-over]: Ukrainian forces have

now launched their much talked about counteroffensive.

REPORTER 3 [voice-over]: The new counteroffensive,

expected to be the biggest military operation in Europe

since World War II.

REPORTER 4 [voice-over]: Russian forces

are concentrated, they are deeply embedded.

They've been building fortifications and defenses.

With virtually no independent reporting from the frontlines,

it's impossible to assess

the degree to which Ukraine's operation is underway

or whether it's having success.

MSTYSLAV CHERNOV [voice-over]: I want to tell you a story.

A story thousands of years old.

A story of men fighting for their land.

There is a forest in Eastern Ukraine,

a narrow strip of trees

squeezed between two minefields.

The only way to Andriivka,

a village on the outskirts of Bakhmut.

This is a story of this forest

and the people who will remain there forever.

♪

6:00 a.m.

We are in the 3rd Assault Brigade headquarters.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive is underway.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Here on the eastern front,

the brigade's task had been to move through

2,000 meters, approximately one mile,

of the heavily fortified forest

and capture the strategic village of Andriivka.

This would cut the Russian supply road

to the occupied city of Bakhmut.

And we want to be there when it happens.

But it's hard for journalists to get to the battlefield.

Our only chance is to meet with Fedya,

the officer on the ground.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: He is busy.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Duda, the coordinating officer,

has an idea.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: We manage to convince them to take us.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Duda tells us we are idiots

for wanting to go.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Duda sends a flag

and a note to Fedya.

If Andriivka is liberated,

his task will be to raise the flag.

[bullets clattering]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Wearing the blue journalist vest

on the battlefield is no longer an option.

It makes us priority targets.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: If we are lucky,

today we'll get to Fedya and film him raising the flag.

But we are all nervous.

The forest leading to the village

has killed many men.

[gear clattering]

[door slams shut]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Before departing,

I kept looking at the map.

2,000 meters.

Three months.

It didn't make sense.

Why did it take so long?

Then they showed us.

Videos from helmet cameras, drones.

Records of all the violent battles

on the way to Andriivka.

Each one an attempt to get closer.

Each one taking its toll.

[bullets bouncing off vehicle]

-[guns rapid-firing] -[men screaming]

[bullets echoing]

[men yelling]

-[explosion booms] -[men groaning]

[tank fires]

[gun clicking]

[gun firing]

[soldier panting]

[distant explosion echoes]

[gunfire echoing]

♪

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Some of these battles gained ground.

Some pushed the brigade back.

But they kept fighting.

And now we follow their steps.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: 8:30 a.m.

Our transport reaches the forest.

One of the soldiers tells me, "It's like landing on a planet

where everything is trying to kill you."

But it's not another planet, I tell myself.

It's the middle of Europe.

Now we have to get to Fedya.

But instead of him, we meet one of his soldiers

with the call sign "Freak."

CHERNOV [voice-over]: He calls us "pencils"

so that the Russians intercepting radio chatter

don't know we arrived.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: The battles moved forward,

closer to the village,

leaving the destroyed armored vehicles and bodies behind.

The fields and the roads around were mined by the Russians.

The forest is the only way.

[distant explosion booms]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: The village is 2,000 meters ahead.

35 seconds for a mortar shell to fly.

A two-minute drive.

A ten-minute run.

But here, time doesn't matter.

Distance does.

And it's measured by pauses between the explosions.

[explosion booms]

[explosion booms]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: I hear over the radio

that Fedya is in the middle of the fight.

The battle in Andriivka is raging.

[man speaks on radio]

[explosion booms]

[helicopter whirring in distance]

[laughing]

[explosions boom in distance]

[laughter]

[chatter over radio]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: As we talk,

I'm thinking about Andriivka,

focusing on the radio chatter

and losing the thread of the conversation.

But the camera keeps recording.

Freak was 12 when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014.

When the full-scale invasion started,

he left university, returned to his hometown,

and joined the territorial defense.

From there, he moved to the 3rd Assault Brigade.

At the time we speak, he is 22.

Five months from now, he will be injured in a battle

for another forest, his body never found.

♪

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Freak told us how the brigade

fought for this part of the forest,

trying to push Russians from their trenches.

Halfway to Andriivka.

Their helmet cameras captured every step of the battle.

[soldier yelling]

[gunshots firing]

[machine guns firing]

[soldier shouting]

[gunshots firing]

[soldier screams]

[gunshots firing]

[soldier groans]

[soldier groans]

[man speaking on radio]

[rocket whizzes by and explodes]

[gunshots firing]

[men talking]

[rocket whizzes by and explodes]

[man speaking on radio]

[gunshots firing]

[man speaking on radio]

[projectile whizzes by]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: It's now 10:00 a.m.

We are still pinned down in this damned foxhole,

waiting to get to Fedya.

-[drones buzzing] -[gunfire in distance]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: At last, we start moving.

Andriivka is now 1,000 meters ahead.

Halfway.

The smell of death, explosives,

and freshly cut trees becomes stronger.

I try to focus on what needs to be done.

We need to be there when Fedya raises the flag.

[explosions rumbling in distance]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: 11:00 a.m.

We finally reach Fedya.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: His first question to us:

"Where are your guns?"

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Fedya is 24.

Battle-promoted to sergeant.

He has a scar on his lip from playing war in his childhood

and a job in a warehouse before the invasion.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Freak gives him the flag

and a note from headquarters,

and he settles in a dugout to read it.

[explosions boom in distance]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: I knew what he meant when he said

he never wanted to be a soldier.

None of us did.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: When we were children,

every boy in the school got military lessons.

We marched, assembled and disassembled Kalashnikovs.

We shot.

Ten bullets for each young man.

But few of us saw any point in this.

There was no one to fight with.

We had no enemies.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Before each battle,

Fedya trains his men.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: He shouts at them and swears heavily.

He knows that some of them will die.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: When Russia invaded Ukraine,

each one of us had to make a choice.

I took a camera and started filming.

Fedya took a gun.

He was sure Ukraine will win this war.

♪ ♪

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Fedya told us,

after the brigade liberated two-thirds of the forest,

it was his battalion's turn to push forward,

the first assault operation for many of his men.

[officers conversing]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: In headquarters,

Duda and other officers

guided Fedya and his team through the battlefield.

[soldiers talking]

[gunshots firing]

[gunshots firing]

[gunshots firing]

[rapid gunfire intensifies]

[men at headquarters exclaiming]

[guns firing]

[chuckling]

[bomb whistling through air]

[rapid gunfire]

♪

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Another 300 meters were taken.

But the further they advanced,

the harder it was to keep pushing.

Medics could not believe all these casualties

were coming from that tiny forest.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: If they continued losing so many men,

they would not be able to finish the offensive.

REPORTER 1 [voice-over]: U.S. officials say

Ukraine's much anticipated offensive

is slowly moving forward.

REPORTER 2 [voice-over]: Progress is modest but steady,

according to the Ukrainian forces,

as they reclaim villages and trenches

dug by Russian forces.

Ukraine says it has liberated several villages

from the Russians in recent days.

REPORTER 3 [voice-over]: Villagers emerged from

the basements, the bunkers they'd been hiding in,

and were overjoyed to see Ukrainian troops there,

to see the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag

flying over their village once again.

Over in the northeast,

that cauldron of violence, Bakhmut,

has also been the scene of some Ukrainian gains

of a few kilometers in recent days.

REPORTER 4 [voice-over]: Ukraine also taking

high casualties.

REPORTER 5 [voice-over]: Ukraine is a relative David

to Russia's Goliath.

They can't afford to lose

three times the soldiers that Russia does,

so it has to proceed carefully.

If that isn't good enough,

and actually they still end up in a stalemate,

Western confidence is likely to dip.

REPORTER 6 [voice-over]: If we're not getting results here,

then perhaps Ukraine wants to think about another plan,

even some land concessions for peace.

REPORTER 7 [voice-over]: If Ukraine falls,

then Russian forces will be on Europe's doorstep.

It becomes NATO's war.

[soldiers chattering]

[soldier shouting in pain]

[shouting continues]

♪

[man panting]

[weapon firing]

[distant explosion echoes]

[radio chatter]

[man panting]

[panting continues]

[distant explosion echoes]

[explosion booms]

[rapid gunfire in distance]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: 1:30 p.m.

We stop again to wait for the artillery duel to finish.

The day seems endless.

[distant explosions echo]

After his injury, Fedya was sent to the hospital.

He quickly recovered and returned to the forest.

[talking over radio]

[radio chatter]

[explosion booms]

[distant rumbling]

[rolling paper crinkling]

[mortar whistling closer]

[Sheva exhales]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Sheva is 46.

At the beginning of the counteroffensive,

he left a comfortable position in the military police

to volunteer with the 3rd Assault Brigade.

He will be injured in a battle five months from now

and will die in a hospital.

[distant boom echoes]

♪

CHERNOV [voice-over]: For the next battle,

Fedya's friend and second in command, Gagarin,

replaced him in the forest.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: He was 24.

Hometown: Polonne, Western Ukraine.

He worked as a truck driver in Europe.

When the full-scale invasion started,

he returned and volunteered.

He led the platoon to battle.

They had to move another 300 meters

and reach the end of the forest.

After that, it was Andriivka.

[soldiers shouting]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: His friend Kobzar

followed him on the battlefield.

[guns firing]

[empty gun clicking]

[rapid gunfire exchange]

♪

[woman vocalizing]

♪

[woman vocalizing]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Gagarin was laid to rest

in his hometown, Polonne,

972 kilometers from Andriivka.

And the entire neighborhood came to his funeral

to be with his mother as she cried.

They said it was the 56th funeral here.

♪

[people conversing]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Kobzar, the soldier

who held Gagarin's hand as he was dying in the forest,

will be killed five months from now

by a drone strike in a battle for another village.

♪

♪

REPORTER 1 [voice-over]: Western officials have

expressed disappointment in

a much vaunted counteroffensive,

which began in June.

Ukraine has only taken back

an estimated 100 square miles of territory since then.

REPORTER 2 [voice-over]: Well, U.S. intelligence is now saying

that Ukraine will fail to meet

their counteroffensive key goals.

REPORTER 3 [voice-over]: How sustainable is this level

of support when there's really no end in sight to the war?

REPORTER 4 [voice-over]: Russia has millions more men

from whom to draw.

There's no path to a military victory here,

only more death.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[woman vocalizing]

[woman vocalizing]

[woman vocalizing]

♪

[woman vocalizing]

[woman vocalizing]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: The counteroffensive was failing.

Few believed Ukraine could advance any further.

But the brigade decided to make its last stand.

As Gagarin was laid to rest,

the final battle for Andriivka began.

♪

[soldier breathing heavily]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: All the battalions

gathered their forces.

First, they took positions on the edge of the forest

and in houses on the outskirts.

Then, under the cover of the smoke screen bombs,

they moved in.

[men talking on radio]

[explosion detonates]

[gunshots firing]

[distant explosion echoes]

[man talking over radio]

[gunshots firing]

[explosion booms]

[soldier shouting]

[man shouting]

[rapid gunfire in distance]

[explosions roar in distance]

[rocket whizzes by, explodes]

[soldiers talking]

[rocket whizzes by, explodes]

♪

♪ ♪

CHERNOV [voice-over]: 2:00 p.m.

We are a hundred meters from Andriivka.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: Fedya instructs us to start moving.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: We are finally in Andriivka.

As Russians retreated,

their artillery shot indiscriminately.

They were erasing the village from the map.

In the last 100 meters,

there are bodies scattered everywhere.

Mostly Russians.

A few Ukrainians.

As we walk in, Fedya receives a message

that one of the soldiers in his platoon has been injured.

[explosions boom]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: He's severely shell-shocked.

CHERNOV [voice-over]: We run to the ruins of another house.

This one at least has a basement.

[objects clattering]

[explosion booms]

[rock crumbling]

[laughs]

[explosion booms nearby]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: We settle in the basement,

and artillery keeps hitting us.

It's only now the understanding comes to me.

We really are in Andriivka.

But the village doesn't exist anymore.

Among the ruins,

there is hardly a place to raise the flag.

The villagers are dead or gone.

Everything is destroyed.

People, animals, memories.

And all that is left of it is a name.

♪ ♪

[man speaking on radio]

-[explosion booms] -[debris rains on basement]

[nearby explosion booms]

[distant gunfire echoes]

CHERNOV [voice-over]: I don't argue,

but I doubt it will happen.

I know Ukraine doesn't have enough resources

to continue the counteroffensive.

I know the Russians will continue to reduce cities

to a state where there aren't even bricks left.

And the longer it all goes on,

the less the world will care about it.

I'm afraid this land will remain frozen frontline

for years.

[Fedya speaking faintly]

[explosion booms]

[men chatting quietly]

[explosion booms]

[cat meows]

[rocket whizzes by, explodes]

[soldier coughing]

♪ ♪

[cat meows]

[radio beeps]

♪ ♪

[radio beeps]

[Fedya speaking]

[distant explosions echo]

[cat meows]

♪

CHERNOV [voice-over]: 8:00 p.m.

When we were sitting in the basement,

Fedya told me,

in his dreams, he fights like hell in this forest.

Then he wakes up and goes back to the battle.

And I thought, this war is a nightmare

none of us can wake up from.

I envy Fedya because he believes we will.

He has the names of his friends and the cities he has lost

and a gun and a flag to avenge them.

[cat meows]

[exhales]

♪ ♪

[sniffs]

[woman vocalizing]

[muffled rifle salute]

♪

♪ ♪

[woman vocalizing]

♪

♪

♪

♪ ♪

[music fades]