Going Underground in Ukraine

Paul Conroy joins the soldiers of an artillery unit on the frontline of the fight against Putin's forces

The salvaged D20 Howitzer fires at Russian positions. Photo: Paul Conroy

We awoke at 2.30 am, packed our kit into the vehicle and followed our contact through the shell-damaged streets of Kherson. It's a dangerous time to be driving; the HQ of Southern Command had just released news that Russia's use of FPV attack drones has increased by forty per cent over the last few days. Still, we are off to an artillery unit on the frontline, and they will only take us in under cover of dark as Russians shell the position daily.

After an hour, we swap vehicles, leave the tarmac road and head off through the rough fields for thirty more minutes. We stop, and then a lone figure with a shaded red torch bundles us out of the vehicles down some muddy steps cut into the bare earth. In total darkness, we pull aside a blanket hung from roughly cut pine logs covered in earth that make up the roof. After another blanket, we stand blinking in the dim strip of LED light strung from the roof.

The crew await a fire mission in their bunker carved into the stony earth. Photo: Paul Conroy

The underground room cut deep into the rocky soil is approximately 5x5 m square. There are four camp beds crammed into the space. Gunners, sound asleep and wrapped in military sleeping bags, occupy two of the beds; two others put down their phones and stand to greet us as we enter. Dima and Styopa, both in their late thirties, unshaven with red-rimmed eyes, look exhausted.

The noise of our arrival wakes the sleeping soldiers, and we meet Sasha and Andriy as they emerge from their cocoons. In his early twenties, Andriy is the youngest member of the guns crew. All four hail from the Odesa region, and except for Andriy, they have been together since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Dima and Sasha have served together since the start of the full-scale invasion. Photo: Paul Conroy