NEAR KREMINNA, Ukraine - The sound of artillery dropping and landing along the front line pierces the stillness of the forest a few miles away, where combat medics wait to receive the wounded.
On the horizon, a military vehicle rolls down a dusty road, screeching to a stop as it reaches the trees.
A soldier named Valentyn parks it there for natural camouflage from Russian drones scouting Ukrainian military positions.
A group of visibly shaken soldiers quickly unload three bodies that have just been recovered from the front line, placing each one in a
plastic body bag
and zipping it shut.
Their position was bombed and then attacked by a drone, they say.
"They're shooting at you from all sides. You turn, you run, they hit you, and it's impossible to escape," said Maksym, who survived the attack.
"It's a great tragedy for us."
"There is one more corpse with the Russian soldiers," he added.
While much of the world's attention has been riveted on the bloody urban battle taking place in
Bakhmut
, Russia's campaign in eastern Ukraine is also wreaking havoc in forests and fields some 50 miles north of the city, near from Kreminna.
Here, soldiers take up positions in trenches surrounded by tall, spindly trees, crouching to avoid the direct line of sight of their Russian enemies.
"People say Bakhmut is tough," says Valentyn, who joined the army seven months ago.
"But it's hard here, too."
For the past month, Valentyn has been stationed at this evacuation point, traveling from one side of the front line to the other almost daily to rescue wounded soldiers and recover the dead.
His job requires him to drive directly into Russian forces, and he has come under fire at times.
"There's nothing good about it," Valentyn says.
"What is this war for?"
Ukrainian and Russian military officials have been reluctant to disclose
casualty data for their ranks
, although US government and military experts estimate that both sides have suffered significant losses in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
For Valentyn, the job of responding to casualties has been both grim and relentless.
"There's blood everywhere," he says as he wipes it off his vehicle.
"It smells bad. Especially fresh blood."
Bright red liquid ran between her fingers as she rinsed a bloody cloth.
He wrung out the cloth and used it again to clean the back seat.
"It's hard to watch young guys die," Valentyn said.
"Sometimes
I cry in silence
."
In quieter moments, when there is no one to evacuate, Valentyn ventures into the forest to transport soldiers to and from the line of contact, where Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are sometimes only hundreds of meters apart.
He says that at least one group of soldiers was unable to reach his position because Russian troops had already taken it.
"Every day here is
scary
," said Viktor, a soldier who returned with Valentyn.
"I feel constant anxiety, for our country and for our lives."
His stoic face reflected the fear and horror known only to those who had witnessed the fight in the forest.
"Those who haven't been there will never understand."
c.2023 The New York Times Company
