“This is my luxury apartment,” jokes Andrei, a 22-year-old member of the 35th Marine Brigade, as he shows EL PAÍS the hole that he uses to protect himself from shelling. Photo by Luis de Vega

RUSSIAN WAR IN UKRAINE

As Ukrainians liberated Staromaiorske, soldiers spent a month fighting alongside bodies of their enemies

EL PAÍS accompanied the 35th Ukrainian Marine Artillery Brigade, shortly before its soldiers retook the town on the southern front of the Donetsk province

LUIS DE VEGA
Donetsk southern front - JUL 29, 2023 - 11:00 COT

For a month, the body of a Russian soldier was lying less than a dozen feet away from a Ukrainian army position. During this time, the group of men from the 35th Ukrainian Marine Artillery Brigade kept on shooting. They were south of the Donetsk province, at the gates of the Zaporizhzhia region. Their persistence was ultimately rewarded with the liberation of the town of Staromaiorske, which happened this past Thursday. The victory took place two days after the special envoy from EL PAÍS accompanied the soldiers to the front. For several weeks, Kyiv hadn’t been able to regain control of enclaves in this area.