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Report
FRANCE 24 Exclusive - 'When leaders talk about a ceasefire, soldiers don't believe it at all'
FRANCE 24 English
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3/27/2025
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Transcript
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00:00
senior reporter Catherine Norris Trent is awaiting us part of a team traveling
00:04
through Ukraine and reporting on all the things that are happening which must I
00:08
think Catherine make talk of truth really hard to believe to those people
00:13
who you're meeting where you are and all across Ukraine this Thursday well that's
00:22
correct not once again I mean I feel like it I'm repeating myself when I go
00:26
live with the channel every night there's another wave of deadly attack
00:30
drones flying across Ukraine tonight we've had air raid sirens here in
00:34
Harkiv but it seems tonight that several Shahed drones are centering on the city
00:41
of Zaporizhia in southeast Ukraine there so they are coming in for massive attack
00:46
and we can imagine that the air defense systems the air defense teams are
00:51
working hard to try and shoot them down we've met some of those in recent days
00:55
and they've been telling us that they've been relying a lot on American
00:58
equipment so you could only imagine what would happen if that equipment were to
01:03
suddenly disappear as a result of any future negotiations people here look on
01:09
the conferences in the rest of the world the flurry of diplomacy surrounding them
01:13
and they look at it with a lot of skepticism and a lot of fatigue they
01:18
don't think the help is going to come fast enough to them and they're very
01:21
distrustful of outside powers negotiating about their future but I
01:26
want to take you now mark to the troops of eastern Ukraine in the Donbass where
01:31
there is still despite this limited ceasefire which is apparently been
01:36
negotiated despite both sides claiming there have been breaches there is still
01:40
a fierce war raging on the front lines and that is where my colleague James
01:46
Andre filmed in the truth in the trenches there with the troops of an
01:51
artillery brigade and when they hear talk of a ceasefire they don't believe
01:55
it at all from a new dugout in the Donbass a Ukrainian artillery unit is
02:01
setting up they're adjusting a 1970s American made m109 Paladin hidden in the
02:13
treeline the night before it's old equipment but the men say it's reliable
02:18
for them this battle is existential I have children and I don't want them to
02:31
live under Russia a ceasefire fall fall yes partial no at 640 a.m. they get to
02:50
work another long day of pounding Russian positions has begun this is the
02:57
front line near the city of Prokhorov an important logistics hub for months
03:02
fierce fighting has been raging here the Ukrainians battling to stave off a
03:07
Russian advance five Ukrainian soldiers position day in day out command sends in
03:15
coordinates they swing into action logging 48 kilo shells and firing wave
03:20
after wave most of these men had no choice but to fight they were mobilized
03:48
two of them are over 50 they're exhausted and demoralized I just want to
03:55
go home it has to end soon so we can go are you tired of course I'm tired the
04:07
main threat lancet drones but it is what it is that's war I hope it ends
04:19
soon but honestly with our government I can't see an end to it I don't want to
04:25
think about it you don't really do much about them you could show their tree
04:45
cover doesn't provide much of a hiding place so whenever a drone flies overhead
04:50
the men's shelter in their rudimentary living quarters dug below ground the
05:04
most important for us is that the enemy doesn't spot our position if they do our
05:09
chances of survival are slim this alert over its back out to the firing line the
05:19
unit will stay here for a maximum of two weeks to avoid being spotted then
05:26
deploy elsewhere as the war rumbles on
05:31
now you might have thought you heard a lot of artillery fire in that report but
05:37
let me tell you on the day that our team went filming there around 50 shells were
05:43
fired at that front line at very intensive front line near the city of
05:47
Pokrovsk and that tells you something because we know that the Ukrainian
05:51
government has been constantly asking for more ammunition supplies so if
05:55
they're using that much ammunition in a battlefield that means the fighting is
06:00
intense what's happening here is that Ukraine desperately wants to stop any
06:05
Russian troops try and push them back if they can they have they say gained a
06:10
little bit of territory there in recent weeks before any negotiations especially
06:15
involving Putin the Trump administration freeze those front lines
06:18
for who knows how long
06:22
after Norris Trent with our team reporting there in Ukraine thank you
06:26
very much indeed
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