12/10/2025

As Ukraine negotiates a peace agreement with the U.S., soldiers on the ground face a different reality: holding the line with shrinking infantry numbers and almost no rotation. For nearly six months, two Ukrainian soldiers, Oleksandr Tishaiev and Oleksandr Aliksieienko, were trapped in the same battered position on the Zaporizhzhia front, unable to rotate as Russian drones monitored every path in and out. The Kyiv Independent’s Kateryna Hodunova spoke with the two soldiers about surviving attacks, going days without food and water, relying entirely on drones for supplies, and finally escaping after 165 days at the position.

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