Best Documentary
Ukraine: Inside The Counteroffensive 🇷🇺 🇺🇦
They have weapons in their hands and rage in their stomachs.Comiti Charles, de Poortere Arthur
Since June 2023, Ukrainian soldiers have participated in a deadly counter-offensive.
Despite the use of modern equipment, financed by many Western countries, territorial gains are rare. And the Russian army is holding on.
As surprising as it may seem, this conflict is first and foremost a war of position. Where the belligerents face each other in trenches, like in 1914.
For months, our reporter Charles Comiti has been documenting this conflict through the eyes of two young soldiers: Plombyr, 24 years old and Sergei, 29 years old who belong to the Arey battalion. Since February 22, 2022, this former business student and this former history teacher have been in all the battles and on all fronts. At the end of winter, Charles Comiti was able to spend ten days with them, as close as possible to the fighting, holed up in a trench from another war.
A few hundred meters from the front line, these soldiers are caught daily under a deluge of fire. And faced with the power of the enemy, they lack everything: food, weapons and ammunition. If they resist, it is thanks to their knowledge of the terrain and their determination.
This immersion by Charles Comiti is an exceptional testimony to a conflict that takes place over time with, sometimes, paltry means.
Directors: Charles Comiti, Arthur de Poortere
Published Sep 26, 2023