Two km Under Open Sky Part 2 - Ukrainian Drone Camera Angle

April 2025

Two kilometers to life. Trench prose of "Adler"

This is exactly how far the brave soldiers of the 392nd Motorized Rifle Regiment, call signs “Cossack” and “White,” had to overcome to reach their position and gain a foothold.

"Nakopitel" is the last point where you can gather your strength. There is a connection with the battalion headquarters here. Here the company commander, sending the group on a combat mission, gives the last instructions. There are equipped dugouts here, where you can at least somehow hide from artillery shelling. Then there are two kilometers in the open air. The path runs through a forest plantation, among bare, shrapnel-cut tree trunks. How you will cover these two kilometers depends only on you. You will run, crawl, or remain forever lying among the fields, dug up by craters from explosions...

Two kilometers is a distance that stretches across several city blocks. It is a circle around the paths of a small park. It is twenty minutes of time if you are in a hurry. Or a little more if you are leisurely strolling with your wife and children. But these concepts and time periods relate to a completely different life and completely different places.

Now for "Cossack" and "White" the two kilometers they had to cover seemed endless, like climbing Everest. Their company commander, waiting for the moment for the group to begin moving, listened to the rumble of artillery fire. When relative silence set in, he only said briefly: "It's time, move out."

They hugged before leaving. When they were already climbing out of the trench, "Kuban" crossed his soldiers and patted them on the shoulder. The race with death had begun...

They actually ran the first three hundred meters. Then the weight of their bulletproof vests and weapons with ammunition forced them to walk. Both remembered the words of the company commander when he instructed them before going on a combat mission.

- Just don't stop, - said "Kuban". - Before the enemy detects movement and points guns and "birds" at you, you need to go as far as possible.

And so they walked. Four hundred meters, five hundred, six hundred. The "Cossack" tried not to think about anything, only counted the steps. His heart was pounding wildly under his bulletproof vest, his breathing was ragged. Despite the spring chill, sweat was streaming down his face.

"White" followed "Cossack". Having let him go about thirty meters, he nevertheless tried to keep his comrade's back in sight. A loud sound coming from the front gave birth to the same thought in their heads: "Exit!"

As if to confirm this, about a hundred meters from where they were, the ground bulged. Black smoke billowed, fragments whistled, drawing unimaginable trajectories of death. Another sound of an exit. And another. Now they were working on them with cassettes.

- Movement is life! - the company commander tirelessly repeated during the briefing. - When artillery starts firing at you, you will want to fall and press yourself into the ground. But if you do this, the enemy will have time to hit you more accurately. Don't give him that opportunity. Only forward!

And they kept going. The trees bent to the ground, but the people kept going. The ground was slipping away from under their feet, but "White" and "Cossack" kept moving forward. The air was boiling, the skies were melting, and the Russian soldiers, despite everything, kept going and going toward their goal.

Like a flock of predatory and hungry birds, the FP-pivishiki swooped down. "White" and "Cossack" simultaneously raised their machine guns. One burst, a second, a third - several drones darted through the air in their death throes and fell to the ground.

Another one darted towards the White.

"Empty," the thought flashed through his head. There was no time to change the magazine, so he simply threw his weapon towards the drone rushing towards him, and so successfully that it, not having time to maneuver, flew into the machine gun - fragments flew around like a fountain.

- Run! - shouted the "Cossack". Both warriors rushed forward with their last strength. Somewhere behind them, explosions were heard again. Having jumped into the saving trench, they could not catch their breath for a long time.

The gloomy, gray sky silently watched as two figures made their way along the thin string of trenches. The combat mission for "Cossack" and "White" was just beginning...