Chronicle: How Ukraine is fighting to save its country four years after Russian invasion
My family split around the world through war. 11 of my children in the front line, 2 of my children killed. Torn apart as Ukraine fights to save its country 4 years since the Russian invasion. Exclusive coverage from the war front and stories from the troops only on KETV’s chronicle winter of war. This week marked 4 years since Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine. Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have fled. I’m Kunisa Frazer. Thanks for joining us. KETV’s Capitol bureau chief John Grenwald took an independent trip, returning to the war-torn country in December. We’ll speak with him today along with Colonel Tom Brewer about their experience on the front lines, but first we take you there to help you understand the human experience 4 years in. Darkness swallows much of the days of December, and Russian attacks on the energy grid threatens what little light remains. The solemn skies mirror the morbid lives beneath. For Chaplain Gennady Mokhnenko, it’s the pang of displacement. He escaped the surrounded city of Mariupol with the orphans in his care just before the Russian hammer fell. Now my family split around the world. 11 of my children in the front line, 2 of my children killed. Now the wastelands of war, shattered fields and concrete teeth stretched across *** kill zone stand between him and his city. Just one more time. I want it back to my home. So many people who are now in Mariupol whose life was destroyed. Yet fragile lights still glow from Ukrainian communities, even in far flung areas near the front. In Slovyansk on Ukraine’s embattled eastern edge, *** park glimmers in the gloom. This family brought here for work on an evening stroll just 15 kilometers from the killing fields, it stirs up hope for the holidays. This soldier gliding on roller skates. Finds escape here. You have to remember that humanity in yourself. Remember who you were before all this started. This family too. The 1 year and 2 month old Makar is *** child of war. It’s Makar’s father’s first steps away from the front lines in weeks. This park completely surrounded by the unmistakable marks of war, the Ukrainian army is digging in all across. Donbass for *** hard winter fight. You can see earthworks like this all across the fortress belt where the Russians are pushing the hardest. In the nearby city of Kramatorsk, the way is blocked. *** Russian glide bomb cleaved through an apartment building. How many children they killed every day? How many families killed through this war? The air fills with the smell of gas. Water gushes like blood from the blown apart building. The strike takes out part of the power in this frigid city, just one of many similar attacks while I’m there. Instead of just celebrating with your family, you have to watch out for the sky and watch for the rockets and bombs. So near the front, the soldiers and civilians living here know each day is *** gamble, and that the shower of light. Like their lives is temperamental. Who knows, maybe last time. Yet through this fourth winter of war, many still cling to hope. Light will win, no darkness, but when and at what cost? those questions still shrouded on the edge of 9. Reporting for KATV News Watch 7. I’m John Grunwalds. Life for civilians in war-torn Ukraine is *** daily struggle, and as the embattled country’s electrical grid continues to buckle, light in this cold winter can be fleeting, but John shows us how people in the capital city have learned to carry on. In bleak December, the sky falls on Ukraine first as fog. And then as *** furious hail of drones and missiles just getting worse and worse and harder and harder. An almost monotonous cycle of sirens and bomb blasts, nightly explosions and attacks, and having no electricity during the day and then going back again into *** hard night. Former Nebraska state senator Tom Brewer has toured the war-torn streets and trenches of Ukraine. Eight separate times now, but always in the blossoming spring or heat of summer. This time it’s changed. You can see that there is, and you can feel it’s just *** war fatigue and that the people, they still want to win the war. They don’t want to give up. But it’s showing former Nebraska agricultural leader Don Hutchins was here last April, and he feels that too. The clock is ticking *** little faster than it was *** year ago. Signs of that fatigue in the center of Kiev. *** large demonstration circles Independence Square. Mothers, daughters, sisters, sons, and brothers searching for answers about their loved ones. They say the battalions their loved ones fought in won’t give details. So they’re left to wonder. Mourning without closure, not even the cold comfort of *** coffin. Near them, memories of the fallen spill across *** green space. The pain of all the losses has taken *** toll on just day to day. folks, and you see this in Kiev, so you know that as you get closer to the Eastern Front, it’s even stronger. It’s become *** place for public grief, representing the thousands of lives taken by war. This memorial has grown significantly since I was here in April. Flags of nations across the world, including the United States. What is so moving to me is the photographs. The photographs of young men. That we’ll never have the opportunity to be married or have *** family. By day, Kiev is *** mix of morning and moseying through shopping malls. By night it’s noisy. Hauntingly quiet as curfew strips the streets bare while others sleep, teams of people work to keep the skies clear. For me, the more important question is how can I not do this. For Dmitro it’s duty. He has *** normal day job in security and then he reports to the top of *** high rise *** few nights each week manning *** machine gun. Usually they’re without power, so it’s *** long way up the stairs. He shoots down deadly hahed drones as they glide toward apartments. It’s the most popular direction, but for me it’s more like. I know that this haven’t killed *** few families just outside Kiev, an orphanage we visited last spring. Child of Light cruises toward completion. In the first days of the war, Russian soldiers actually occupied the area. This could have been destruction. Now it’s *** place where there’s healing. There’s *** future ahead. The final hurdle the orphanage had to clear was the construction of this government approved bomb shelter, underscoring the continuing danger of the war, but also the security this place will bring to children. It will take in dozens of children. Whose families have been shattered by the war and the people organizing and fundraising for it live right here in Nebraska. Leaving this place, they will have this light burning very strongly inside of them, and they will go and light up other parts of this country with that light. Reporting for KATV News Watch 7, I’m John Grunwald. Next on KETV News Watch Seven’s Chronicle, we sit down with John Grenwald and Colonel Tom Brewer to talk about their experiences on the front lines. You just know if you don’t kill them, they kill someone else, and that’s all. You don’t think er about their wife, their mothers. We have the work to do. Plus fighting *** war as technology changes, John embeds with *** drone pilot for *** night operation. To put *** hold.
Chronicle: How Ukraine is fighting to save its country four years after Russian invasion
Families torn apart as Ukraine fights to save its country four years after the Russian invasion. See exclusive coverage from the warfront and stories from the troops only on KETV’s Chronicle: Winter of War. This week marked four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have fled.KETV’s Capital Bureau Chief John Grinvalds took an independent trip, returning to the war-torn country in December.Grinvalds and Col. Tom Brewer shared their experience on the front lines.Part 1: in the video player abovePart 2: Part 3:
Families torn apart as Ukraine fights to save its country four years after the Russian invasion.
See exclusive coverage from the warfront and stories from the troops only on KETV’s Chronicle: Winter of War.
This week marked four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have fled.
KETV’s Capital Bureau Chief John Grinvalds took an independent trip, returning to the war-torn country in December.
Grinvalds and Col. Tom Brewer shared their experience on the front lines.
Part 1: in the video player above
Part 2:
Part 3: