It feels more like the early 20th century than a modern conflict, with tired, nervous soldiers grabbing their guns as they reach open ground, scouring the area for movement through no man’s land.
They know snipers, probably trained by Russians, say Ukrainian officials are looking for an opportunity to shoot. More than 20 of their comrades have already been shot this year.
It’s eerily quiet with the occasional gunshot shot in the distance shattering the peace and keeping everyone on their toes.
This area near Mariupol is a risky place for a country’s president to visit, but that doesn’t stop Zelensky from granting CNN unprecedented access to his journey to the front lines where he insists on moving to the most forward-thinking positions.
“When I visit a military base, the men on the front will hear about it and think I’ve forgotten them,” Zelensky told CNN in exclusive comments for two days. “They need to know they have political support.”
Strapped into a camouflage body armor and helmet, Zelensky must sprint across the open ground with presidential security to reach the trench cover.
New boiling point in long distance
The brutal conflict in Eastern Ukraine, between government forces and Russian-backed separatists, has been in a tense stalemate for years. Major battles, which have claimed thousands of lives since 2014, have given way to a crushing deadlock. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, fighting broke out in the neighboring Donbas region – another mainly Russian-speaking area of Ukraine with rebels demanding independence from Kiev.
But amid growing tensions with the United States and its Western allies, Russian troops have once again been spotted crossing the border, sparking concerns that the war could rekindle.
Cell phone video has appeared of Russian armored columns driving towards the Ukrainian border. Tanks and artillery guns were transported by rail. Growth has also been reported in Crimea.
In Moscow, the Kremlin says the troop movements are taking place in Russia, part of a planned military exercise and not a threat.
But on the front line, the Ukrainian president told CNN that a Russian invasion is a very real possibility that his country is bracing for.
“Of course. We know, as of 2014 we know it could be any day,” he said.
“They are ready, but we are also ready because we are on our land and territory,” he told CNN.
Lieutenant General Ruslan Khomchak, Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told CNN that an estimated 50,000 Russian troops have now gathered across the Russian border and into Crimea. In addition, there are at least 35,000 Russian-backed separatists in rebel-held areas of Ukraine, he said.
Even before this current troubling increase in the number of troops under Moscow’s command on the doorstep of Ukraine, Zelensky called on the US to sell weapons such as Javelin anti-tank missiles. Those weapons have now been delivered, especially in a phone conversation with then-President Donald Trump.
Swinging into the future
From the sky, above the muddy trenches, the seemingly endless flatness of Eastern Ukraine is punctuated by battered cities and the rusting industrial hulks of the Soviet-era factories that made this war-ravaged region the economic backbone of Ukraine.
Military helicopters, deafening old MI-8s first developed during the Soviet era, painted in unnaturally vivid camouflage, fly fast and low over the countryside to avoid ground fire. Every few minutes they meander up to hare trees or power lines, then quickly dive back down to within three feet of the ground.
Aboard the aging presidential helicopter, which retains some degree of worn-out comfort, Zelensky exclaims over the engine noise that the US is a ‘good friend’ of Ukraine, but that President Biden must ‘do more’ to deter Russia and help to end this conflict.
More weapons, more money to fight and, crucially, more support for joining NATO, the Western military alliance where an attack on one member forces everyone to respond, he explained.
“If she [the US] See Ukraine in NATO, they have to say it directly and do it. Not words, ”Zelensky told CNN.
But this is unlikely, given concerns that Ukraine would move closer to NATO membership, provoke Moscow, potentially sparking a wider conflict.
“Maybe you are right,” replies Zelensky.
‘But what’s going on now? What are we doing here? What are our people doing here? They fight. ‘
On the front line, Zelensky led a minute of silence for the fallen.
With or without NATO, this is the reality of his country. Ukraine is at war.
CNN’s Zahra Ullah and Jasmine Wright contributed to this story.