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The soldiers are fighting desperately to keep the Russian villages along the border.
The order is to hold out until Donald Trump takes over the White House.
The conquered land will then be used in negotiations, writes the BBC.
Little by little, the area under Ukrainian control on Russian soil is shrinking.
After the unexpected storming across the border in August, a number of communities in the border region of Kursk have been retaken by Russian troops.
The BBC has been in touch with a number of Ukrainian soldiers participating in the defense of the captured border villages.
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A Ukrainian soldier at the front.
1 / 2Photo: AP
Waiting for Trump
They are now revealing their orders from the military leadership.
The soldiers must hold out as best they can on Russian territory until January 20, when Donald Trump once again takes over the White House.
“Our main task is to hold as much territory as possible until Trump is installed and negotiations can begin,” writes one of the soldiers to the BBC.
“The idea is that it should be able to be exchanged for something else. No one knows what”.
Trump has said a number of times that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he were still president.
He has also said that he can resolve the conflict in 24 hours.
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A house burns after a Russian attack on the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.
1 / 2Photo: AP
The situation worse
The Ukrainian soldiers the BBC has been in contact with are not optimistic about their chances of defending captured land from falling back into Russian hands.
“Their tone is dark and angry,” writes the television channel about its contacts with the soldiers over Telegram.
The soldiers write to the BBC that the situation is getting worse day by day.
That the weather conditions are difficult. That they suffer from chronic sleep problems due to the constant shelling by the Russians. And that they were forced to retreat.
“This trend will continue. It is only a matter of time,” writes one of the soldiers.
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full screen A Russian sniper near the front. Photo: AP
“Don’t need these forests”
Ukraine has so far lost around 40 percent of the ground it captured during this summer’s invasion across the border.
“The key now is not to conquer, but to hold on. And we struggle quite a bit with it,” writes one soldier.
Regardless of the Russian areas as a possible bargaining chip, several of the soldiers in Kursk think they are in the wrong place. They would rather participate in the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“Our place should have been there, not here in someone else’s country,” writes one of the soldiers.
“We don’t need these forests in Kursk where we lost so many comrades”.