Soldiers expect Moscow to launch summer offensive and dismiss US efforts to bring peace as ‘pretty disappointing’

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From a line of trees the Ukrainian gun team prepared to fire. An artilleryman, Yurii, loaded a 152mm shell into an old Soviet-made howitzer. “We are ready!” Yurii said. He moved away from the barrel. “Fire!” the unit’s commander replied. There was an almighty boom.

White smoke filled the dugout, which was hidden beneath camouflage nets and cut pine branches. From the undergrowth, a chiffchaff resumed its spring warbling.