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Fortunately it was foggy or the Russians would have engaged him directly as he zigzagged across a bombed-out field on the Ukrainian side of Bakhmut. But the weather was favorable to the Bernese photographer Alex Kühni (41). Putin’s soldiers on the positions three kilometers further north did not detect him – and the shrapnel, which rained down like deadly rain every 20 seconds, only drilled into the muddy fields: “In the run-up, you have a thousand thoughts about safety,” says Kuehni. “And then you get up front and throw all your fears overboard.”
The front is Kühni’s workshop. Again and again he grabs his photo backpack, puts on his helmet and goggles, puts on his body armor and goes to where the world is on fire. He started it twelve years ago. He photographed the war in Iraq, experienced the terror of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria up close and documented the course of the civil war in the Philippines.
“Ukraine is different from all those other wars,” says Kühni. Two days ago he returned from the battlefields in Donbass. Now he is sitting in a café in Bern. “In Iraq and Syria you knew that the mortars of the IS terrorists could reach a maximum of three kilometers. That way you could retreat comfortably at a safe distance and eat pizza. » In Ukraine, however, nowhere is safe: long-range missiles and artillery shells can hit any point . At all times.
«Swiss politicians have to go to the Donbass»
And all too often they hit apartment buildings. Like a few days ago in the Donbass city of Sloviansk. 14 people were killed, including a three-year-old child. Kühni was there: “After the attack, this child’s grandmother stood sobbing next to the bombed-out house for days after the attack, totally despairing over the death of her grandson.”
Ukraine has too few weapons to protect itself against missile terror. The German Gepard tanks would be ideal for taking missiles out of the sky. “The fact that Switzerland prohibits Germany from supplying Ukraine with cheetah ammunition produced in this country is a huge problem at the front.”
Officers spoke to him about it several times. “They cannot understand the Swiss attitude of refusal.” Perhaps, says Kühni, Swiss politicians should pay a visit to the Donbass to understand the brutal suffering the Russians are inflicting there.
The Ukrainians pin their hopes on a much-discussed counter-offensive. When and where exactly it comes from, it is hardly recognizable on the spot, says the man from Bern. “I saw more military vehicles on the axis between the cities of Dnipro and Kramatorsk than between Kiev and Kharkiv in the north. If I had to guess, I would think of a Ukrainian attack in the southeast.”
Not a trace of war-weariness
Everyone in the war zone is clear: the confusion of the autumn, when Ukraine speculated loudly and at length about the liberation of the Black Sea city of Cherson and then liberated huge areas around Kharkov on the other side of the country, will do no good. second time.
He is not a military strategist, says Kühni. But when the veteran war photographer, who had once been an officer in the Swiss army, scrolls through a map of the Donbass on his mobile phone, he knows every hill, every valley, every village in the disputed territories. “I suspect an attack on several fronts between the northern Donbass and the southern city of Zaporizhia. After maybe a week, Ukraine will decide which direction is promising and go for it.”
Kühni absolutely believes that the Ukrainians can win. “Since the outbreak of the war, I have been to the country four times. The soldiers have never been more motivated than they are now.” A year ago there was a lot of uncertainty. “They didn’t know if they could resist the Russian superiority. Now they realize: you can even push them back.”
An execution video changes the rules of the game
And there is something different from a year ago, says Kühni. The recent video showing the beheading of a Ukrainian prisoner of war by a Russian fighter has stirred the hearts of soldiers at the front. There used to be such a thing as chivalry in war. “If you hit a tank and the crew runs away, you didn’t shoot them in the back. It’s a matter of honor,” a commander told him. Today he’s going all out. No mercy for these monsters!
And Kuhni? Will be teaching at the Bern School of Design for the next few weeks. Inwardly, however, he is already being drawn back to the battlefields in Donbass. “History is being written there.” Unfortunately, probably for a while.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
