Ukraine

Meet Ukraine's mobile tank repair unit operating on the frontline

Meet Ukraine's mobile tank repair unit.

Members of this Ukrainian army unit travel along the Donbas frontline in the country's east, responding to radio calls from battle groups requesting regular maintenance, a quick fix or breakdown recovery.

"We are like nomads – we move from one place to another," said 23-year-old Serhii, an armoured recovery vehicle driver and mechanic.

Nearly five months since Russia's 24 February invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have recently stepped up operations in the Donbas region, the key battleground in the east.

Twenty-year-old Petro, a mechanic and armoured recovery driver, said: "The Russians are more aggressive now. It feels like they are firing with closed eyes, they shell everything.

"Before, they at least tried to hit certain targets, but now they are much more aggressive," the serviceman added.

"There are many of them, but we will manage, we have no other option."

Watch: What are the 'shoot and scoot' tactics being used by Ukrainian forces?

Petro first joined the unit in the early days of the war when his hometown of Chernihiv, a town in northern Ukraine that was home to about 285,000 people before the conflict, was heavily shelled.

"It is hard to drive on the armoured recovery vehicle and tow a tank behind on the streets where I used to walk with a girlfriend just a month ago," he said.