Russia-Ukraine war latest updates – The Washington Post

Crossing Ukraine’s armored curtain to deliver people, and toilet paper. Steve Hendrix and Ievgeniia Sivorka report from Kamiyanske, Ukraine: “Oleksander hates pulling into this abandoned Ukrainian village on the Dnieper River, one of the only portals into Russian-occupied territories to the east. When he passes the last Ukrainian flag, flapping next to a bombed-out gas station, he knows that he’s about to encounter the first Russian checkpoint and that the soldiers will question him, check his phone for anti-Russian memes and examine his body for military tattoos. Sometimes they threaten to shoot him.

‘This car has been hit three times,’ he said, pointing out the patch of tape over a shrapnel hole in the door of his tattered white Ford Transit van. ‘Nothing good happens when you get [inside Russian-controlled territory]. My smile fades as soon I go in this direction.’

Oleksander — whom The Post is identifying only by his first name to protect him from Russian scrutiny — is one of the few Ukrainians who spend time on both sides of the line separating enemy armies. He is among just a handful of couriers willing to cross the militarized armored curtain, passing back-and-forth through this carefully controlled no man’s land with tense cooperation from troops on both sides.”

John Hudson, Marisa Iati and Praveena Somasundaram contributed to this report.