Ukrainian soldiers play soccer just miles from the front line as grueling counteroffensive continues
CBSN
News crews can't show the bomb craters and shrapnel-scarred buildings that surround Ukraine's most secretive soccer field. Sharing its location risks giving away the game to Russian spotters.
As Ukrainian forces continue a long-awaited counteroffensive against their Russian invaders, some soldiers have found a small but welcome reprieve from the constant strain of battle with this soccer game, played on a field just a few miles from the front lines.
The area was even hit by Russian fire on the same day CBS News reporters visited. That hasn't scared away the Kupiansk Battalion of the Kharkiv Territorial Defense Brigade, hardened warriors who have fought some of the most brutal combat missions in the war, including on the battlefields of Bakhmut.
