Defense Minister says Ukraine is preparing for possible Russian invasion from Belarus

Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov tells CNN Ukraine is preparing in case the Russians invade from Belarus again. He says they urgently need more weapons, anti-tank systems, more advanced missile defense. “We are not afraid of them,” says the Captain Dimitri. “We don’t expect them to come here, but if they do, we’ll be ready.” These soldiers are constantly rehearsing, ready at a moment’s notice. Do you think the Russians are going to try to come again? “Let them try,” says Igor. Before the war, he repaired sewing machines. Now, he drives this. How quickly can you get guys to the trenches if you need to? “It will be very fast,” he says. They started building these trenches in early April, reinforcing them ever since, getting ready for the Russians. They overpowered Ukrainian defenses at the start of the war. Six weeks and thousands of deaths nationwide later, soldiers from this battalion helped force them out. Was there ever a point where it was overwhelming, where you thought, we can’t do this, we can’t fight them off? “I never felt like that,” says Serhiy, “Because I know there is no way back. We have families at home, we have children.” He says that 2,500 Russian vehicles actually passed right down this road. Now, we are driving down the same road to a bridge near the border, well within Russian artillery range. When the Russians invaded more than nine months ago, they just drove down this road, right over this bridge. But now, the bridge has been rigged with explosives. And these swamplands, which are frozen over, are full of mines. When the first convoy of an estimated 30,000 Russians came in February, the Ukrainians were unprepared and outnumbered, 6:1. Now, like soldiers from a century ago, they hunker down in the trenches, waiting for whatever comes down the road.