<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">On the front line south of the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, a 40-year-old combat medic nicknamed "Doc" is preparing to mark the six-month anniversary of Russia's invasion in a trench.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>"You need to be prepared for the fact that this could last a long time," said Doc, whose owlish eyebrows poke out from under his camouflage helmet.</div><div><br></div><div>"There are lots of tears, lots of blood. You cry in your heart," said the medic -- a dental technician in civilian life.</div><div><br></div><div>"The history of generations is being destroyed."</div><div><br></div><div>In a subterranean bunker complex, surrounded by rusted tank traps and thronging with stray cats and dogs, his comrades spoon down piping hot bowls of hearty soup.</div><div><br></div><div>At the head of the table sits a man with an arm tattoo reading "never give up" in cursive script.</div><div><br></div><div>"Six months of war is not only a great grief for the country, it is also a small grief for each person personally," said 41-year-old soldier Mykola, sitting to his left.</div><div><br></div><div>The battalion's deputy commander Artem, 30, said: "We've informed our soldiers that the conflict could drag on for years."</div><div><br></div><div>Russia launched its assault on February 24, attempting to seize the Ukrainian capital in a lightning offensive.</div><div><br></div><div>Kyiv's forces put up stiff resistance, forcing a Russian retreat before the war shifted to the eastern Donbas region.</div><div><br></div><div>In recent weeks the focus has moved to southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces say they are preparing a counter-offensive.</div><div><br></div><div>Asked during a visit to Odessa about hopes for the future, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres closed his eyes, slowed his words, and spoke of a "very difficult situation, where the prospects for peace are not obvious".</div><div><br></div><div>A third front</div><div>In Mykolaiv, the war now seems like nothing new.</div><div><br></div><div>Wartime billboards have been soddening in the winter, torn by the blusters of spring, and bleached in the savage summer heat.</div><div><br></div><div>Checkpoint sandbags have split their seams and sprouted weeds.</div><div><br></div><div>In the opening weeks of the war, a Russian missile punched a hole in the regional government HQ, killing 37.</div><div><br></div><div>The gaping hole is now one of many scars in the port hub's skyline as the city remains under incessant shelling.</div><div><br></div><div>The Petro Mohyla Black Sea State University was struck twice last week.</div><div><br></div><div>The front entrance was blown apart, ceiling panels torn down, and windows shattered into mosaic pieces of glass.</div><div><br></div><div>The facade's collapse revealed classrooms within.</div><div><br></div><div>"They attack schools, hospitals, the port and the city's infrastructure," said rector Leonid Klymenko, inside a gutted study hall.</div><div><br></div><div>"It is clear that they want to completely destroy Ukraine's education (system), destroy the Ukrainian spirit, destroy everything Ukrainian."</div><div><br></div><div>Path for peace?</div><div>As the war approaches its seventh month, there are some scant signs of progress.</div><div><br></div><div>The UN and Turkey have brokered a landmark grain deal which is seeing Russia relax a blockade on Ukraine's southern Black Sea ports, allowing grain shipments to sail and ease a global food price crisis.</div><div><br></div><div>On Friday, Guterres toured a port in the city of Odessa to hail the fresh pact.</div><div><br></div><div>But the visit was overshadowed by swirling concerns around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, elsewhere in Ukraine's south, occupied by Russian troops and under fire by rockets.</div><div><br></div><div>"It will not be easy to find a path for peace in the short term," Guterres told AFP.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>"But we must persist because peace is the most important good in the world." - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>