In the snow-covered fields of Eastern Europe, hundreds of thousands of soldiers face each other in bitter cold trenches and shell-shattered buildings, preparing for war.

Many are invisible, camouflaged, heavily armed and hidden behind anti-sniper nets, huddled behind abandoned buildings and exchanging fire, mortar shells or artillery shells.

After months of tension, they know they could be just a few barked words over the radio from a tsunami of armored violence as Europe tumbles into bloody conflict.

The Three Sisters monument, in the no man’s land stretched between Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, proudly celebrates the friendship between the three countries since 1975.

We visited it, near the village of Senkivka in northern Ukraine, and found ourselves in a stateless no man’s land the size of two football fields, sadly now a symbol of illusory peace.

A Kyiv monument celebrating friendship with Moscow was destroyed last year and, tragically, the one we see now could be blasted to pieces and trampled under tanks within hours.

The Three Sisters’ visit is eerily quiet and eerie, as many believe the Kremlin could order a thunderbolt through Belarus, deep into Ukraine, hitting Kiev.

And a few kilometers to the north, we learned today, a staggering 80,000 Russian and Belarusian troops supporting Moscow have quietly gathered for so-called “exercises”.

This is much more than what Russia officially revealed.

Nearly 100 Russian tanks arrived there a few days ago, 34 troop carrier trains carrying a daily growing combat force, including 500 Spetsnaz special forces troops.

These troops are reinforced with short-range ballistic missiles, howitzers, multiple rocket launchers, 71 tanks in the Belarusian town of Rechista alone, just 40 miles from us.

Hundreds more tanks are based elsewhere near Ukraine after being transported by train to Russia’s client state in staggering numbers.

In the town of Yelsk, Belarus, less than 20 km from Ukraine, thousands of Russian soldiers from the 38th Motorized Rifle Brigade are camped, we are told.

This area is the new focus of many Western intelligence agencies and foreign officers, a new front where it could be seen as an almost open backdoor for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Few believe that Moscow claims its troops are in Belarus for an exercise, but that could be a huge deception giving Putin the chance to hit Kiev.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko almost confirmed this today, promising to return Ukraine to “our slaves”.

In a mad outburst of paranoia, he declared: “It is important that the West drowns Russia, Ukraine and the general Slavic brotherhood in blood.

“Ukraine will be returned to the fold of the Slavs. We will definitely do that.

And he said the war would start if there was an attack on Belarus or Russia, adding that “the nuclear powers have tried to make new agreements to avoid a third world war, but they are not succeeding – so the public is now prepared for war”. .”

Western intelligence agencies suspect Putin of creating a false flag mission in which his troops or allied troops are attacked and a retaliatory order is issued.

The false flag will be that it was Ukrainian troops who started it rather than Putin’s own troops attacking themselves to start the war.

Rechytsa, where many Russian troops are in Belarus, is far from the Russian training area.

Many believe, including German intelligence chiefs, that Vladimir Putin has not yet decided when and from where to attack, but will give the order.

The German foreign intelligence service BND said today that Russia was ready to attack Ukraine but had not yet decided to do so.

Chilling Bruno Kahl, the leader of the BND, said: “I believe that the decision to attack has not yet been made.”

So, for now, Putin is keeping the world guessing.

Russia claimed British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss would be in Moscow in a fortnight and that Britain had sent thousands of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine to help fight Russia.

The Mirror understands that the UK will send two troop battlegroups to NATO member Baltic states to counter Russian aggression.

And British soldiers have been given five days’ notice to move in case they are deployed – although British forces will not be deployed in Ukraine just yet.

French President Emmanuel Macron is asking Putin that Russia respect the sovereignty of its neighbors as Western allies try to defuse tensions.

Putin said the United States and NATO failed to meet Russia’s key security demands in their standoff over Ukraine.

And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance is ready to increase its military presence in Eastern Europe.

He said: “On the NATO side, we are ready to engage in political dialogue. But we are also ready to react if Russia chooses a confrontation in an armed conflict.

It may be too late for the Senkivka, the border guard force we meet here, who are the lightly armed first responders to a Russian high-tech assault on modern weaponry.

At the same time, 126,000 Russian troops are gathered on Ukraine’s eastern flank and off its coast and another 30,000 pro-Moscow separatists are in disputed Donbass.

We went there a few weeks ago and the Ukrainian forces were constantly preparing for an attack.

Now the attention of many has turned to Belarus, at the other end of Ukraine in the north, on the border with Belarus where we are.

Here, nervous-looking Ukrainian border guards in white camouflage uniforms patrol the woods.

They are aware that every day more Russian forces are arriving in Belarus and that they will have to hold the line until rapid intervention forces arrive to reinforce.

Machine gun and sniper nests are dotted all along this border, which is fenced off as far as the eye can see and ground sensors are primed to alert them to an attack.

Tank traps lie by the side of the road, ready to be thrown into the road to slow down Russian forces should they cross the border towards Kiev.

A border guard, Oleksandra Stupak, 28, is wary of what will happen in the event of an attack, as Ukraine does not want Russians to know how they are protected.

She tells us: “Our intelligence agents are monitoring the situation and we are here to protect Ukraine.

“If something happens, other forces will arrive very soon, but I can’t tell you exactly how many there are, but there is protection here.”

Just half an hour’s drive south of the countryside village of Horodnia, waitress Anastasia Perskova, 25, is deeply worried about the opening of a new border front with Belarus.

Like so many Ukrainians, she fears being in the way of Russian troops – the guessing game is unbearable as it is almost impossible to predict and get away from the conflict zone if war breaks out.

She says: “I am very worried because we live very close to the border with Belarus and we know that Russian troops are there.

“I have nothing against the Russians but I like that Ukraine is friendly with Europe and I spend a lot of time in Europe.”

Anastasia, who works at Lavanda Cafe in the town of Horodnia, perfected her English working in Stratford Upon Avon for six months and tells us: “If they come and they want to go to Kiev, we’re on the way.

“Depending on what happens, I will try to travel to western Ukraine.

“I have packed some things, gathered my documents and money for protection and will travel with my family.”

Referring to the years of war Donbass in eastern Ukraine endured between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops, she says:

“I am very concerned about the possibility of a war because I don’t want my region of origin to become the same as Donbass.

“The same thing could happen again. I don’t know what will happen. I was born here but I may have to leave.

Analysis by Chris Hughes

Troops and residents here often face temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees.

When we visited Senkivka, a small isolated village of about 300 wooden houses, it was minus one degree.

Most of the inhabitants of Senkivka are old because many young people have moved to Belarus or to bigger cities in Ukraine because there are hardly any jobs here. Only 100 people live in this border village so many houses are abandoned.

The largest city of Horodnia, ten miles south of the border, has a population of just 10,000.

People are going about their daily business, shopping and visiting friends.

Many residents do not have the resources to flee, so they go on with their lives, as if in denial, praying that there will be no war.

The town is friendly and has several banks and supermarket type shops, but people still struggle to find work.

It is possible to rent an apartment for around £50 per month here and salaries are a maximum of £250 per month. Many people here earn much less so they look for work elsewhere.

This is where we met and interviewed the waitress Anastasia who, like many young people, spends half the year looking for work in Europe.