British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestures to the photographers. File photo

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Poland on Thursday, a source in the Polish presidential palace told Reuters on Wednesday.

Johnson will meet Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki for talks on the security situation surrounding Ukraine, the source said.

In the trenches of eastern Ukraine, across the lines from some of the 100,000 Russian troops amassed north and east of the country, Ivan Skuratovskyi's calm verges on numbness — even after a sniper's bullet recently killed one of the 50 or so men under his command.

READ MORE

French President Macron calls for calm to resolve Ukraine crisis

Putin signals compromise over Ukraine after Macron talks

It is the sort of thing that has happened from time to time over the eight years he's been deployed up and down the 250-mile (400-kilometre) front line — a soldier in a war he never imagined when he enlisted in 2013. He grieves, but death and conflict have become an inescapable part of his life.

"The war has put pressure on me and broken my soul,” said Skuratovskyi, 30. "I’m becoming more cold-hearted, some would say dead-hearted. I have a tough sense of humor. It’s a protective reaction to extreme situations.”

US officials say the threat of a Russian invasion in Ukraine is more serious than others that have come and gone during nearly a decade of trench warfare. The White House national security advisor warned that an all-out invasion could happen any day, and President Joe Biden said "it would be wise” for Americans other than essential diplomats to leave Ukraine and ordered the deployment of 1,700 troops to neighbouring Poland.