DONETSK OBLAST — The Donbas battlefront meanders for over 1,000 kilometers through a land that has not known peace since 2014. In some points like Bakhmut, it flares into a meat grinder of incalculable human loss. At others, it appears to be coiled and waiting, limited to probing attacks by
VELYKA NOVOSILKA – Lyubov Andreeva, a retired builder, helped create the small town of Velyka Novosilka with her own hands. “All that there is in Novosilka, my hands were there,” the 73-year-old recollected, sitting in one of the town’s underground shelter-communes. “We had a stonemason, a plasterer, a painter, a
Editor’s Note: This piece tells the story of the lives of civilians and first responders in Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, directly through the personal experience of a Kyiv Independent reporter who stayed overnight in the embattled city in January, traveling together with a colleague from Moldova. BAKHMUT, Donetsk Oblast – Moments
Former Russian Deputy Prime Minister and ex-сhair of space agency Roscosmos Dmitrii Rogozin was wounded along with top proxy official Vitalii Khotsenko in an attack on a restaurant outside occupied Donetsk on the evening of Dec. 21. According to Russian media outlets as well as Rogozin himself, two people were
Water-logged trenches, shredded tree lines, and an undulating, colorless landscape of mud: The visual experience of the battles outside Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast have proved to transcend centuries. When Ukrainian machine-gunner Viktor Borinets’ photos of conditions on the first line of defense went viral, the comparisons to the notoriously grim
PERSHOTRAVNEVE, Kharkiv Oblast – Less than two kilometers from front-line positions on the border with Luhansk Oblast, silence is deceptive and never lasts long. In one moment, the scene in any given village in this gray zone can be described as almost peaceful, as children play on sunny streets and flocks
Editor's note: The photos were provided by Alex Chan Tsz Yuk, a Hong Kong-based photojournalist, now covering the war in Ukraine. Heavy Russian bombardment continues to pummel eastern Donetsk Oblast nearly six months into the full-scale war. Russian forces have fired missiles and shells across the entire region, indiscriminately killing
People call them angels. In a blue van stuffed with bags of food, sleeping mats, water, and medicine, volunteers Artem Belan and Volodymyr Antonov, both 41, drive out of Kyiv’s suburbs for a daring mission: evacuating civilians from the frontline towns of Donetsk Oblast. The fighting in Donbas, an
As the four-van convoy rolls into the village of Stepanivka in Donetsk Oblast, volunteers hop out and raise a large tent to shield them from the summer sun. A small group of local onlookers quickly grows as people stream out of their homes towards the tent. The humanitarian aid is
Over the past several months Russia’s focus on capturing Sievierodonetsk has forced it to pull assets and attention from other positions of attack, giving Ukraine opportunities for tactical counterattacks. Successful Ukrainian offensives have been observed in Kharkiv Oblast as of early May and in Kherson Oblast and the city
KRAMATORSK, Donetsk Oblast — Artur Serdiuk had just climbed under the covers at half past four in the morning, when the Russian airstrike hit 25 paces from his house. When he opened his eyes and came out from under the dust and debris his ceiling had turned into, he saw that
Editor’s Note: The Kyiv Independent isn’t revealing last names of the people from the Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine interviewed for this story for safety reasons. Nearly every man that Oleksii, a 24-year-old resident of Russian-occupied Khrestivka in Donetsk Oblast, knows – friends, school classmates, and former colleagues from a
Amid Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, people from Kremlin-occupied Donbas remain the least protected group, having no rights or freedoms, and being dependent on the will of the Kremlin and militant groups under its control. On Feb. 18, heads of Kremlin’s proxies in occupied Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts began
Canada, Japan and Australia have joined the growing list of countries taking a stand against Russia by imposing new sanctions after Moscow officially ordered troops into Russian-occupied parts of Ukrainian Donbas. The U.S., the U.K., and the European Union had already unveiled sanctions targeting Russian officials and financial
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the rightful borders of the illegitimate Russia-backed "states" in eastern Ukraine extend to the whole region of the Donbas, which is considerably bigger than the currently occupied areas. The announcement further escalates the tension that spiked after Russia officially recognized the two proxies late
Editor’s Note: This op-ed was published by Atlantic Council. It is republished here with permission. Almost exactly eight years to the day since he first ordered the invasion of Crimea, Vladimir Putin struck another blow in his war against Ukrainian statehood on February 21 by officially recognizing the two
Denis Pushilin, leader of the Kremlin’s proxies in Donetsk Oblast, and Leonid Pasechnik, leader of the proxies in Luhansk Oblast ordered the mobilization of men 18-55 years old in Russian-occupied territories on Feb. 19, amid escalation in the region. Men of that age are banned from leaving the occupied
U.S. President Joe Biden said that he was confident that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made the decision to further invade Ukraine. “We have reasons to believe that Russian forces are planning to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days,” Biden said during a press briefing
'The threat of Russia’s invasion might be new for most of Ukraine. To millions of natives of eastern Ukraine and Crimea, it is a flashback to what we went through eight years ago.'
Josep Borrell, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, will visit Ukraine from Jan. 4 to Jan. 6 in a show of support for Kyiv amid Russia’s military build-up along its border, the European Commission announced on Jan. 3. Borell will first visit
On Dec. 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a five-hour press conference about the state of his nation. One of the subjects raised by Russian and foreign journalists was Moscow’s buildup of 122,000 troops within easy striking distance of Ukraine’s border. Putin was asked if he would
The Ukrainian military fully supports the state of ceasefire in the war zone of Donbas, but it will give an appropriate response to any enemy attack, according to Ukraine's top commander of the Armed Forces Lieutenant General Valeriy Zaluzhniy. "Our military keep serving their duties," the general said on Dec.
Editor’s Note: This opinion was originally published by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). The Kyiv Independent is reposting it with the author's permission. The deals reached several years ago are far from perfect, but they nonetheless offer a way to talk to Russia while pressing it not
Recent developments in the crisis surrounding Russia’s troop buildup on Ukraine's border have shed a light on what the Kremlin may hope to achieve by creating a global war scare and launching an intimidation campaign. After a Dec. 7 video conference with U.S. President Joe Biden, Russian President
The U.S.-produced man-portable anti-tank missile systems, FGM-148 Javelins, have been seen deployed to the war zone of Donbas with Ukrainian combat formations. Following earlier unverified claims by Ukrainian officials, journalists recorded the Ukrainian military operating these weapons as Russia concentrated nearly 100,000 troops near the border and
Despite earlier considerations, Canada has decided against deploying more military personnel to Ukraine, in a bid to avoid irritating the Kremlin amid an acute security crisis in the region and fears of Russia's possible all-out invasion of Ukraine. As Canada's Chief of Defence Staff Wayne Eyre told the Globe and
