Ukrainians in embattled east mark third Easter under fire
Kostiantynivka, Ukraine Reuters Ukrainians in the embattled east flocked to church on Sunday to mark their third wartime Easter as Russian troops inched closer to threatening some of the region’s key cities. Fighting on the eastern front has worsened in recent weeks, particularly around the town of Chasiv Yar, while Kyiv’s troops await crucial US […]
Ukraine’s frontline children yearn for return to classroom
Sloviansk, Ukraine Reuters Sitting alone in her bedroom, Ukrainian third-grader Arina Herasymova cuts an image of loneliness as she stares at her teacher and classmates on a screen. “I would like to go to school, to lessons. To play with friends during recess, not sit at home,” she said. Iryna and her daughter, third-grader Arina, […]
Postcards: On Ukraine’s landmine-strewn front, even the corpses can kill
VLADYSLAV SMILIANETS, of Reuters, report from Zaporizhzhia…
Fear recedes for Ukraine’s volunteers, for whom war is “just a job”
On the frontline in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine Reuters After months of living in trenches and bunkers near Ukraine’s south-eastern frontlines, Artem and his fellow soldiers have lost the fear they once felt. The war ebbs and flows for the 30-year-old volunteer from a small town near Chernihiv, in the north of the country, that […]
Russia presses along Ukraine front after reports of Bakhmut slowdown
Near Kreminna, Ukraine Reuters Russian forces attacked northern and southern stretches of the front in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Friday, even as Kyiv said Moscow’s assault was flagging near the city of Bakhmut. Ukrainian military reports described heavy fighting along a line running from Lyman to Kupiansk, as well as in the south at […]
To stay or go? The dilemma Ukrainians near front face every day
Kalynivka, Ukraine Reuters It was finally time for Vasyl Kurlyshchuk to leave. When Ukraine’s State Emergency Service evacuation team arrived outside the gate of his small home in the eastern village of Kalynivka on Tuesday, the 74-year-old began slowly sorting through his papers and faded picture albums. Residents queue to fill up bottles with fresh […]
Mortars, artillery and small arms fire as battle for Bakhmut rages
Near Bakhmut, Ukraine Reuters From a mortar position behind a ridge beyond which frontline Ukrainian and Russian troops face off outside the hotly contested city of Bakhmut, a crew adjusted its weapons before firing off seven rounds. The impact of each could be heard in the distance seconds later, while the constant boom of outgoing […]
NATO allies weigh more arms for Ukraine as Russian artillery batters Bakhmut
Kyiv/Marinka, Ukraine Reuters Russian forces bombarded front-line Ukrainian troops and towns in the eastern Donetsk region on Tuesday in what appeared to be early salvoes of a new offensive, as Western allies met to weigh sending more arms to Kyiv for an expected counter-attack. Much of Russia’s artillery fire was focused on Bakhmut, a bombed-out […]
Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says situation at the front getting tougher; almost 200 prisoners swapped
Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that the situation on the front lines in the east of the country was getting tougher and Russia was throwing more and more troops into battle. Russian forces are slowly gaining ground in the Donbas region, encircling the city of Bakhmut north of Donetsk and battling to […]
Shelling booms around Bakhmut’s streets in “Christmas ceasefire”
Bakhmut Ukraine Reuters Shellfire echoed on Saturday around the near-deserted streets of the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, current focus of the most intense fighting in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite Moscow’s declaration of a ceasefire for Eastern Orthodox Christmas. Sparkling clear skies and a dusting of snow belied the devastation of a city abandoned by […]