Europe | Pushing hard

Russia’s bloody summer offensive is hurting Ukraine

Kremlin troops are making gains in the Donbas region

Emergency workers extinguish a fire that destroyed a private house after a Russian strike in Pokrovsk
Photograph: Reuters
|Pokrovsk

FOR THOSE arriving on the lunar, pockmarked terrain of Ukraine’s eastern front lines, life is often short. “The experienced soldiers fear getting to know the newcomers,” says “Artem”, a soldier once attached to the 59th brigade south of Pokrovsk, in the province of Donetsk. “Your fate is decided in the first few hours. Five, ten minutes, that’s really all it takes.”

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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The Russian push”

From the August 10th 2024 edition

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