{"id":622458,"date":"2025-12-09T15:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/622458\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:58:19","slug":"ukraines-last-eastern-strongholds-hang-on-as-russia-fights-to-take-donbas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/622458\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s last eastern strongholds hang on as Russia fights to take Donbas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

This handout photograph, taken on Nov. 12 by the press service of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, shows an aerial view of destroyed buildings in the front-line town of Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Iryna Rybakova\/93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade \/ 93RD SEPARATE MECHANIZED BRIGADE<\/p>\n

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine \u2014 In one of the last remaining cities under Ukrainian control in the country\u2019s eastern Donetsk region, once a powerhouse of industry, life gets more difficult \u2014 and dangerous \u2014 as Russian forces inch closer.<\/p>\n

Over the last month, local officials in Kramatorsk have reported dozens of Russian attacks on the city using strike drones, ballistic missiles, rockets and aerial bombs. Homes, gas stations and markets have all been hit, as has a nearby power plant, causing blackouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a recent strike on the house next to mine,\u201d said Olena Frolova, 20, who works in a shop that sells Donetsk-branded clothing in Kramatorsk. \u201cWe all feel that the front is getting closer. Your life depends on how our guys at the front hold on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin is doubling down<\/a> on seizing all of eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donbas, which includes the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia has invaded and occupied more than 80%<\/a> of Donbas since 2014. The Kremlin wants to take the remaining land either by military force or as part of a deal to end a full-scale war it has waged on Ukraine for nearly four years. Ukraine has so far refused to agree to any deal that gives up its territory to Russia. The Trump administration is pushing a plan that faces Ukrainian and European resistance over the issues of territory and security guarantees.<\/p>\n

\"White<\/p>\n

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner listen as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov (right) speaks while leading Ukrainian delegation during a meeting in Hallandale Beach, Fla., on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n

Chandan Khanna \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Moscow says its troops have the momentum on the battlefield. The Russian military has also created its own force specializing in drone warfare, an area in which Ukraine has led<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fight for a key eastern city\"A<\/p>\n

A Ukrainian serviceman of the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion carries an artillery shell before firing toward Russian positions at the front line in eastern Ukraine, on Nov. 28.<\/p>\n

Evgeniy Maloletka \/ AP<\/p>\n

Last week, Russia claimed its forces captured Pokrovsk, a small city in Donetsk that has served as a key supply route for Ukrainian troops. Ukraine\u2019s military says this isn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

Writing<\/a> on social media, the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Air Assault Forces said on Dec. 1 that Russian troops were still mired in urban warfare inside the city.<\/p>\n

The better-resourced Russian army has taken 18 months to infiltrate Pokrovsk, where Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych wrote<\/a> early drafts of \u201cShchedryk,\u201d a song that became the basis for the popular Christmas song \u201cCarol of the Bells.\u201d<\/p>\n

NPR spoke to soldiers last month from several brigades defending Pokrovsk. At the request of the Ukrainian military, which cites security reasons, NPR is identifying them by first name or their military call signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be possible to hold on for long,\u201d said a drone pilot from the 68th Jaeger Brigade, who uses the call sign Goose, after Anthony Edwards\u2019 character in Top Gun. \u201cI would like to be optimistic, but that\u2019s the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sky of colliding drones\"A<\/p>\n

A mother cries in front of the coffin of her son Oleh Borovyk, a Ukrainian serviceman who was killed in fighting with Russian forces near Pokrovsk, during his funeral ceremony in Boiarka, Ukraine, on Dec. 3.<\/p>\n

Evgeniy Maloletka \/ AP<\/p>\n

Goose and other soldiers painted a grim picture of Pokrovsk \u2014 a ruined city, heavy with the stench of smoke and corpses, most of them Russian, the soldiers said. Maksym, who is with the 14th brigade, said Ukrainian soldiers are vastly outnumbered and that the sky above is filled with drones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many of them that they can\u2019t even pass each other \u2014 they just collide,\u201d Maksym said.<\/p>\n

The soldiers said Russia is using Rubicon, an elite drone unit, in the Pokrovsk area. Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment who focuses on defense analysis, said Russia has been deploying more drone teams like Rubicon and also increasing production of drone systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine\u2019s advantage in drone employment has been substantially reduced over the course of the year,\u201d Kofman said.<\/p>\n

Volodymyr, a spokesperson for the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps, said his unit also uses ground drones, also known as unmanned ground vehicles, but that Russian aerial drones are taking them out. \u201cWe are suffering a lot of losses,\u201d he said of the remote-controlled vehicles.<\/p>\n

Kofman said Ukraine\u2019s political leadership believes losing Pokrovsk could affect its leverage in talks to end the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on the mercurial sentiments of one person in the White House,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to leave\u201d\"A<\/p>\n

A car drives beneath nets to protect against Russian drone attacks, near Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Oct. 10, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Ed Jones \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

About 52 miles north, in Kramatorsk, residents are feeling the pressure.<\/p>\n

Early last month, Ukrainian Railways suspended service to Kramatorsk and neighboring Slovyansk, the other remaining fortress city in Donetsk. The line was known colloquially as the Train of Love<\/a> because it often carried the partners of soldiers traveling to those two cities to meet their loved ones on break from the front line.<\/p>\n

Kramatorsk\u2019s markets are repeatedly hit, including the one where 72-year-old Vera Tsarova sells the butternut squash she grows in her garden. A day after one of those strikes, she has returned, setting up her stall near a woman who sells camouflage fatigues for soldiers and glittery jewelry for their visiting wives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to leave, to abandon our home, what we built and earned,\u201d Tsarova told NPR. \u201cThe Russians must be pushed back into their country.\u201d<\/p>\n

One shopper \u2014 a woman with short white curls \u2014 interrupted her. \u201cYou are giving an interview, and then there will be another strike here!\u201d she shouted at Tsarova, suggesting that media attention prompts Russian forces to attack sites in Kramatorsk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are already watching us,\u201d Tsarova responded, referring to the Russian reconnaissance drones flying in the area. \u201cThey see us, and they will keep striking us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d said another shopper, 70-year-old Olha Kasinkovka, a retired trolleybus administrator. \u201cThey want to scare us into leaving.\u201d She said she has already been displaced twice because of the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

\"Pro-Russian<\/p>\n

Pro-Russian fighters sitting atop a truck drive past a checkpoint in Makiivka, near Donetsk, on July 11, 2014.<\/p>\n

Dominique Faget \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Russia-backed separatists serving as proxies for Moscow took over her hometown of Makiivka in 2014. She then fled to Kostiantynivka, another city in the Donetsk region that, until recently, was relatively safe. In the last few months, Russia has pounded Kostiantynivka into ruins. Ukrainian soldiers say it\u2019s now so dangerous there that only unmanned ground vehicles are on the battered streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not among the faint of heart. I stayed until the very end,\u201d Kasinkovka said. \u201cNow I am homeless. A homeless person at 70 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is now sheltering in Kramatorsk and is feeling the threat of Russia encroaching again. She said she has lived through Russia\u2019s repeated violations of peace deals in the past and does not trust the Russians to honor the terms of any deal.<\/p>\n

Forcing Ukraine to give up territory, she said, won\u2019t end the war.\u201cNo way,\u201d she said. \u201cRussia will attack again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polina Lytvynova contributed reporting from Kramatorsk and Iryna Matviyishyn from Kyiv, Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This handout photograph, taken on Nov. 12 by the press service of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,193525,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-622458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-europe-world","11":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115690440531619649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}