Donbas.Realities is a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
After a disappointing summer counteroffensive, Kyiv is again on the defensive as Russian forces push forward in the Donetsk region. As Western financial support wavers, Ukrainian troops fighting near Bakhmut rely on low-cost DIY 'kamikaze' drones and a World War II gun to counter Russian advances.
Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine has nearly wiped multiple cities and towns from the face of the earth, despite the Kremlin's claim that it is conducting a campaign of “liberation.”
Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin again accused the Russian Defense Ministry of failing to supply his mercenary fighters with enough ammunition and accused Russian troops of fleeing fighting around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Izyum resident Inga describes how, under Russian occupation, there was no news of the outside world. That is, until she strung copper to her headphones and mobile phone and managed to access an RFE/RL radio station. "It gave us hope," she says.
Ukrainians who've undergone the Russian vetting process known as "filtration" describe arbitrary violence and threats, explicit or implied, and KGB-like questions to test fleeing civilians' loyalty.
A Ukrainian woman has given RFE/RL a detailed account of how she was raped by a Russian Army soldier. To protect her privacy, we have pixelated her face and we are not disclosing her name. Ukrainian police have been informed of the case.
The Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of eastern Ukraine have begun the evacuation of residents to Russia. With thousands of people crossing into Russia on buses and trains, evacuees and those who remain in Ukraine gave conflicting stories about what they are being told.
After weeks of headlines warning an invasion could be imminent, and with more than 100,000 Russian troops massed across the border, many people have taken to online chats and forums based in eastern Ukraine to express their frustration, anger, and fear.
Before his arrest, the ex-warden of a grim prison in separatist-held Donetsk had been living quietly in Kyiv for two years. According to three former Ukrainian security officers, Denys Kulykovskiy had relocated to Kyiv in 2019 after he began cooperating on a counterintelligence operation.
