Ukraine’s battle to keep Russia out of eastern Donetsk

Moscow sees region as a launchpad from which to threaten other areas of country.

- HANNA ARHIROVA

A UKRAINIAN soldier using the call sign Fox operates a drone in the Donetsk region in September.

VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press

From a bunker in eastern Ukraine, the 33-year-old soldier asks her comrade to fly a reconnaissance drone over her childhood home, hoping for a final glimpse before it becomes just another city pulverized by years of fighting.

The soldier took up arms a decade ago to defend her home region, Donetsk, where Ukraine has been battling Russian-backed forces since 2014. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the region has become synonymous with Ukraine's fight for survival. Battlefield developments in Donetsk are considered a gauge of each side’s fortunes in the war.

In over 10 years of fighting, Ukraine has lost control of around 70% of the region.

“I watched my school destroyed, the community center where I once took dance lessons reduced to rubble,” Fox said in the dugout close to her beloved Kostiantynivka, where Russian forces are steadily closing in.

“It hurts because your whole life flashes before your eyes — the days when I was a little girl, the places and moments that were dear to me,” said Fox, who, along with other soldiers who spoke to the Associated Press, provided only her call sign per Ukrainian military protocol.

Key region in ruins