‘Their human resources are unlimited’: Russia’s advances signal bleak spring for Ukrainians

If Moscow's forces manage to take all of Donetsk oblast it would be a symbolic moment for Putin - and Kyiv

In an underground command post in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian soldier peered at a map. Russian positions were marked in red. A year ago enemy troops were at least 35 miles (60km) away from the administrative border between Donetsk oblast and the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region. Now they were on the doorstep: a mere 5 miles away.

The situation is pretty bad," Valerii - call-sign Oves" - admitted, sitting in front of a bank of screens showing live footage from the battlefield. Reconnaissance drones zoomed in on Russian positions under a snowy tree-line. If a mouse moves, we can see it," he said. His brigade, the 110th, spent a year and a half defending the eastern city of Avdiivka. It fell in February 2024 after a long and brutal siege.