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 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 It fell in February 2024 after a long and brutal siege Valerii ‘Oves’ (centre) at a command post near the frontline. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The GuardianRussian troops in the summer then swallowed up the brigade’s next position in the town of Ocheretnye Vladimir Putin’s ground forces have in the months since been moving at their quickest rate since 2022 advancing across a frosty landscape of slag-heaps Their tactics are familiar: destroy and occupy “We have seen this big Russian wave. They have never gone forward this quickly before,” Valerii said. “They take terrible losses. But their human resources are unlimited.” His mechanised units – equipped with Soviet-era 152mm howitzers – are defending the southern town of Velyka Novosilka as the Russians try to encircle it Russian scouting parties have infiltrated the nearby settlements of Neskuchne and Novyi Komar “During the day we hit them with artillery At night the foxes and dogs eat their remains,” the commander Andrii Hrebeniuk adding: “We’ve recovered psychotropic drugs from Russian prisoners They are dosed up to reduce fear before kamikaze missions.” Putin’s strategic goal is to take full control of Donetsk oblast Russian troops are closing in on Dnipropetrovsk oblast for the first time in the more than a decade of war that began with Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and covert semi-takeover of the eastern Donbas region Andrii Hrebeniuk commander of an infantry battalion of the 110th mechanised brigade fighting in the Ukrainian town of Velyka Novosilka Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The GuardianFor now Russian forces are not trying to storm the strategic city of Pokrovsk they are bypassing it and rolling through small villages to the south with the aim of cutting Ukraine’s logistical supply routes The Russians have fire control on the road leading to Kostyantynivka and the key garrison cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk In the other direction they have also cut the T0406 highway linking Pokrovsk with the town of Mezhova just across the administrative border from Donetsk Ukrainian soldiers stop to take photographs alongside blue and yellow flags regimental badges and a white virgin Mary statue wearing an army fleece In reality it seems unlikely Russian tanks will halt at the boundary between the two oblasts If they are successful they will broaden their attack If it were me I would carry on,” Hrebeniuk predicted Ukraine urgently needed more western military help: armoured vehicles He warned that if it the country did not get it the Russians would eventually threaten Dnipro the country’s fourth-biggest city and a major defence-industrial hub Yevhen Khrypun editor of the Mezhivskyi Merydian newspaper in the town of Mezhova Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The GuardianReaching the boundary line would be a significant blow to Kyiv and an existential threat to Mezhova and the other once-peaceful settlements along it Authorities in the 20,000-strong population – including 5,000 displaced by fighting farther east – have not yet issued evacuation orders for families with school-age children but some residents have already left as the Russians creep closer Yevhen Khrypun, the editor of the local Mezhivskyi Merydian newspaper said two of his colleagues departed in recent months The title has appeared every week since 1930 I hope we can celebrate our 95th anniversary in May,” he said adding: “We don’t want to be the next Pokrovsk.” said he spent the festive period reassuring anxious residents He visited the town’s Christmas tree with his four-year-old grandson Lev “My inner voice tells me the Russians will stop Maybe we will find ourselves in a grey area with international peacekeepers I don’t want to think about other scenarios.” Free weekly newsletterThe most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment Volodymyr Zrazhevsky a local Ukrainian serviceman who died aged 30 Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The GuardianDonald Trump’s return to the White House next week has prompted hopes that a negotiated settlement to the war could be in sight has shown little interest in a deal at a time when his forces are making rapid progress A peacekeeping force is being discussed in European capitals but if it does ever arrive The town has not yet suffered the fate of Bakhmut or other urban areas levelled by Russian glide bombs but it has already experienced tragedy and loss. On Saturday, the mayor and the editor attended the town’s 54th military funeral. The latest local soldier to be killed in battle was 30-year-old Andriy Zakhary He disappeared in November 2023 near Ocheretyne but his remains were only recently identified A white transit van carrying Zakhary’s coffin drove up to his home in the village of Novotroitske Residents kneeled and threw red carnations in its path as relatives supported a tottering Svitlana Mourners followed the cortege to the village cemetery as it drizzled A procession at Zakhary’s funeral on Saturday Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The GuardianStanding in front of a newly dug grave the mayor hailed Zakhary as a hero who had sacrificed his life for his country “Heroes live in our memory for ever,” he said “He believed in our victory.” A framed photo with a black sash was placed on his coffin It showed a confident young man standing under a green canopy Friends deposited blue and yellow wreathes Khrypun conceded that this was a bleak moment in history The area along the Vovcha River was once inhabited by nomadic Scythians In the mid-16th century Zaporizhzhia Cossacks – military forerunners of modern Ukraine – settled in winter villages Russia now threatens to incorporate the town into its grim new-old empire But we are standing alone against the 21st-century equivalent of Hitler We are several times smaller than our neighbour Putin will gobble up somewhere else,” the editor said He replied: “Over new year we raised a toast Our deepest wish is to celebrate the next new year alive and in our homes.” Ukrainians have a saying that "the land returns." One of the ways in which it is understood is that the land pushes old things it had swallowed before back to the surface. That is how many of the artifacts in the Mezhova History Museum came to its collection, explains Olha Kudryavtseva, who moved to the village after fleeing Myrnohrad in Donetsk Oblast. Before the war, Mezhova, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, was nothing more to Olha than a place where a part of her family lived. But now, she knows every corner of the local museum, how pieces of its ancient pottery feel, how the bones of the village's ancestors look, and why there are only four vyshyvankas in the museum. "I once came across a story told by an old woman from the region who said that during the Holodomor, they could trade their vyshyvankas for a piece of bread. Since these lands suffered terribly from hunger, this might be why there's not much left of this heritage," she explains. Olha had never worked in the cultural field before she moved to her relatives in Mezhova for safety reasons. The museum, founded in the 1970s, was full of items yearning to be truly discovered, yet no one was there to make sense of them, as many locals were leaving for areas further west for safety, and the museum frequently lacked a manager. "On my first day, I just came to the museum and simply looked over everything for a long time. We have an archive, so I also went there to look through things and sort them out. I would check out other places to find more information, going to the local library and our Palace of Culture, calling bigger Ukrainian museums, and subscribing to their pages to understand how they work." While borrowing others' best practices was straightforward enough, collecting new information about Mezhova, where only about 8,000 people live, has been quite a challenge. Here, Olha relies heavily on locals. Founded around a railway station in the 19th century, Mezhova remained a very important hub during both World Wars and even was commandeered by the Nazis during their occupation. It was during this time that the railway station, one of Mezhova's oldest buildings, lost its second floor forever. Thanks to a local ethnographer and poet, Petro Babets, Olha's deepened her understanding of the region's past and now she confidently shares it with growing numbers of visitors. "It is difficult to interest youth in a museum. Thanks to my work with Petro and the photographs that remain, we can find out really curious things. I also made a photo zone for them, a "Ukrainian khata" exposition, to immerse them in the early era. There are also things that I allow them to touch because it helps them to connect on a completely different level." There are many photographs in the museum, but those of the previous century mainly belong to Oleksii Matiukhin. Luckily for the new generations, he is a fan of photography, and Olha regularly peruses his online collections to find out what else he has to show. Thanks to Oleksii simply photographing the village, its streets and its buildings, we know precisely how Mezhova used to look. Now, the trees, which are small in his photographs, are giants in real life." The museum has a remarkable ability to rekindle memories. When Olha saw the museum's old wooden nochvy and learned about the traditional dish cooked in them, it transported her back to her childhood, leaving her profoundly moved. "Pshinka-zatirka is an ancient Ukrainian dish and a true hallmark of Mezhova. When I was a child, I spent my summers with my grandparents in a nearby village, and during one visit, their neighbors held a wedding. As per Ukrainian tradition, everyone was invited, and that's when I first tasted pshinka-zatirka. The dish is a type of round pasta traditionally ground in nochvy by Ukrainian women. It was once very popular and even served at celebrations. Today, there are still women in Mezhova who maintain the original methods for making it. We organized a course on traditional pshinka-zatirka making internally displaced Ukrainians like me. Honestly, I'm not a professional, but now I can make some." There was once life beating in each such relic in the museum. Although times have changed, Olha shows that it is possible to take these old items out of dusty shelves and embed them into modern reality. This is the only way museums can survive nowadays. Luckily, Olha is carrying this out in the company of people with the same passion she has, and together they have turned the Mezhova museum into the center of the Ukrainian local intelligentsia. This includes local photographers like Oleksii Matiukhin, poets like Petro Babets and Liudmyla Yatsura, painters like Tetiana Velyka and Volodymyr Chornyi, and many more. For decades the town of Mezhova welcomed trains criss-crossing Ukraine and continuing east to Russia through the wheat and sunflower fields of the Donetsk region but now it is the last stop before a front line that is creeping ever closer Trains ran a further 40km to Pokrovsk until last autumn but Russian troops are now bearing down on that small coal mining city and have pushed around its southern flank to within 20km of Mezhova where people no longer flinch at the boom of artillery battles that rage for hours “We feel fear and panic and worry – but life goes on and for now we carry on here,” says Oksana as she walks with her friend Inna Ruban down Mezhova’s main street and the air-raid siren wails again through the clear “It’s hard to think about leaving and finding a place somewhere else and we don’t want to do that – for as long as we can we’ll hope for the best and believe that everything here will be fine,” adds Oksana “People are making plans for what they might do and we believe in our armed forces,” says Ruban a teacher at one of the schools that still serve this 8,000-strong town and the 22,000 people of the wider Mezhova district The community has grown since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as 5,000 people fleeing the enemy’s grinding advance found safety here just inside Dnipropetrovsk province which has not been infiltrated by Moscow’s troops during 11 years of conflict War has affected all our families since 2014,” says Oksana recalling Russia’s use of proxy militia forces to seize parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions after occupying Crimea in response to Ukraine’s pro-western Maidan revolution I don’t have work and how can I look for work when But we still have gas and electricity; except for occasional power cuts everything is working here.” Mezhova was officially founded 141 years ago as mining heavy industry and farming developed rapidly in eastern Ukraine and were served by the railway line that ran through the town and linked the cities that are now Russian-occupied Donetsk and Kyiv-held Dnipro With Pokrovsk and Velyka Novosilka to the southeast under intense pressure Mezhova is now a hub for Ukrainian troops who frequent its shops and cafes and rumble through town in armoured vehicles and SUVs bristling with drone-jamming antennae [ Ukrainians question Kremlin’s desire to end war as EU warns against ‘appeasement’Opens in new window ] Yevhen Khrypun collects fresh copies of the Mezhivskyi Meridian the local newspaper where he has worked for more than 20 years and now serves as chief editor “About 1,000 subscribers have paid in advance for the newspaper for a year or half a year We’re only 20km from the front line and we don’t know what the situation will be like in a year’s time so that’s a real show of faith and a big financial help for us,” he says Even as enemy troops pushed towards Pokrovsk last autumn farmers around Mezhova planted winter wheat that will only be ready to harvest in June or July; Khrypun sees it as another sign of confidence that Ukraine’s defences will hold but it could also reflect the ominous pace of Russia’s approach to Dnipropetrovsk region Khrypun is optimistic without taking anything for granted The Mezhivskyi Meridian is due to celebrate its centenary in May 2030 but he says: “Before we even think about that In Mezhova, people do not know what will come first, some sort of ceasefire or the kind of Russian bombardment that has destroyed many towns and villages farther east, but nearby artillery fire now rumbles day and night and danger is growing: last Saturday, an attack drone set fire to an administration building in the town centre and two weeks ago a Russian air strike destroyed a school in nearby Novopavlivka village. “That was my first school,” says Snizhana Salivon, a 23-year-old journalist with the Mezhivskyi Meridian who returned to her hometown after graduating from university in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, where she was when the full-scale invasion began. “It’s very strange. First you hear explosions far away, then they start getting closer and louder. And you see more military vehicles and soldiers and more than 5,000 displaced people arrive in the community. You feel how the town and its people change,” she says. “Three years ago you never heard an air-raid siren but now it’s a constant part of our life. Things change bit by bit; you feel it and notice it and then you get used to it. You get used to the sound of shelling and explosions. But it shouldn’t be part of normal life.” It is well below zero in Mezhova, but in the town centre three children in warm coats and hats stand for hours at a table covered with soft toys – cats, dogs, hearts, frogs and even tanks – that they have made to raise funds for the Ukrainian army. Dmytro (14), Diana (14) and Kamila (9) say they have collected about 3 million hryvnia (€69,000) since 2022, which has paid for a car, trailers, a generator, night-vision gear and other equipment for some of their country’s hard-pressed soldiers. “The war touches everything,” says Salivon. “You see young children collecting for the military. Some people make camouflage nets, some do volunteer work. Everyone tries to do something. Most of us have relatives and friends in the armed forces.” “Maybe people are more open to each other now ... so perhaps there are some positive sides to the changes. But it’s bad in terms of the fear and worry that people feel. That affects us all psychologically.” Everyone here wonders what the future will hold for them and for Mezhova. “People aren’t planning to leave right now but they are looking at where they might go if they have to,” says Salivon. “Some people are packing an emergency bag in case they have to move urgently. Others have had one standing ready since 2022.” Near a memorial to 57 local men who have died fighting Russia’s invasion, and the council office that will be gutted by a drone strike a few hours later, Volodymyr Zrazhevskyi, the head of the town administration for nearly a decade, says soldiers from Mezhova “have been on the most dangerous parts of the front line.” “People here are not sneaky. If they are called to defend the homeland then they go, while people in other places have other options [to evade conscription] and they use them.” Despite a lack of resources, Mezhova has coped with the influx of displaced people and has kept its schools, hospital and other services working, and has quickly repaired infrastructure damaged in the war. “People really hope and believe that it will stop,” says Zrazhevskyi. “We don’t know how, and unfortunately we can’t influence that – just let it stop.” Facebook pageTwitter feed© 2025 The Irish Times DAC This was reported on Facebook by Mezhova village community, according to Ukrinform. "According to the order of Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Serhii Lysak, dated April 25, 2025, No. 7963/0/527-25, starting April 25, 2025, a mandatory forced evacuation has been declared in specific localities of Raipole starosta district of Mezhova territorial community (villages: Kolona Mezhova, Novopidhirne, Raipole, Sukhareva Balka) for families with children or their legal guardians," the statement reads. The evacuation will be carried out using transport vehicles, with the date and time of departure to be coordinated in advance. Registration at the assembly point in the town of Mezhova is mandatory. It is noted that evacuees must bring with them: documents, money, bank cards, medications, water and food for several days, a mobile phone and charger, warm clothing and a change of shoes, as well as any necessary items that may be useful during evacuation. As previously reported by Ukrinform, 27 people were evacuated within a single day from shelled communities in Donetsk region to Kyiv and Lviv regions. Since the beginning of this year, 535 residents of Donetsk region have been relocated to safer regions of Ukraine. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, illustrative Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421. © 2015-2025 Ukrinform. All rights reserved. from where AFU units withdrew back in October 2024 In the Pokrovsk sector, the Russian forces are unable to fully consolidate their hold on the Udachne-Kotlyne line on the highway running towards Mezhova west of Pokrovsk, which they had reached as early as Jan. 13, 2025. According to the latest available DeepState estimates the Russian Armed Forces are advancing in Kotlyne while the AFU is pushing them back in Udachne According to Ukrainian serviceman Oleksandr Solonko the situation in the west of the Pokrovsk sector could be described as a tug-of-war scenario; however the Russian command is still capable of staging vehicle-powered assaults on the highway from Myrnohrad to Kostiantynivka in the east relying on the logistics hub in the captured Ocheretyne the Russian sources' claims of massive losses and surrender of the Velyka Novosilka garrison have not been visually confirmed Since the garrison fell, the AFU has been working on a new defensive line along the Mokri Yaly River which previously hampered the evacuation of the town's defenders but now serves as a natural water barrier Another 181 drones were “radar lost.” Two Kh-59/Kh-69 air-launched cruise missiles were also reported launched and downed on the night of Jan as well as destroying two amphibious drones in the Black Sea Ukrainian strikes on the following targets were reported over the course of the week: OSINT researcher Cyrus studied statistics on Russia's losses of armored vehicles using information from Oryx and Andrew Perpetua Both sources indicate a decrease in armored vehicle losses this may not indicate an improving situation for the Russian Armed Forces but a growing shortage of armored vehicles The Insider analyzed the situation with the warring sides' vehicle stocks and the prospects of their depletion for further combat operations and artillery systems at storage bases have been depleted by about half and the vast majority of the remaining vehicles are in unsuitable condition and could only be stripped for parts With the manufacturing of new armored vehicles limited to several hundred units a year Russia cannot even cover its losses on individual parts of the front like the Pokrovsk sector Military analysts predict a complete depletion of Russian armored vehicle stocks or a sharp change in tactics with a decrease in the intensity of offensive actions within the next eighteen months The Russian Armed Forces are already adapting Instead of using armored vehicles in “meat-grinder assaults,” they are increasingly turning to a variety of non-armored vehicles including scooters The AFU has to make do with Western supplies of heavy armored vehicles while the production of new equipment in NATO countries is lower even than the modest Russian figures Judging by the structure of losses in Russia's Kursk Region Ukrainian troops are resorting to the use of relatively light vehicles for offensive actions the AFU generally loses fewer vehicles than the Russian Armed Forces: according to various monitoring resources the ratio of confirmed vehicle losses is approximately three times higher on the Russian side the following military aid packages for Ukraine were made public: In the field of makeshift armor and upgrades Russian frontline craftsmen have demonstrated the following achievements: We really need your help! Subscribe to donations! Сделано в Charmer устарел и не позволяет корректно отображать сайт Russian troops are likely planning to block Ukrainian ground lines of communication in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in the Donetsk region. In this way, the enemy aims to force the Ukrainian Armed Forces to retreat from the cities in the coming months, reports the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Analysts report that the Russian forces recently cut the T-0405 Pokrovsk-Kostyantynivka road to the east of Pokrovsk and the T-0406 Pokrovsk-Mezhova road to the southwest of Pokrovsk as part of their efforts to encircle Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad are two of the three main land supply routes for the Ukrainian military group in the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad area ISW believes that the Russian offensive to the east and west of Pokrovsk could complicate Ukrainian logistics and Ukraine's ability to replenish supplies and reposition troops to defend the settlements of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad Experts warn that the Russian military command may intend to carry out further offensives to the north of the T-0405 and T-0406 roads ultimately forcing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to retreat north (rather than east or west) to support the encirclement of both settlements by Russia and further advance westward towards the administrative border of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions the Russian military command is likely hoping to avoid conducting frontal assaults on the urban areas of Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad with infantry the blockade of these cities increases the likelihood of a Ukrainian army retreat while Russian forces would be able to capture these settlements Renovated buildings for propaganda materials in occupied Mariupol are cracking at the seams according to a post from the National Resistance Center (NRC) One such example is housing on Mezhova Street The building at this address has developed cracks in its load-bearing walls following the capital repair conducted by Russian contractors but the allocated funds for restoring the destroyed building have vanished," the report states local collaborators have devised an entire scheme to launder Kremlin funds for the reconstruction of Mariupol which has been bombarded by the Russian forces "They hire contractors through shell companies who create the appearance of work being done Propagandists loyal to Putin arrive to create beautiful videos about the wonderful life in a dying city people are once again left to face their problems and pain alone," the information resource added instead of providing housing to those who lost their homes due to Russian attacks Russian banks are profiting from the suffering of ordinary people Recently, the National Resistance Center reported that the invaders began constructing a large agricultural market in Mariupol. However, in reality, this will be a center for exporting stolen Ukrainian property.