After a tough winter and a costly defeat in the stronghold of Avdiivka, Ukrainians are facing one of the most difficult moments of this war on the Donbas front lines. With a frightening shortage of ammunition and without strong defensive lines, Russian troops are trying to advance on the region. As soldiers fight, many civilians face a tough decision to leave everything they built in their lives behind or wait to see if the war takes a different turn.
In Photos: Around Ukraine’s Avdiivka, Civilians Flee, and Soldiers Fight as War Gets Closer
- By Yan Boechat
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Ukrainian soldiers prepare to fire a 122mm cannon against Russian troops in Chasiv Yar, an important town west of Bakhmut, March 5, 2024.
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Combat medics train in new tactics for evacuating injured soldiers on the battlefield, in Khurakhove, March 1, 2024. In the last few months, kamikaze drones have been targeting evacuations of injured soldiers more frequently.
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A soldier prepares to go to the front line in Chasiv Yar, where Russians are trying to breach Ukrainian defensive lines and seize this strategically important small town west of Bakhmut, in Kostyantynivka, March 8, 2024.
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A semi-destroyed car is abandoned in one of the many empty streets of Kostyantynivka, a strategic city in the heart of Donbas that has been relentlessly targeted by Russian forces, on March 2, 2024.