Season January 2015

After a lull in fighting between the Ukrainian military and the Russian-backed rebels of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DNR) in eastern Ukraine, violence escalated again in mid-January. A ceasefire agreed in September seemed barely worth the paper it was written on. A battle continued to rage around the strategically important Donetsk airport, as the Ukrainian soldiers — dubbed “cyborgs” for their resilience — fought to keep the airport from the DNR. They were unsuccessful. The DNR claimed the airport on January 21, and subsequently launched an offensive on Ukrainian positions along the line of control that separates the two sides. Civilian areas have come under heavy shelling, leaving dozens killed and wounded. In this dispatch, VICE News headed back to eastern Ukraine to see the effect this new escalation in the conflict is having on the innocent civilians, trapped between opposing barrages of deadly artillery fire with nowhere to go.

Since mid-January, fighting between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed rebels in Eastern Ukraine has escalated. Dozens of civilians have died due to the heavy shelling. The rebels of the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) have been attacking Ukrainian Army positions in an effort to reach the city of Sloviansk. In this dispatch, VICE News travels to the Ukrainian Army's front lines in the village of Kodema to see how soldiers there, clad in German and British gear that has been donated to them, are preparing for the much talked-about DNR offensive. We also visit the Ukrainian-controlled mining town of Dzerzhynsk to see firsthand what effects the fighting between the two sides has had on the local population.