Since the counteroffensive began last week, the Ukrainians have liberated a handful of villages in farming the hinterland of eastern Donetsk just south of the frontline town of Velyka Novosilka, and about 80 miles north of the decimated Russian-occupied city of Mariupol.
Although these victories have enabled them to post morale-boosting videos of troops waving flags, these are tiny places and this is incremental progress, less than a mile, at what appears to be a heavy cost.
Moscow has posted images of destroyed Ukrainian tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles and claims to have taken many Ukrainian lives. Ukraine says it has killed more troops than it has lost but conceded that there was “extremely fierce fighting” in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions as troops inched south, and according to western officials is taking “significant casualties”.
Access for the media has been tightly restricted. The Ukrainian defence ministry is sticking to the line “plans love silence” and citing operational security, making it hard to get a clear picture.
On Thursday, we visited part of the liberated area with the American billionaire philanthropist Howard Buffett — son of Warren — and one of the organisations he funds, the Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) set up by the Miami businessman Michael Capponi, taking in the first aid since liberation.
Ukraine’s control appeared tenuous. Though most of the noise was outgoing fire from pounding Ukrainian howitzers, there had been airstrikes the previous day on Velyka Novosilka.
The once bustling town of 50,000 has fewer than 5,000 mostly elderly people who do not want to leave. One group of 49 had been living for more than a year in the basement of a school that has been extensively shelled, its roof blown off. Iryna Babkina, 46, the music teacher, who the others describe as their mayor, gave us a tour of their damp-smelling underground accommodation, including beds, tables and chairs, sacks of potatoes, a stove and a fish tank with four miniature goldfish. Outside dogs and cats ran around.
“There are explosions all the time but we know our forces are pushing Russians back so we will stay here to victory,” said Katerina Subert, 68, who before the war worked as a cook in the local food-canning factory. “It’s not much of a life but we have got used to it.”
A planned trip on to recently freed Neskuchne had to be abandoned because of shelling and we bumped along country lanes to Zolota Nyva, a hamlet liberated earlier where villagers appeared in tears to see outsiders with boxes of basics such as flour, sunflower oil, toilet paper and toothpaste. “This is the first aid we have been brought,” said Tanya Silivonits, 38. “It was so hard under the Russians, we just lived on what we could grow.”
Even there, we were forced to make a hasty exit as two Russian drones appeared overhead.
Just after we drove back through Velyka Novosilka the town was shelled again.
“It’s difficult. We’re only getting two or three hours sleep,” said Pavlo, the commander of one artillery brigade providing cover for infantry advancing on Marinka, 30 miles to the east. “But bit by bit we’re pushing forward and they are retreating and today was a good day.”
