Ukrainians cede land on eastern front, but hold on to hope

Russian troops were already swarming the Donbas city of Severodonetsk when the few remaining Ukrainian defenders received the order to withdraw, to save their lives.

Relentless Russian bombardment – estimated by Ukrainian officials to have reached astonishing peaks of 50,000 or more Russian shells a day across the region – had already destroyed the only three bridge escape routes across the Siverskyi Donets River.

“We were waiting for that [withdrawal] order more than a month,” says a Ukrainian officer, acknowledging the strategic imperative of slowing Russia’s advance. The goal: to give Ukraine as much time as possible to deploy arriving American and European arms – longer-range artillery and rocket systems – that could tip the balance in the fighting.

The artillery reconnaissance officer from the National Guard Rapid Reaction Brigade, a major with a red beard