In late August, Russian-backed rebel forces launched a devastating counter-offensive against Ukrainian troops. They drove them out of border areas of both the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine, retook areas south of Donetsk and advanced to within a few miles of the port of Mariupol. A ceasefire came into effect on September 5. It is holding in most areas, but not everywhere. Few have confidence that the fighting is really over and that both the Ukrainians on one side and the rebels and their backers from Russia on the other have not simply called half-time. I took the following photos while reporting for The New York Review over the past few weeks.
Tim Judah’s article on the catastrophic Ukrainian defeat at Ilovaysk, and the rout of its retreating soldiers on the road to Novokaterinivka, appears on the NYRblog.
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Tim Judah is the author of In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine. He has reported for The New York Review from Ukraine, the Balkans, Niger, Armenia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. (April 2024)