This report is based on a visit to Kyiv, Donbas, and Vienna in late August. In Donbas, we visited Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Severodonetsk, Bakhmut, Maryinka, Mariupol, and several Ukrainian positions along the frontline. We also passed through two Donetsk Peoples’ Republic (DNR) checkpoints in Horlivka. Our account is based on our impressions, conversations and interviews along the Ukrainian-controlled areas of the frontline.

Arsen Pavlov – the infamous “Motorola” – was killed on October 16th in Donetsk. For those who have been following the situation in Donbas from the beginning, he was one of the most recognisable faces of the war. Almost from the first day of the conflict, he fought alongside the separatist forces and in two and a half years he advanced from an anonymous soldier to the commander of Sparta – one of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s divisions. His story documents both the history of the war and its tragic consequences.

A review of Richard Sakwa’s Frontline Ukraine. Crisis in the Borderlands. Published by I. B. Tauris, London, 2015.

Extract from a book titled Kill the Dragon. Ukrainian Revolutions (Czarne 2016, in Press). Originally in Polish, translated by the author.