Europe | Hard pounding

Ukraine’s fighters fear Russian attacks and America’s ceasefire

On the front line they want peace, but not at any price 

Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian air attack in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region.
Photograph: AP
|Druzhkivka|3 min read

“THE DARKEST moment of this war is now,” says a Ukrainian intelligence officer. Along roads in the east, tank transporters lumber towards the front line while ambulances speed away from it. In the past few weeks the Russians have ramped up drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and their soldiers are mounting a renewed offensive aimed at creating a breakthrough in the east even as Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is coming under intense American pressure to sign up to a peace plan that looks much more favourable to Russia than to Ukraine.

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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Hard pounding”

From the May 3rd 2025 edition

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