Driving into the bomb-damaged eastern Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka you can hear the impacts from the big Russian guns and bombs. Block by block they are blowing apart a small workers town just to the east called Chasiv Yar.
On the wall of a destroyed building a Ukrainian soldier had vented his frustration. ‘We are not asking too much, we just need artillery shells and aviation,’ the graffiti reads. ‘[The] rest we do ourselves.’ But even that sentiment is now starting to feel dated. A more accurate depiction of how Ukrainian frontline soldiers feel was probably the large phallus that had been spray-painted over the top of the cri de coeur.
If Ukraine does fall under Moscow’s writ, what happens next?
At first blush, it can be easy to miss just how desperate Kyiv’s plight has become. Many Ukrainian soldiers still repeat that mantra that they are strong, that they will win, and that Moscow will pay for its crimes.
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