DONETSK REGION, Oct 7: From a bunker in eastern Ukraine, the 33-year-old soldier asks her comrade to fly a reconnaissance drone over her childhood home, hoping for a final glimpse before it becomes just another city pulverised by years of fighting. The soldier took up arms a decade ago to defend her home region, Donetsk, where Ukraine has been battling Russian-backed forces since 2014. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the region has become synonymous with Ukraine’s fight for survival. Battlefield developments in Donetsk are considered a gauge of each side’s fortunes in the war. In over 10 years of fighting, Ukraine has lost control of around 70 per cent of the region. “I watched my school destroyed, the community centre where I once took dance lessons reduced to rubble,”

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