Dalena Reporters l December 8, 2025
In the battered eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, 65-year-old Volodymyr and other residents are clinging to survival as Russian forces draw inexorably closer, pressing the once relatively stable stronghold to the brink.
Volodymyr — who remains behind to care for his ailing mother-in-law describes life inside his war-damaged building as bleak. With sections of the city destroyed by shelling and intense fighting, he and other civilians have taken refuge deep underground. Supplies are scarce. They rely mostly on sparse humanitarian aid, collected rainwater, and makeshift living conditions including cooking over a small stove and using a portable generator for light.
The city’s strategic importance has made it a target. Russian troops are advancing after nearly capturing “fortress” cities like Pokrovsk. Military analysts warn that once Pokrovsk falls, remaining urban centres such as Kostiantynivka and others in the Donetsk region will come under direct assault intensifying the humanitarian crisis for residents trapped inside.
Amid the fighting, diplomatic pressure is mounting. The government in Kyiv, grappling with both military threat and international negotiations, now finds itself weighing whether to accept a peace framework supported by the United States a deal that may require territorial compromises. For many civilians, however, such talks offer little comfort. With their neighborhoods destroyed, winter setting in, and escape routes blocked or unsafe, their immediate concern is survival.
Even as diplomats scramble for ceasefire proposals and security guarantees, in Kostiantynivka the concrete reality is increasingly dire: bomb-scarred buildings, dwindling aid, persistent drone surveillance, and a sense that the war with all its brutality is bearing down on owners of fragile homes and uncertain futures.
This is not just a front-line conflict. It is a test of survival — one in which civilians are paying perhaps the highest price.