The dugouts of the Donbas region, sometimes fortified with little more than sandbagged gun emplacements and makeshift wooden planks, are seen by their defenders as a bulwark against Russian aggression on the continent. They consider they are not just protecting Ukraine, but Europe as a whole.
The Ukrainian separatists will tell you they are stopping the spread of a NATO alliance that threatens to engulf Russia, and leave it defenceless.
Troops on both sides have been facing each other down across this line of contact since a ceasefire ended large-scale combat in 2015 – although deadly warfare has continued ever since. But in recent months, Europe’s most dangerous conflict has threatened to re-emerge, throwing the future of millions of Ukrainians into grave doubt.
