‘If they don’t die, our infantry will’: Ukraine’s pivotal battle for Donetsk

A soldier from the 15th brigade of Ukraine's national guard prepare to launch a surveillance drone near Pokrovsk. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

The Russian soldiers sent to storm Ukrainian positions arrived at a graveyard. Around them was the ruined village of Mykhailivka. From above, Ukrainian spy drones watched. One soldier vanished under a tree. Another jogged towards a shell-walloped cottage. Back at a control observation centre, Maj Oleksandr Fanagey muttered a few words.

Seconds later, a Ukrainian kamikaze drone hit a moving Russian. A live video stream showed that he survived but his left leg was injured. The soldier bottom-shuffled towards a patch of grass and tried to pull a bandage from a green backpack. “He will die for sure,” Fanagey predicted. “The enemy doesn’t bother evacuating its wounded.”