A vast cobweb of spent fibre-optic cable is draped over the buildings in the small Ukrainian city of Lyman. Used to control the deadly drones deployed by both Russia and Ukraine, it has accumulated so densely after the years of fighting here that fresh drones struggle to fly through it, rotors tangling in the mass. Birds pluck it out to make their nests.
Beneath the glistening strands, residential blocks are shattered from shellfire as Moscow’s forces still push daily to take a city they briefly occupied until the Ukrainian counteroffensive of 2022, when they were driven out.
The 1,000 or so civilians who remain live in cellars without electricity, gas or running water.
