Big plumes of smoke are visible on a screen that’s providing a live feed from Ukrainian drones hovering over the outskirts of the eastern city of Pokrovsk, one of the most intense front lines in Ukraine. A few seconds earlier, Ukrainian artillery strikes Russian positions, places where we’d seen Russian soldiers moving about as they try to advance towards a key road going into Pokrovsk. At least one Russian soldier is injured, possibly dead after the strike. It’s chilling to watch the live footage. It drives home the bloody consequences of the war that Russia started, in which hundreds of thousands have so far been killed, a “never-ending bloodbath” as US President Donald Trump calls it. We are in a rural house converted into a command centre for the 155th mechanised brigade of the Ukrainian army. It’s a few miles from front-line artillery positions. The scale of the devastation that we see on the screens, homes and buildings completely flattened, is far greater than what we saw six months ago.

It is evidence of the fierce battle that has been fought over the past several months to defend Pokrovsk, a crucial transport hub in the Donetsk region. This week, there’s cautious optimism, even among sceptical soldiers who have witnessed hopes of a ceasefire being dashed over and over again, as diplomatic efforts from the US, Europe, Turkey and others have pushed Russia and Ukraine to direct talks for the first time in three years. “I think something should happen since Russia was the first one to push for these talks. I mean since 2022, they have refused to go into any contact,” says an officer who wants to be referred to........

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