'If they don't die, Ukraine's infantry will' Battle could decide future of eastern front

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.

- Luke Harding

One soldier vanished under a tree.

Another jogged towards a shellwalloped 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 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." Late last month, Russian units seized a mine just outside Mykhailivka, in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk oblast. Their mini-advance was part of a sweeping Russian offensive. It began in February with the capture of Avdiivka. Its goal: to expand a salient deep into Ukraine and overrun the city of Pokrovsk, 11 miles away.

Pokrovsk is a transport hub.

Multiple road and rail lines intersect here. Without it, Kyiv will struggle to move troops, food and ammunition to other parts of an overstretched frontline. The city's fate is bound up with that of Donetsk province as a whole.

A bloody battle looms. Russian troops are a mere six miles away.

There is continual noise from incoming and outgoing shells. Last week, Russian warplanes smashed bridges in and around the city, setting the stage for a future frontal attack. One downed bridge had linked the T0504 highway with the neighbouring town of Mymnohrad.

Engineers in orange jackets were building an alternative dirt route.

Another enemy bomb clipped the bridge above Pokrovsk's railway station, now closed and boarded up, as are supermarkets, restaurants and banks. Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad were once home to 100,000 people. Most but not all have fled. Bombs have hit many central buildings, including the office of Ukraine's pension fund.