Dzerzhynsk, a Donetsk Oblast city with a pre-war population of 35,000 people, is still in Ukrainian hands. But Horlivka, a much larger city of 250,000 people, is just a few kilometers to the east and is controlled by combined Russian-separatist forces.Tensions remain high and the city is bustling with soldiers on break and volunteers trying to keep up the patriotic fervor for Ukraine by painting the town blue-and-yellow, the national colors.
Read the stories here:
War Grinds On: Volunteers doing work of government in Dzerzhynsk
War Grinds On: US expatriate digs in at war front to shore up Dzerzhynsk’s defenses
