Over the last few days, Ukraine’s armed forces have simultaneously intensified its offensive in two directions: Luhansk and Kherson. With Russia’s attempts to stabilise the front line not yielding any results, Russian troops are retreating from many settlements in the north and south of Ukraine.

Vadym lives in Saltivka, a residential area in northeast Kharkiv. The windows of his apartment on the sixth floor face north. "For a long time, I could not understand what is that light shining on the horizon," Vadym begins his story.“Sometimes I was seeing bright shots of light rising up and then disappearing. I was thinking that perhaps it was our air defense working. I did not immediately realise what it was and how far it was from where I lived. Belgorod in Russia is 60 kilometres (~40 miles) from my house”, Vadym says.

Why are our guys not sent on rotation? Why are boys without combat experience sent to the front lines? And where are the Western weapons that can save them? People who are distant from the war keep asking these questions, inciting panic and the lamentations about the "naked, barefoot, and hungry in the trenches", which have been going on since 2014.Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike Lytov Read in Ukrainian here

"I bought three pigs for the evacuees and offered to make smoked sausages for the soldiers to keep their spirits up," says Yana Rudenko, a businesswoman from Chernivtsi, a city in western Ukraine. When full-scale war broke out, she put her business on hold and set out to help those in need. Later on, a helping hand reached out to her own business. Yuriy Barnovych, an IT specialist from Lviv, another city in western Ukraine, came up with a way to combine fundraising for the Ukrainian army with supporting the country’s economy. The team Yuriy gathered is currently implementing the ‘Support Ukrainian Army’ initiative.