Embed

Donbass Under Fire

Life in the Donetsk Republic under bombs

After the Donetsk People’s Republic was proclaimed, war ravaged Donbass. Ukrainian artillery has been shelling towns and villages. Some people were lucky to get evacuated. Others stayed at their own peril and lost connection with their families. Either way, they did their best to survive in the ruins of their own houses and hope for a better future.

Andrey Lysenko and his son Vladislav are volunteers who drive across the devastated Donbass and distribute humanitarian aid to locals bought with subscribers’ money. Sometimes they travel with projectiles flying and bombs exploding around, but they are used to it. Their main goal is to help the people of Donbass to hold on and have all they need to survive.

The locals tell stories about Ukrainian nationalist and armed forces coming into their towns and villages, hiding among the civilian population, with tanks firing in the middle of residential neighbourhoods.

DNR residents who were separated from their relatives and loved ones by the front line venture out to the once Ukrainian city of Volnovakha, which now belongs to the DNR, to look for them and possibly reunite. But not everybody is willing to leave the houses they’ve been living in for years and abandon their pets.

How do people find the courage to remain strong and compassionate during shelling?

Follow stories the mainstream media ignores: Follow RTD's Twitter

WATCH TRAILER
Please rate this film

1.72(659 users)

Published: 22 April 2022 12:56

Duration

25:20

Tags
Watch this film in Russian

don't miss

26:33
Military and War 03 June 2022 12:00

Foreign Fighters of Donbass. Foreign volunteers against Ukrainian neo-Nazism

26:33
Health 18 July 2022 12:00

Dr Donbass: Behind the frontline. Heroic routine of Donbass medical units

26:33
Arts and Culture 26 August 2022 12:00

Poets on the Frontline. Voices of the Donbass art scene

26:33
Society 13 March 2023 12:00

Volunteers for Victory. Russian 'men-on-the-street' join fight against Ukrainian nationalists

26:33
Military and War 17 April 2023 12:00

'Vostok' Battalion Brotherhood . For nine years soldiers defend their homeland: story from the frontlines

26:33
Military and War 05 May 2023 12:00

Heroes of Donbass. Battalion Commander. An ex-businessman’s rise from a private to a respected leader

26:33
Military and War 09 February 2024 12:00

Donbass: The Flipside of War. Volunteers locate, identify, and inter the civilians' bodies in Donbass

26:33
Lifestyle 04 December 2023 12:00

Way of the War Reporter. Survival guide from veteran war correspondents

26:33
Military and War 19 January 2024 12:00

An Officer’s Star. How two Donbass heroes fell in love amid shelling

26:33
Society 20 May 2022 12:00

VolunTears . Volunteers deliver humanitarian aid to Donbass

26:33
Military and War 27 June 2022 13:00

Lugansk: Road to Independence 2022-2014. The Lugansk People’s Republic living through the Donbass war

26:33
Military and War 09 March 2022 14:29

Donbass: Battle of Debaltsevo. Defending the strategic point

26:33
Health 13 July 2022 12:00

Dr Donbass: Living on the edge . Medics save lives under shelling

26:33
Society 17 February 2023 12:00

Heroes Among Us. A surgeon rescues kids injured by Ukrainian fire

26:33
Emergencies and Disasters 30 June 2023 12:00

Young Hope of Donbass. Youth volunteer to supply food in Donbass despite shelling

26:33
Military and War 26 July 2023 12:00

Cossacks in Combat. Storm Cossack battalion ’Crimea’, upholds the tradition of safeguarding Russia’s borders

26:33
Society 28 August 2023 12:00

Notes from Donbass. War reporter gathers soldiers' stories whilst delivering aid to Donbass

26:33
Society 15 September 2023 16:00

Hero Wives. Women stand by their husbands fighting for Donbass liberation

26:33
Society 10 March 2023 12:00

Walking after War. Volunteers Raise Funds for Injured Donbass Veterans

26:33
Military and War 26 January 2024 11:59

I’m a Hero, Mum. "Mum, I'm a scout!" — the story of a hero who fell fighting for Mariupol

VIEWER’S CHOICE: 1,000,000 VIEWS AND MORE

VIEW ALL