As temperatures plummeted at the end of 2015, the second winter of the war in eastern Ukraine unfolded differently from its first. Moscow's focus had shifted to its military campaign in Syria, leading to a reduction in large-scale offensives by Russian forces. Instead, both sides entrenched themselves, engaging in sporadic skirmishes across no-man's land. A temporary Christmas truce had quelled a renewed wave of rocket and mortar attacks that had erupted at the start of November. However, fighting resumed soon after the new year, with the war's official death toll surpassing 9,000 lives, and the stalemate remained as entrenched as ever.
By mid-December, snow blanketed the frontline encircling Donetsk's western and northern outskirts. Artillery attacks by night and small-arms fire by day disrupted the neighboring village of Opytne, home to Ukraine’s 93rd Brigade and a handful of civilians. Further east, a man guarding the icy ruins of Luhansk’s destroyed airport reported that the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers still lay under the rubles, remnants of the heavy fighting in the summer of 2014.
As Ukraine approached the climax of its systematic decommunization, stripping municipalities of any vestige of the Soviet Union, Russian-backed authorities continued to consolidate their self-proclaimed republics, forging a new identity with all the badges of statehood, slogans, standards, and symbols. In liberated Slovyansk, authorities removed the town’s Lenin statue and discarded it at a dog shelter. In Mariupol, following the removal of the port city's own Lenin, the Azov Battalion held a significant march to mark the unveiling of a new monument to the medieval Slavic ruler, Prince Svyatoslav.
Away from high-level geopolitical wrangling, a humanitarian crisis loomed in the east at the onset of winter. NGO access to Russian-occupied territory remained erratic, devastated infrastructure blighted frontline communities, and the most vulnerable civilians were torn between spending what little they had on food, medicine, or soaring utility bills to keep warm. Conditions in the Russian-occupied town of Pervomaisk were particularly dire. Sporadic shelling continued to strike around this desolate town, which had borne the brunt of catastrophic barrages the previous winter. Civilians endured chronic shortages and hardship; many buildings still stood ruined. The elderly were forced to collect water from a central point, while black market medicine was openly on sale in nearby Donetskyi village.
Behind the flag-waving, vitriolic politics, and slew of digital propaganda, the reality on the ground told a very different story. In Pervomaisk, the profound rift and terrible dearth were evident. The region's residents faced a harsh winter, compounded by ongoing conflict and limited access to essential resources. This stark contrast highlighted the human cost of the prolonged conflict and the challenges of rebuilding amidst such adversity.