DONETSK REGION, Ukraine — On the salty shore of Sloviansk, Sasha, a 22-year-old soldier from Kherson, sips a beer and drags on a cigarette. Behind him, the salt lakes shimmer, a mirror where sky and earth blur together. In the distance, a column of smoke marks something burning. Along the shoreline, civilians and returning refugees, back for a weekend in their home region, rest uneasily beside soldiers on rotation. The summer has dragged on longer than any winter. Faces are drawn, expressionless. Situated just 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) from the front line, the lake of Sloviansk is one of the last fragile pockets of peace left in the Donetsk region. Russian forces have been pressing all along the front since late spring, and today, they are trying to encircle the city of Kostiantynivka. “Pokrovsk could fall by autumn,” one soldier tells me. On the diplomatic front, Ukraine has had to reinvent its relationship with the U.S. under the Trump administration.
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