Russia's war: Deadly for 11 years

A grim Kyiv Post cover from a decade ago underscores the heavy price Ukraine pays.

This is Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner’s summary of the Jan. 23, 2015, edition, which can be read here in PDF format:

Ukraine is suffering big losses after heavy attacks by Russian-led separatists in two once-strategic areas of the Donbas its soldiers had controlled -- the Donetsk Airport and Debaltseve, a railway center. But the airport is destroyed, and no planes will be flying there anytime soon, and the trains aren't running now through Debaltseve, so the strategic value of holding these spots is questionable. But clearly, Ukraine staked a lot of symbolic pride in its "cyborgs" who kept control of the airport and still have parts of it, according to the Ukrainian government.

We have a round-up on the war front -- a very bloody week in which at least eight civilians were killed at a Donetsk bus stop, and many soldiers killed, wounded, or captured. And Max Tucker also has a report from Ukrainian soldiers in the embattled city of Debaltseve. According to the Kyiv Post count, at least 1,373 Ukrainian soldiers and 4,838 civilians were killed in the 10-month war as both sides fired at each other with incredibly imprecise weapons.

These are not the only important stories. Ukrainian law enforcement believes that Russia is behind a spate of terrorist attacks taking place in cities outside the war zone, with Kharkiv and Odesa as strategic targets.

Several economic stories are in the paper -- probably, most importantly, the reality that Ukraine will have to restructure some of its sovereign debt as a Western aid package is expected to fall billions of dollars short of the mark.

There's lighter news for the war-weary.

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