The soldier took up arms a decade ago to defend her home region, Donetsk, where Ukraine has been battling Russian-backed forces since 2014. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the region has become synonymous with Ukraine’s fight for survival. Battlefield developments in Donetsk are considered a gauge of each side’s fortunes in the war.

It comes after Putin warned that if Trump supplied missiles to Kyiv, it would ‘lead to the destruction’ of Moscow-Washington relations

Russia's 2025 gains would amount to nearly 1% of Ukraine's land area, and the country controls nearly 20% in total.

Russia’s advance into Ukraine slowed by almost half in September, according to the monitoring group DeepState, with Moscow capturing its smallest amount of territory since May.

Thales' new rocket system combines a 70mm laser-guided rocket with a purpose-built anti-drone airburst warhead and proximity fuse.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russian forces had captured almost 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) of land in Ukraine in 2025 and that Moscow retained complete strategic initiative on the battlefield.