On the line: Inside the 17 June Guardian Weekly | Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has been shifting to Donbas in recent weeks, as Russia focuses its military might towards the eastern front.

In an eerie echo of photographic dispatches from the Vietnam war in the 1960s, our cover image this week – taken by Diego Herrera Carcedo – captures some of the despair and anxiety suffered by Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the eastern front, as they come under sustained artillery fire.

Amid reports of fierce fighting, some estimates claim Ukraine’s forces in the region are outnumbered by 15 to 1, with Kyiv’s troop losses running as high as 150 a day. Luke Harding and Isobel Koshiw speak to soldiers who have been ravaged by weeks of conflict. Dan Sabbagh examines the impact of sustained heavy losses on Ukrainian morale. Phillip Inman, a journalist, assesses the impact of western sanctions against Russia amid calls to lift them to make it more attractive to Moscow.

Since the disappearance of Bruno Pereira (a Brazilian activist) and Dom Phillips, a British journalist earlier this month, there has been much anger. As hopes for their safe return faded this week, we look at how a shared love of the Amazon brought Phillips, who was a frequent contributor to the Guardian Weekly, and Pereira, a respected advocate for the rights of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples, together.

A ship in British waters received an emergency call in October 2020. After a full-scale commando raid, seven Nigerians were taken off in handcuffs – but no one was ever charged. Samira Shackle investigates the true story of what happened aboard.

Next, we will tackle the perennial issue of age. Does anyone ever really feel “grown up”? Moya Sarner enquires about the feelings of older people.

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