“What happened to Bakhmut for a year and a half happened to Toretsk in 6 months”. Report by Konstantin Liberov from the wounded city

Until 2014, Toretsk, a mining town in Donbas, was home to more than 70,000 people. By the end of 2024, only 1,500 remained. Now, in March 2025, the number of people is unknown.

This city, located between the spoil heaps on the right bank of the Kryvyi Torets River, which flows into the Siverskyi Donets, is experiencing its darkest days. CABs, artillery, incessant fighting - the Russians are destroying Toretsk, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding the line. Here, among the rubble and empty houses, the fight for the city is on.

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From Cossacks to miners

In the 17th century, these lands were colonized by the Cossacks. Legend has it that Anton Shcherbyna founded an outpost here. Later the settlement became the village of Shcherbynivka, part of the Bakhmut district. In 1721, deposits of coal were discovered in the Skeliuvata gully. In 1871, when the railroad came here, Shcherbynivka became the center of coal mining. The industry grew, attracting foreign investment. In 1936, the town was renamed Dzerzhynsk, a symbol of the Soviet regime. After the collapse of the USSR, the city plunged into an economic crisis, and in 2014 it was at the center of the war. In 2016, the city was returned to its historical name, Toretsk.

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More than three months under the flag of the “DPR”

On July 21, 2014, before dawn, the Ukrainian military launched an assault on Toretsk (then Dzerzhynsk), which had been under occupation by Russian troops for more than three months. The main battle took place near the city council building, where the occupiers' headquarters were located. During the assault, one of the Russian tanks fired more than 20 shots at the building, causing a fire. The Ukrainian military were trapped, fighting not only the enemy but also for their own lives, fleeing the smoke and flames. Eight hours of fighting ended in victory - the Ukrainian flag flew over the city again, and the captured militants were handed over to the relevant authorities.

From 2014 to 2022, the residents of Toretsk fought for their city, organizing patriotic actions, restoring the community and faith in a peaceful future. The war did not recede, and the front line remained close by. Today, in 2025, Toretsk is once again at the epicenter of the assaults. The Russians do not stop trying to wipe the city off the map.

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The fate of the city in 2025

Since the summer of 2024, Russian troops have been gradually pushing out Ukrainian defenders, reaching the eastern outskirts of the city in October. Most residents evacuated, but some remained, surviving under constant shelling. In January 2025, Russian troops controlled most of the city.

On February 7, the Russians announced the complete capture of Toretsk, but Ukrainian sources denied this. According to Viktor Tregubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsia unit, the enemy organized an information operation to plant flags in various locations.

“Moreover, a large number of Russians died under Ukrainian drones, just trying to put these flags on high points,” Tregubov said on March 10, 2025.

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The Russians are forced to accept reality and are now trying to rectify the situation at least in their own eyes. “Because the question arises: how can the Russian Defense Ministry announce the capture of the city of Toretsk, while Ukrainians are constantly posting videos of fighting in this city? It seems illogical. So they have, in a way, shifted their efforts there. But I can't say that they are having great success there. It is very difficult there, of course, but it has been very difficult there for a very long time,” Tregubov emphasized.

The Russians are trying to justify their defeats by making fake videos. Ukrainian troops continue to defend the city despite intense shelling and difficult conditions. Toretsk is holding on, although the price of this struggle is incredibly high.

Today, the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers presents the photos of Konstantin Liberov, a documentary photographer and UAPF member who captured the battle for Toretsk by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in early February 2025.

His photo reportage is not just a series of shots, but a profound testimony to the cruel reality of war, which is becoming more and more destructive every day, leaving only devastation and loss.

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The city through the eyes of Konstantin Liberov

“I am recording these answers on March 1, so we will have to roll back about a month. The last time I was in Toretsk was in early February, on the 4th or 5th. It was the outskirts of the city, the private sector on its outskirts. Could I say that it was dangerous there or that there was a real threat of immediate Russian entry? Not really,” says Konstantin.

DeepState maps at the time showed that Russian troops had already entered the city and controlled most of it.

“When I tried to launch the drone over the city, I immediately felt the strength of their electronic warfare. It was like an invisible wall that stood literally on the outer high-rise buildings and prevented the drone from penetrating deeper,” the photographer says.

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A year ago, in February 2024, Kostiantyn and his photographer wife Vlada became the last journalists to visit Avdiivka before the city was completely captured by the Russians. They saw the last hours of its freedom.

“I would not want to be the last journalist to visit Toretsk before it was occupied. I hope that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to regain their positions, and judging by the news, some brigades have already returned to the city center,” Konstantin admits.

The fear of a possible occupation of the city was quite real. After all, in February 2025 alone, the Russians made several claims about the alleged capture of Toretsk, which turned out to be false.

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How war has changed: the threat of fiber optic drones

The photographer recalls that the situation in the city was terrible. In the third year of the full-scale invasion, the war is already similar to what we are used to seeing in movies. There are no clear front lines, no street-by-street tactics.

“If you manage to get to a shelter before an FPV drone flies overhead or an explosive is dropped from a UAV, it is already considered control of the territory.”

Kostyantyn has filmed battles on the front line many times, and has also gone on assaults with the military. But Toretsk remained a relative rear for a long time, albeit under constant rocket attacks.

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“We didn't even think that Toretsk could be under full Russian control until the summer of 2024,” he explains. ”The last time we were in the city with the authorities, we made two separate trips in late summer 2024. Vlada was working with the evacuation team of volunteer Denys Khrystof, known as the Dutchman, and during that trip they were almost hit by an FPV drone. They miraculously managed to run for cover, and thanks to the armored vehicle they had come in, they managed to avoid being hit by debris. On the same day, I worked with one of the brigades holding the defense in that area and realized that it was impossible to go further than the central market. At that time, fiber-optic drones had already begun to appear.”

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Liberov emphasizes that the tactics of war have changed in recent months:

“Of course, this is the massive emergence of fiber-optic drones. This is a completely different weapon. It transmits video in the highest quality without delays, has no limitations due to the radio range, and the worst thing is that standard rescue schemes no longer work here. Running into a pit, hiding behind a tree or in a shelter no longer guarantees safety.”

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The photographer says that during his last trip to Toretsk, he noticed a large number of wires left behind by these drones along the roads and fields. These are tens of kilometers of fiber optics, which indicate the scale of their use.

Toretsk as a symbol of a new war

Bakhmut has become a symbol of the Russian army's advance through the territory of Ukraine. It was one of the fiercest battles, and every new city that comes under threat is inevitably compared to Bakhmut.

“I think that after the fall of Bakhmut, the war became much tougher. What happened to Bakhmut for a year and a half happened to Toretsk in just six months. The Russians have become much better at destroying cities. They have adapted their tactics, their methods have become more systematic and destructive. The massive use of guided aerial bombs and continuous drone attacks have changed the rules of the game. Toretsk, as we saw it, was no longer the reliable rear city we remembered. The Russians are not just advancing - they are methodically wiping cities off the map. And this is no longer a process that takes years, as it was in Bakhmut. It is a matter of weeks. When I last visited the city, one thing was clear: there was no life there anymore. The civilian population left Toretsk in early September 2024, and now the city is nothing but ruins,” the photographer says.

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Toretsk as it was known before has ceased to exist. Sometimes people who survived after spending months in basements appear.

“Russian propaganda uses them for staged videos, making them say: 'Hurray! We were liberated! But this is not life. This is a performance designed to justify the destruction of another Ukrainian city,” emphasizes Kostiantyn.

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“Running in heavy equipment, listening carefully to the sky”  

When asked whether it is difficult to shoot in the vicinity of Toretsk, Kostiantyn says that “it's not even about difficulty - it's about working at the peak of your abilities, combining equipment, in my case Sony A1, endurance and cold calculation.”

Journalism on the front line is between life and death. Filming in a war zone is always a risk. Kostyantyn is convinced that modern warfare dictates its own rules, and you need only two things to shoot it: endurance and luck. The first can be trained. The second is a matter of chance.

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“Once there was a question of urgent delivery of batteries to the extreme infantry positions. It had to be done immediately, so the company commander took responsibility, and together with the press officer of the 28th Brigade we moved forward. The only feeling I have left from that transition is a lack of oxygen. You just run. You run in heavy equipment, listening carefully to the sky. If you hear the sound of a drone, you immediately fall down and look for shelter. The problem is that it is getting harder to find it. There are almost no buildings. If you manage to find a basement, you're lucky, but no one can guarantee that it will withstand the attack,” says Kostiantyn. ‍

A war of destruction

“I constantly feel the urge to shout, to talk about it, to show everyone what Russia is doing to my country. It's not just a war for territory, it's a war of destruction. And if the world doesn't see this scale now, if we don't talk about it, then tomorrow any other city may look like this,” the photographer concludes. ”The world doesn't know enough about Toretsk. But it's not just about this city - it's about thousands of Ukrainian towns and villages that Russia is methodically turning into the same ruins.”

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The scenario repeats itself over and over again: first, constant shelling, then systematic destruction, and finally scorched earth. Toretsk has already become another victim of this strategy. But the struggle continues. And as long as there are those who document this war, the truth about it will not be forgotten.

Documentary filmmaker Olha Kovaleva visited Toretsk in early 2024. Back then, it was seven kilometers to the front line. Read how the Russians are trying to destroy Toretsk and the Ukrainians are trying to defend it in our article.

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Konstantin and Vlada Liberov. A couple of photographers from Odesa. They started their career focusing on creative and emotional stories. At the beginning of the invasion, they changed the vector of their work, focusing on artistic documentary: their photos from the hot spots of Ukraine go viral on social media, gaining hundreds of thousands of reposts, and are published by influential media outlets such as BBC, Welt, Vogue, Forbes, and are also shared by the President of Ukraine and other high-ranking officials. Instagram of photographers.

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We worked on the material:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Vira Labych
Editorial director: Olga Kovaleva
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladyslav Kukhar