| | | Fascists
Notes from a frontline factory in eastern Ukraine
Timothy Snyder
Sep 07, 2025
Today I visited a factory in southeastern Ukraine. Tonight, with a moment to myself during an air raid, I want to give voice to a worker I met, A.
The factory is an impressive tube-rolling mill in Nikopol, on the Dnipro River. The Russians are on the other side of the river. The factory makes pipes for export and employs about three thousand people. The Russians try to destroy it.
Russian attacks on the factory are part of a campaign of murderous destruction that is visible from the rubble of the big supermarket at the edge of Nikopol to the damaged old town. There is no Ukrainian military presence.
Ukrainian civilians are vulnerable to Russian missiles and drones. Cities close to the front are especially at risk, since the time between a missile launch and contact is measured in seconds. In Kharkiv or Zaporizhzhia, for example, the time is about 40 seconds.
In Nikopol the situation is more drastic still, since it is also within artillery range. The time from launch of an artillery shell to contact is about seven seconds. I kept being reminded not to wear my seatbelt; you lose the seven seconds that way.
The Russians have been trying to destroy the pipe mill in Nikopol for three years. It has been hit by drones and it has been hit by shells. Provisions have...
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