As we enter 2025, there is a lot of discussion about the territory Ukraine may have to give up in any future peace negotiations with Russia.

The Telegraph visited Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, in the far north east, to better understand how people live their lives under the very real threat of being overrun by Russian forces.

An elementary school which was the scene of a vicious fight in the first week of the invasion is sealed off now, empty but for the bodies of dead Russian soldiers still inside.

But even under daily bombardment, the city lives on.

Children are taught in underground schools and the national theatre performs in a specially-designed bomb-proof basement.

Further north – just 15 miles from the Russian border – the village of Tsyrkuny sits in a restricted zone to which The Telegraph was only given access by embedding with Ukrainian special operations forces.

Humanitarian aid is organised from a building that used to be a children’s theatre.

The lights are still up, but there’s now a missile embedded in what was once the stage.

Outside, the war grinds on.

The people in this part of Ukraine do what they can to carry on living, even as death lies all around them.