The Donbas region has been outside Ukraine’s sphere of influence for 12 years now, and its fate could follow that of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and a major scientific, technical, and transportation hub. At the end of 2025, Putin tasked his General Staff with creating a buffer zone on the Ukrainian-Russian border. This diagram clearly shows that, due to its proximity to the Russian border, most of Kharkiv falls within the buffer zone. Kharkiv residents already live under constant rolling blackouts, attacks from cruise and ballistic missiles, drones, and glide bombs. This means that the coming year could become a true apocalypse and a struggle for survival for Kharkiv residents.