After the Ukrainian military recaptured various cities across eastern Ukraine this week, VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky visited Debaltseve, a town at a strategic crossroads between Donetsk and Luhansk. The army appeared to be using the victory in Debaltseve to isolate those two rebel-held cities while it prepared to retake the MH17 crash site. Its successful campaign has come at a high cost of civilian deaths and troop casualties, however, forcing refugees to flee the fighting as the army works its way south.