Watching the World Cup in a War Zone, Where Every Shot Matters

AVDIIVKA, Ukraine — Headquarters for the 2nd Battalion of the 92nd Brigade of the Ukrainian army is in a pummeled building that once housed the district road repair agency. War has left the building in even worse shape than the roads. At the entrances, sandbags and tires are stacked in fortification. Logs reinforce the basement ceiling against the shelling.

In the command center, a quarter mile from the front line of a simmering conflict, troop locations are shown on one television. There are blue triangles for the Ukrainian military, red diamonds for the Russian-backed separatists. A second television shows surveillance from cameras placed along the firing zone.