Ukrainians flee Russia’s advance in Donbas – Technologist

The family waited until the last moment to leave. “We didn’t want to leave our house, but with the bombing, it became impossible to stay,” said Stas Gabelyuk, 30. This Ukrainian farmer and his wife, Victoria, were evacuated with their three children on Saturday, September 21, from the village of Dachne, near Pokrovsk. This strategic town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has been the scene of intense fighting since July. It now threatens to fall into the hands of the Russians, who are only 7 kilometers away.

The Gabelyuk family was evacuated to Pavlohrad, an hour and a half from Pokrovsk. Since August 13, this small town in the Dnipro region has been home to a transit center for civilians fleeing the Russian advance in Donbas. In six weeks, more than 1,800 people have been taken in, before being redirected to other towns deemed safer and capable of absorbing these new arrivals.

The pace of arrivals is gradually slowing, but evacuations are continuing to save civilians. Some 15,000 people remain in Pokrovsk, compared with 60,000 before the Russian invasion in February 2022, according to Katerina Yanzhula, spokesperson for the city’s administration. The surrounding villages, meanwhile, are home to just 24,000 people in all, compared with 80,000 before the invasion.

Hope for a ‘miracle’

“When they arrive here, people are stressed, scared and disoriented,” said Alina Kudriavska, a member of the NGO Relief Coordination Centre, responsible for welcoming displaced people to Pavlohrad. “They’ve lost their homes and don’t know where to go. But they’re happy to have access to water, electricity and the Internet again, and to be in a quiet place, without bombings.”

That very morning, however, a missile fell on Pavlohrad. “These attacks have become more frequent since we set up the transit center,” the volunteer said. “The building can be a target.” As a precaution, security measures have stepped up: The national police check the profile of every person deemed suspicious, and when new displaced people arrive, volunteers switch off their phones so as not to be detected and to avoid the crowd being targeted.

As night fell on Sunday, September 22, a few volunteers were still busy in the humanitarian tent set up next to the transit center. Two soldiers, energy drinks in hand, passed by. They were on their way back from Pokrovsk. Their mood was somber. “Frankly, I don’t know how Ukraine is going to cope,” one of them said. His identity has been withheld for security reasons. When he returned to Pokrovsk the day before, he was chased by a kamikaze drone. “It was right over my head. I looked up at it. It was terrifying. It made a circle and went off to hit 100 meters from here, on an area of housing. It made a huge explosion.” He shook his head: “I hope there were no more people there.” Disillusioned, this soldier said he was “100% sure that Pokrovsk will fall to the Russians before the end of the year,” and hoped for a miracle so that the Ukrainian army could regain the upper hand.

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