Anton Aleksejev, Donetski oblast, Družkivka
Russia is demanding the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donbas, warning that otherwise it will achieve its goals by force. At the same time, more and more towns and villages in Donbas are being reduced to ruins.
Over the past two months, Druzhkivka has changed drastically. Ruins and deserted streets stand out. Death can be felt everywhere. No one knows who will become the next target of a Russian missile, shell, or drone.
Before the war, 30,000 people lived there; now less than a quarter remain. The curfew in Druzhkivka is strict – people are only allowed to be outside between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Grigori evacuated from Druzhkivka but later changed his mind and returned to his hometown.
“We lived together in a school classroom there. The conditions were in place – there was a shower and a kitchen. The problem was electricity; there were constant outages. The conditions are the same both here and there. Recently, we have had major problems with electricity and other services here,” Grigori said.
Sõjapurustused Družkivka linnas Autor/allikas: Priit Mürk/ERR
The problem is that there is no electricity at all. Igor goes to a small remaining shop that has a generator to charge his lamp — it is his only source of light. According to Igor, the city still had electricity recently, and humanitarian aid was being distributed.
“The humanitarian aid has probably run out. The last time it was distributed was a month ago. There has never been such a long gap before. Truck drivers probably no longer dare to come here,” Igor said.
Early the next morning, we went back to Druzhkivka to evacuate an elderly couple together with volunteers. However, we never reached our destination — we got into a traffic accident at an empty intersection in the center of Druzhkivka. Fortunately, no one was injured. An hour later, police arrived on foot, and shortly after that — a Russian fiber-optic drone.
The men were unable to shoot the drone down. The Zhiguli car continued under its own power. A local car mechanic offered us help, but couldn’t fix the problem and only advised us to drive back as slowly as possible. On the way back, our drone radar started beeping hysterically — a Russian drone was hunting us.
Since our low speed was not enough to escape the drone, we decided to stop and hide. When we finally made it back to the evacuation point, we met the same elderly couple there, who had been evacuated from Druzhkivka by another team.
“We should have left earlier. We should have calmly packed our things and left. Before, it was possible to arrange transport ourselves. But we delayed until the very last moment. We hoped the war would end. We will never be able to return — that’s it,” said Ljubov.
Sõjapurustused Družkivka linnas Autor/allikas: Priit Mürk/ERR
Toimetaja: Marko Tooming
