With the Russian army at its doorstep and closing in quickly, Pokrovsk is a town bowing to reality. The police drive around with loudspeakers blaring instructions to leave now. Municipal workers have shipped out library books, elementary school desks and statues from parks and squares.
By late afternoon, with a curfew in effect, the streets were eerily deserted last week, except for military vehicles zipping about.
[…]
President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military commander have conceded that the offensive into Russia, which began Aug. 6, fell short of the objective of forcing Moscow to redeploy forces from the Donbas region of Ukraine.
Now, it is too late to ensure that Pokrovsk will be protected from artillery bombardment, the town’s military administrator said.
In the fast-moving fighting in fields and villages nearby, the Ukrainian military has retreated in places by more than a mile a day, soldiers fighting in the area said. The Russians are now six miles outside the town.
[…]
Russian forces since April have ground through five defensive lines east of Pokrovsk, said Serhiy Dobryak, the town’s military administrator. With only two more lines remaining, the incursion into Russia, and the potential diversion it might cause, was essentially a last hope.
The town for now is not at risk of imminent capture, he said, but officials expect a sustained artillery bombardment that is likely to leave it in ruins. That has been the fate of other Ukrainian towns like Bakhmut and Avdiivka that Russia pummeled into rubble before forcing Ukraine to pull back.
“They will bring the artillery nearby and they will destroy the town,” Mr. Dobryak said. “That will happen.”
With that prospect looming, the town’s population has dropped from about 62,000 inhabitants at the beginning of August to 36,000 today. Signs of people fleeing are everywhere.
[…]
At a school repurposed for registering internally displaced people, volunteers with an aid group, Light of Donbas, handed stuffed geese to children as they boarded buses, to ease the trip. “People realize they will have to leave forever,” said Alyona Fyodorova, a volunteer. “It’s painful to see.”
Nina Mashtikhina, 71, who was moving to live with her daughter in western Ukraine, said the army did its best, even if the town will not be saved.
“I thank them. They are good guys,” she said. “I believe in them. I believe in our victory.”
[…]
Nearby in a field, sweaty, dust-covered soldiers with the 15th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard firing a howitzer said they were aiming for a Russian position near a coal mine’s slag that only five days earlier had been a Ukrainian stronghold. “We just don’t have the people,” said the commander, who asked to be identified by his nickname, Doker, in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol.
Russia’s slow response to the Kursk incursion could reflect disorganization in its military, said Johan Norberg, a military analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, or alternatively it could be a strategic trade-off — capturing more territory in Ukraine while leaving its own lightly guarded.
“They had momentum in Donbas, so why not carry that through?” he said of the possible Russian calculation, with an intention to turn to Kursk later. “Russia can easily trade territory for time,” he said. The incursion bore a cost for Mr. Putin domestically and abroad by signaling an inability to defend the border, he said.
It has not, though, slowed the advance in the Donbas, forcing a sad reckoning for those now leaving Pokrovsk.
Vitalia Trusova, 37, an economist for the national railway company, sat on a chair on the sidewalk hugging her daughter, watching the contents of her home loaded onto a moving truck.
“We are leaving forever,” she said. “We and the kids will build a new life somewhere quiet.”
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Summary:
With the Russian army at its doorstep and closing in quickly, Pokrovsk is a town bowing to reality. The police drive around with loudspeakers blaring instructions to leave now. Municipal workers have shipped out library books, elementary school desks and statues from parks and squares.
By late afternoon, with a curfew in effect, the streets were eerily deserted last week, except for military vehicles zipping about.
[…]
President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military commander have conceded that the offensive into Russia, which began Aug. 6, fell short of the objective of forcing Moscow to redeploy forces from the Donbas region of Ukraine.
Now, it is too late to ensure that Pokrovsk will be protected from artillery bombardment, the town’s military administrator said.
In the fast-moving fighting in fields and villages nearby, the Ukrainian military has retreated in places by more than a mile a day, soldiers fighting in the area said. The Russians are now six miles outside the town.
[…]
Russian forces since April have ground through five defensive lines east of Pokrovsk, said Serhiy Dobryak, the town’s military administrator. With only two more lines remaining, the incursion into Russia, and the potential diversion it might cause, was essentially a last hope.
The town for now is not at risk of imminent capture, he said, but officials expect a sustained artillery bombardment that is likely to leave it in ruins. That has been the fate of other Ukrainian towns like Bakhmut and Avdiivka that Russia pummeled into rubble before forcing Ukraine to pull back.
“They will bring the artillery nearby and they will destroy the town,” Mr. Dobryak said. “That will happen.”
With that prospect looming, the town’s population has dropped from about 62,000 inhabitants at the beginning of August to 36,000 today. Signs of people fleeing are everywhere.
[…]
At a school repurposed for registering internally displaced people, volunteers with an aid group, Light of Donbas, handed stuffed geese to children as they boarded buses, to ease the trip. “People realize they will have to leave forever,” said Alyona Fyodorova, a volunteer. “It’s painful to see.”
Nina Mashtikhina, 71, who was moving to live with her daughter in western Ukraine, said the army did its best, even if the town will not be saved.
“I thank them. They are good guys,” she said. “I believe in them. I believe in our victory.”
[…]
Nearby in a field, sweaty, dust-covered soldiers with the 15th Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard firing a howitzer said they were aiming for a Russian position near a coal mine’s slag that only five days earlier had been a Ukrainian stronghold. “We just don’t have the people,” said the commander, who asked to be identified by his nickname, Doker, in keeping with Ukrainian military protocol.
Russia’s slow response to the Kursk incursion could reflect disorganization in its military, said Johan Norberg, a military analyst at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, or alternatively it could be a strategic trade-off — capturing more territory in Ukraine while leaving its own lightly guarded.
“They had momentum in Donbas, so why not carry that through?” he said of the possible Russian calculation, with an intention to turn to Kursk later. “Russia can easily trade territory for time,” he said. The incursion bore a cost for Mr. Putin domestically and abroad by signaling an inability to defend the border, he said.
It has not, though, slowed the advance in the Donbas, forcing a sad reckoning for those now leaving Pokrovsk.
Vitalia Trusova, 37, an economist for the national railway company, sat on a chair on the sidewalk hugging her daughter, watching the contents of her home loaded onto a moving truck.
“We are leaving forever,” she said. “We and the kids will build a new life somewhere quiet.”
!ping Ukraine