POKROVSK — The Russian generals did not waste any time. They saw an opportunity in the current political moment to exert more pressure, and to advance further — and they are seizing it.
Since last Friday, some hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House — which in Ukraine is being referred to as “the ambush” — the intensity of bombardments, air raids and the number of drones hurled along the entire front line has increased to unprecedented levels in the past months.
“It is as if Trump sent a signal to Putin, saying: they are alone now, you can make whatever you want of them,” says Oksana, 61. She is trying to reach her daughter in Kramatorsk, from which they plan to move to the west of the country.
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Once again, people in the Donbass are fleeing.
“They waited not even five hours to drop everything they had on us,” cries the small, slender woman, who single-handedly managed a small farm in the Pokrovsk district. She claims to not be interested in politics, but she is well aware of what happened last week inside the Oval Office.
Trump’s announcement late Monday that the U.S. is suspending military aid to Ukraine is the worst-case scenario for the people in this part of the war-ravaged nation.
“Mister Trump is responsible for all that is happening,” says Oksana, spelling out every single unforgiving word filled with rage. “He should inform himself better, understand what is happening here, he should think before he speaks. He did not offend President Zelensky, but all Ukrainians.”
More pain and fear
The idea that the United States has abandoned Ukraine — and badly so — and the perspective that US military support might soon end is like honey to Russia, which is trying to occupy as much territory as possible in the meanwhile. The difference between threats and concrete actions is a minor detail right now.
Fear is the reality now, and it is concrete. The explosions haven’t stopped for more than three days, train stations represent once again a way to salvation, and civilians exhausted after three years of war have to deal with a president that promises them nothing but more pain and fear.
On Sunday, Russian forces rocked Ukrainian targets with 79 drones. One of these reached a residential district in the city of Kramatorsk, killing a 19-year old in his sleep. Raids on Kharkiv and Sumy are also ongoing, while Kherson woke up to two possible war crimes on Sunday morning, after a drone dropped a bomb on a bus, killing one and injuring 10.
Then, in the afternoon, a Russian drone chased a 48-year old woman inside her car in the Berislav district. She was killed on the spot. The list of attacks against civilians explains a new exodus, a river flowing opposite to the direction seen in the past months. “We are leaving, but only to rest and sleep for a few hours. We will come back to defend our homes,” says Olga, 39.
No way out
Civilians are once again leaving Donetsk and the north of the Kharkiv region, and they are moving to the Kherson region, on the eastern bank of the Dnieper.
“I lived under Russian occupation for two months, those were days of pure terror. They were raiding houses, torturing and beating anyone they thought was a pro-Ukrainian, so pretty much everyone,” recounts Olga, who works at a supermarket in the village of Kiselivka.
She runs the business and looks after the owner’s cat, since he died on the Eastern Front. “I can’t leave again, I just can’t. My parents are still on the other side of the river, in the occupied territories,” she says.
No one has escaped in months, and the only ones doing so are those that manage to go to Russia, moving to Belarus then and asking a network of volunteers for help to cross the border into Europe.
Smarter drones
“I feel almost ashamed to admit that Trump gave me some hope, he seemed so convincing,” says Olga while she cuddles the cat — called ‘Maniac,’ just like the owner’s battle name. “When I heard what he and Vance said, I felt pity for them. But then I thought about my parents, who were forced to accept a Russian passport, and I started fearing that in the future they could be used as ‘proof’ that Ukrainians want to be Russian.”
Although the exodus from the hottest areas is not comparable to that of early 2022, the movement is the same, and the direction also: as far as possible from the eastern and southern fronts. But today the drones are more accurate than before, and gliding bombs leave no escape. The network of volunteers planning evacuations in the Kherson Oblast was forced to halt its operations on Sunday, because of the risks posed to civilians.
Cries for help have increased, “but so have our rejections unfortunately,” says Andrii, a volunteer moving between East and West to bring civilians to safety. Artillery fire can be heard as he speaks, fired by Ukrainians inside pickup trucks patrolling the area around Kherson in an attempt to shoot down Russian drones. Some say that drones equipped with weapons produce a different noise, as if they struggled more than the ones used for reconnaissance, which are lighter. But these are only speculations.
Trapped by fear
“I don’t know a lot about politics, but I know enough to understand what Trump is trying to say. The United States is trying to persuade the world that we are the ones who started the war, as if I enjoyed standing here, shooting at the sky and seeing people dying around me,” says Petro, whose battle name is ‘Lynx.” He turns dark, bites into a still-warm chebureki, and starts talking about the weather, the snow falling in big, slow flakes, and the fog that surrounds us.
“I thought today would be calmer, because the drones have reduced visibility with this weather. But clearly I was wrong,” he says. He then stops to fold his napkin before continuing, as if it was a religious ceremony. “It is as if Ukraine started this war, as if we are the ones who don’t want peace. But maybe the problem is the opposite one, we wanted peace so desperately that we gave up our nukes and handed them to those we should not have trusted.”
it is estimated that 20% of the population in the freed areas of the Kherson Oblast have come back to their homes. But cities and villages appear to be inhabited by ghosts, people with bowed heads trapped by fear. Some kilometers away, Russian forces keep pushing forward, dropping bombs and threatening the Dnieper river.
For the moment, the southern front holds, thanks to weaponry received from the United States, including the Patriot air defense systems and the HImars and Atacms long-range missiles, used to counter attacks, disrupt supply lines and weaken Russia’s defense and industrial capacity.
“There is one thing I am sure of: even if Trump doesn’t change his mind, even if it gets worse, even if I am mad and disappointed, I am still happy, because we all saw Europe standing on our side,” says Petro, before getting back inside his pick-up.
