“Zelenski’s order works”, more Donbass residents flee the region every day

At the station of Pokrovsk, in the heart of Donbass, Nadiya travels with a small suitcase and a backpack. “People take the essentials, just what they like. Me, it’s drawing. So I took all my equipment”, says the girl. With her mother Olena, they left their apartment in Kramatorsk, in the Donbass region, the same morning. “We were afraid of the bombings. It’s hard to explain… It’s a constant feeling of anxiety that wouldn’t let me go.”

On the dock, Irina Serjiouk, the head of this station located about forty kilometers from the front line, look at the only train of the day leaving the Donbass for good. “As long as the last one is not gone, we stay here”, she says. Since the call to evacuate the Donetsk region launched by Ukrainian President Volodimyr Zelensky ten days ago, the pace of evacuations has accelerated. In total, more than 3,000 inhabitants of this region of the east of the country pounded by the Russians left to take refuge in the west of the country, most of them by train.

“Zelenski’s order is working. The evacuees are increasing every day. They are about 30% more than in previous weeks. And I think that little by little it will increase further. People are leaving.”

Irina Serzhiuk, station manager in Pokrovsk

at franceinfo

“Today there were 400 people. Before we had six wagons for Lviv, and now there are twelve. Half of them go to Kropivnitsky. We’ll have heating problems. That’s why they have to leave”, she explains.

And yet, Pokrovsk is a city that is still very much alive. Passers-by, a bit of traffic and a few open shops like Marina’s little shop, which has no plans to leave. “It’s my area, I’ve lived there all my life, I can’t give it up. I want to stay there. I live in a house. I have a stove, I bought coal. I I am afraid of the bombardments of course, but anyway, it is in all of Ukraine that it is dangerous and there is no guarantee of safety anywhere,” she hammers.

The government cannot force her to leave Donbass. On the other hand, it imposes on him the signature of a discharge to be transmitted to the regional authorities as soon as possible.