(Sélydové) When she learned that a Russian missile had hit the maternity ward of the hospital that employed her, in Selydové in eastern Ukraine, and that dozens of patients were evacuated in the middle of the night, Olena Obodets said is rushed to the spot.
A few days after this attack, she told AFP with tears in her eyes that she saw the hospital in flames. The strike killed a 36-year-old pregnant woman as well as a mother and her 9-year-old son.
” Tears. Nightmare. Fear,” recalls Olena.
Selydové is located 30 kilometers east of Avdiïvka, a town which has just been conquered by the Russian army, a defeat which revives distressing questions among the inhabitants of the region: should we flee now or hope that can the Ukrainian forces, in difficulty, save them?
“I hear a lot of people in the city wondering if they are going to evacuate or not,” explains Olena, aged 42, as the acrid smell of charred concrete hangs in the air, mingling with the muffled sounds of artillery in the distance.
” People are scared. My daughter asks me every day to evacuate, but I tell her the time is not right yet,” she says.
As the fighting draws closer, police – including officers forced to flee Russian-conquered cities – face the daunting task of evacuating civilians from an increasingly dangerous area.
Russian strikes and advances have also pushed more people to leave, explains Oleksandra Gavrylko, 31, spokesperson for the regional police.
“Today, we evacuate killed civilians more often. We transport the bodies of the dead so that their loved ones can bury them,” she told AFP.
Where to go?
Next to a Soviet-era World War II memorial in Selydove, a small number of people were returning to burning homes – struck an hour before the hospital – to collect belongings.
A panicked mother carrying bags of belongings from her damaged apartment says she will stay anyway. Her daughter says she wants to leave.
Prosecutor Olena Ossadtcha, 40, has already fled the city of Donetsk, which fell into pro-Russian hands in 2014. The authorities gave her the opportunity to continue her work in the city of Dnipro, further west.
“We’ll leave, but we haven’t figured out where yet. I don’t want to go to Dnipro. We’re not safe there either,” she says.
A sushi restaurant reopened in Selydové this month, demonstrating the determination of some residents to stay even if the situation deteriorates.
The director of the ruined hospital, Oleg Kiachko, aged 46, says that after the latest strikes, nearly twenty employees out of the 350 who remained announced their intention to leave the city.
Workers carried bags of medical equipment, stepping over shards of glass and twisted strips of metal, while city workers repaired broken windows.
“We’re all thinking about where it would be better to go. But if the situation demands that we be here today, then we are here. I’m not going anywhere right now,” adds director Kiachko.
” More people ”
Several kilometers from Avdiïvka, near the village of Progress, Ukrainian troops are digging new defensive lines.
The last store in the village is still selling its stock, a few hours after its windows were blown out by bombing.
An employee, in tears, and the owner wonder if they will reopen given the increase in bombings and the departure of customers, some of whom had already fled Avdiïvka.
“When things get really bad, there won’t be anyone here.” No one will buy food,” says Dmytro Dymytrov, 40, owner of the store.
Outside, Viktor, a 66-year-old retiree, hangs as many water bottles as he can on his bike. He is not concerned about the sounds of artillery guns, but admits that they are becoming more frequent and louder.
“My neighbors have gone to Dnipro, but I have nowhere to go,” he explains.
Police spokeswoman Oleksandra Gavrylko says older people – like Viktor – are the hardest to persuade to leave.
“They want to die on their own land,” she notes.