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Ukraine: Some fled east, others defied government orders to leave

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine –

Maryna Havrysh struggled to hold back tears as she helped a group of volunteers load her elderly parents into an evacuation truck in Kramatorsk, near Russia’s front line in the Ukraine war.

Her 84-year-old father, Viktor Mariukha, was carried out of the house on a stretcher, while her mother Lidia, 79, supported her with a cane as volunteers lifted her under each arm. When the couple left the home they’ve shared for nearly 70 years to begin their journey to a nursing home in western Ukraine, their daughter offered them words of comfort.

But when the van’s sliding door closed, Maryna burst into tears.

“I understand that this will be the last time I see them,” said Maryna, who decided to stay in Kramatorsk with her husband to continue working. “You look at their age, I can’t give them proper care.”

The evacuation of Maryna’s parents, carried out by volunteers from the same Ukrainian aid group, comes days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered all those remaining in the densely populated Donetsk region of the land. The country must evacuate as soon as possible as Russian forces move deeper into the area.

“The more people leave the Donetsk region today, the fewer Russian troops will have to destroy,” Zelenskyy said.

Even as August weather remains warm in eastern Ukraine, authorities are bracing for the cold months of autumn and winter, when they fear that many of Donetsk’s roughly 350,000 residents could die without access to heat, electricity or even clean water.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said a train carrying evacuees from Donetsk had arrived in central Ukraine, representing the beginning of what authorities are describing as an evacuation attempt. Mandatory will move 200,000-220,000 people out of the eastern province. fall.

On the outskirts of Kramatorsk, which is regularly shelled by Russian shelling, volunteers set up a gathering point to gather evacuees, who were then transported to the nearest working train station in Pokrovsk, 85 kilometers away. to the southwest.

As she struggled to board a truck bound for the train station, 87-year-old Valentyna Abramanovska brought only a black and white photograph of her mother and sister taken nearly 50 years ago in the Sea of ​​Azov, a memento of her life. her life to carry. with her.

“God help me, God help me,” she repeated as she walked past her with trembling hands. “I think I’m crazy.”

Abramanovska said she was terrified after the bombings in her village became “a nightmare” and was persuaded by her daughter to leave.

She says she still has childhood memories of German soldiers who occupied Ukraine during World War II. But for her, the experience of Russian bombardment was much worse.

“They’re beasts, jackals. God forgive me for what I’m saying,” she said. “How is that possible? They’re killing children.”

While the government’s evacuation order convinced some of those remaining in the Donetsk region to flee, others resisted.

Nina Grandova’s third-floor apartment in Kramatorsk was damaged by Russian shelling in July, and her disabled husband, Yurii, has lived in the building’s dingy basement since the invasion of Russia. Russia begins on February 24.

However, she said they had no plans to leave, and had been gathering firewood in the yard of her building for cooking over the winter. She is willing to sign a document at the request of the authorities stating that those who stay are responsible for their own lives, she said.

“I have nowhere to go. I have to take care of my husband,” she said. “What happens will happen.”

After being transported to the train station in Pokrovsk, hundreds of evacuees boarded the stuffy train for the several-hour journey west to the city of Dnipro.

Standing on the platform with her young daughter, Viktoria, a young mother from the eastern city of Bakhmut said the danger posed by shelling and the prospect of a heat-free winter were convincing. she ran away.

“We had power problems and no gas, so I think families with children will be the first to leave,” she said.

Moments before the train moved to the west, an air raid siren pierced the air.

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