One of the main front lines in Donbass, in eastern Ukrainewhere the Ukrainian army is confronting the Russian forces, was stable today but the pressure is intensifying, in view of the impending attack of Moscow.
The Ukrainian soldiers have taken up positions in and around the village of Kransopilia, where artillery fire is heard at regular intervals.
This village, in a wooded valley, is located on the road leading from Izium – a city recently occupied by Russian forces – to the Ukrainian-controlled cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. The front line holds and has stabilized over the past two weeks on this section of road, about 25 km north of Slovyansk.
Today, no automatic weapons were heard from the village of Krasnopilia.
However, all sources interviewed in this area estimate that Russian attack is imminent and could start at any time.
“We know the Russians are stepping up and preparing to attack,” an official told AFP, noting that Russian helicopter flights over the front had increased, usually signaling a large-scale attack.
“We are ready (…) We have prepared some surprises for them,” said the officer, smiling wickedly.
-We are waiting for them! –
In anticipation of the battle, the soldiers focus on their preparations and appear optimistic.
“We are waiting for them!” said a lieutenant, whose team undertook to reinforce the trenches and positions of the soldiers by placing logs around the road axis. In the forest there are scattered armor and camouflaged weapons.
This road Izium-Sloviansk axis considered as one of them main for the Moscow attack that everyone is waiting for in Donbass.
After Russia announced that it would “focus its efforts on the liberation of Donbas”, this historic Ukrainian and former USSR mining basin is living with the agony of the attack.
The Ukrainian army has been deployed since 2014 along a line that stretches from Donetsk in the south to Luhansk in the east (the capitals of the separatist “homonymous” republics) and now reaches Izium in the northwest.
At the center of this basin are Kramatorsk, the de facto capital of the province since October 2014 and the “twin city”, Sloviansk. Many residents are afraid that Russian forces will attempt a cyclical move, as was done in Mariupol, to occupy the entire area.
The military and political authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk have urged civilians to flee to the west of the country.
Russian forces will “liberate” Mariupol from “nationalists”, the Ministry of Defense announced
At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense warned tonight that Russian forces will “liberate” Mariupol from the Ukrainian “nationalists”, Reuters reports, citing the Russian agency RIA.
Another agency, Interfax, reported that Moscow had offered to withdraw Ukrainian forces from the city, but they refused.
-Discharge-
This morning, cars forming a three-kilometer-long queue, often with suitcases on the roof, waited at the checkpoint to head to Slovyansk and Kramatorsk and from there to the west. The evacuation in the last few days took place mainly by train from Kramatorsk station. However, the services were suspended in the morning because of the night bombardments, which damaged the railway lines, as announced by the Ukrainian railway company.
Late in the afternoon, a train finally boarded people to leave. At the station, where hundreds of people, mostly women, children and the elderly, waited patiently, as in previous days, the evacuation continued calmly, with the help of volunteers.
According to an AFP reporter, the night bombing – most likely rockets or long-range missiles – destroyed a school next to a police building.
The Kramatorsk has been turned into a ghost town: most residents are gone, traffic is banned at night and those who stay there live to the sound of sirens. It is very difficult to get fuel and most of the shops are closed.
“The climate is tense, everyone is nervous, we have to leave now,” said a volunteer at the train station.
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