Having packed their meager belongings in plastic bags and carts, the inhabitants of Derhaci – a city in northeastern Ukraine, near the border with Russia – abandon their homes. They board buses to leave the area as fears of a new attack by the Russian military intensify.
Following their withdrawal from the outskirts of Kiev last week, Russian forces have turned their attention to southern and eastern Ukraine.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukrainethe Kharkiv (the second largest city in the country) was still under fire today and the authorities expected that Russian troops would soon launch a large-scale operation to occupy the city.
Many residents of Derhachi, located north of Kharkov and 30 kilometers from the border with Russia, decided to leave the city as long as they could. Many buildings have been severely damaged by Russian artillery.
“The bombings have intensified in recent days. I am very worried about my children “says Mikola, a father of two, hugging his youngest son who is wrapped in a blanket to keep warm, while he can hardly hold back his tears.
At least eight buses and trucks left the city today, in an evacuation operation organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross, bound for Poltava, about 150 kilometers west. A family with her dog, a mother holding her baby and an elderly woman leaning on her cane, waited patiently for their turn to leave.
“It’s unbearable, it’s scary. “Everything is in disrepair, the window panes are broken,” said Nina, a middle-aged woman whose daughter has already left. She explains that the balcony of her house was hit by a bomb and that she had sought refuge in the bathroom and later in the basement.
Another woman, Irina, reports: “I do not want to leave, I leave everything behind. “But I have no choice.”
Even inside the church the marks from the fragments are visible. The town hall was destroyed. A little further on is a memorial plaque in honor of the Soviet army that liberated Derhaci from the Nazis on August 12, 1943.
Mayor Vyacheslav Zandorenko, who stayed in the city, says he has no information about an impending Russian attack. “Our armed forces are defending the city, so there is no need to panic,” he told Reuters. He added, however, that “given what happened in Boutsa and Hostomel, we should remove as many residents as we can.”
Ukrainian authorities have blamed the Russian military for killing civilians in Bhutan and other nearby towns, where Reuters reporters saw the bodies of people shot at close range, some with their hands tied to poles.
The Kremlin denies the allegations, citing propaganda. Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council on Tuesday that the Russian military was not launching attacks on civilians, calling the allegations “false.” He claimed that when Butsa was under Russian control “not a single citizen was subjected to any form of violence”.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
