Bombs fall every minute
“Ghost town” Sieverodonetsk under constant fire
04/14/2022 10:51 p.m
Sieverodonetsk is the easternmost city still under Ukrainian control. It could be a first target in a major Russian offensive. She’s been under fire for days. Many civilians have left the city, a few remain and report constant hail of bombs.
Impacts can be heard nearby. With each explosion, Maria hugs her son. Despite the bombing, she does not want to leave Sieverodonetsk. They are among the few civilians remaining in the ghost town, the easternmost city in Ukraine still under Kiev control.
Maria is sitting on the doorstep of a small house with six-year-old Maxim. The hissing of missiles followed by explosions can be heard for about twenty minutes. “There is no more electricity, no water,” says the young woman, who lives here with her husband and mother-in-law. However, she prefers to stay at home. “If we go, where are we going? Those who go, you take care of them for three days and then no more,” says Maria. People would probably have to live in an apartment with many others. Another blast. “The bombs? It’s like that all the time,” she remarks casually.
The border to the pro-Russian separatist areas is very close. Sievjerodonetsk, a city of more than 100,000 before the war, is almost deserted. Since the beginning of the war there have been around 400 funerals in the city, said the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Gajdaj, earlier this week. The morgues in the cities of the region are “full of corpses of civilians”.
Bad weather could slow down Russians
It’s raining this Wednesday. It’s cold and windy, the sky gray, full of low hanging dark clouds. The rain fills the potholes in the streets. Not the best conditions for a major Russian offensive in the Donbass region, which according to Ukrainian information is imminent. The positions at the front have not moved for days, only the artillery of both sides seems active. A few people are out running errands on a major street in the city center. When impacts are heard, they hurry, stooping and walking along the walls.
People leave Seyerodonetsk on foot in mid-March after their bus was unable to continue.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa/ZUMA Press Wire)
An old man and a woman are walking down the street. “I’m looking for something to drink. This woman wants bread. But they don’t sell any,” complains the 70-year-old Yuri. An AFP reporter asked if he wasn’t afraid of the bombs. “I’m scared, very scared, but I’m 70 years old, so I don’t show it,” he replies with a smile. Because of his aching joints, Yuri actually needs medication, “but there are no doctors, no nurses and all pharmacies are closed”.
“Boom, Boom… All Night”
If you want, you can still leave the city. 61-year-old Tamara Yakovenko came to the assembly point in front of the cultural center with her 83-year-old mother. “We will go,” she says. “Here we have to stay in the basement. It’s terrible. There’s a bombardment every 10 or 15 minutes.” At first there were aid deliveries, “but now nobody remembers us,” says Yakovenko. It is not even possible to cook something to eat outside over a fire. “Boom, bang… everyone has to go back to the basement. All night, until morning, there’s no break.”
Ukrainian soldiers with raincoats are standing at a checkpoint at the entrance to the city, and an armored vehicle with a camouflage net is standing at a corner of the house. Some empty transport vehicles can be seen, tank trucks are driving towards the front. According to the governor, the Russians are concentrating their troops near Rubishne, less than ten kilometers north of Sieverodonetsk. A local resident whose home overlooks both cities says Rubishne was bombed all last night.