SLOVIANSK | “The bombs are falling more often”: a hundred people left Thursday Sloviansk, a city in eastern Ukraine now deprived of water and electricity, while the mayor of the city called on residents to evacuate.
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"The situation is getting worse, the explosions are getting louder and the bombs are falling more often," Goulnara Evgaripova, 18, a student, told AFP as she boarded one of the five evacuation minibuses waiting. in front of an administrative building in Sloviansk, Donetsk region.
On Tuesday, a Russian strike killed three people and injured six and caused great damage, according to witnesses interviewed by AFP.
Vadim Liakh, mayor of Sloviansk, which still had some 100,000 inhabitants before the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, reported on Thursday new bombardments on the outskirts of the city, which damaged power lines without causing any damage. victims.
“There is no electricity, the water supply is interrupted,” he wrote on Telegram messaging. “The best solution in this situation is to evacuate. Take care of yourself. Pack your bags,” he said.
“There is no water, my grandmother is disabled and it is difficult for my mother to wash her. If there was running water, we would stay longer”, also confided Dmytro, a 35-year-old worker, also ready to leave.
Unlike other evacuees, they know where to go, he said. But his only wish is for the war to end, because "it's always better at home".
Many analysts, however, expect the war to last for months. And that the fighting continues in the Donbass, where the Russians have advanced in recent weeks, and now control most of the key city of Severodonetsk, some 80 km east of Sloviansk.
"We didn't deserve this"
Kateryna Perednenko, a 24-year-old first aider who returned to Sloviansk five days ago, is already preparing to leave.
“It is very difficult here. It bombards everywhere, it's scary. It's just very scary. No water, electricity or gas”, she lists.
“I am terrified. I still can't believe what is happening to us. It hurts. I fear for my city and fear for my country. And I'm afraid there will soon be nothing left to justify coming back to," she said.
"We are going to Dnipro, from there I will take a train to kyiv (...) then I will go to Europe as a refugee," said Leonid, a 79-year-old retiree.
"It's painful. We didn't deserve this. We don't understand why we are being punished. We are good and peaceful people, and all of a sudden Russia decides that we are fascists, ”he protested.
He says he is convinced that “the Russians will not take our city”, even if he expects Sloviansk to be “intensely bombarded”.
At the end of May, the Russian army seized the key locality of Lyman, which opens the way to Sloviansk, located 25 km to the northeast.
In 2014, pro-Russian separatist forces backed by Moscow captured Sloviansk, before Ukrainian forces later recaptured the city.
