Evacuation is a word that absorbed tears, despair, pain of separation, hope for return. It is difficult to imagine what a person feels when standing on a platform in front of an evacuation train.
On June 13, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk stated that 4.6 million people have IDP status in Ukraine as of May 2024.
Russian propaganda spreads fakes on the topic of evacuation, discrediting the Ukrainian authorities, military and volunteers.
In their fake materials, propagandists refer to the words of people who are called “locals”, “refugees” from frontline settlements.
Yes, “Arguments and Facts”, referring to a New Yorker, tells about the fact that the Ukrainian authorities and the organization “White Angel” take children from their parents by force.
“Also, the man told about a case in the Donetsk city of Kostiantynivka, where parents were deprived of parental rights right on the spot.
“A minibus arrived, a mother with two children came out... She was put in handcuffs in one car, the children in another. They look at the state of health - at organs or at pedophiles,” the New Yorker noted, - writes “Arguments and Facts”.
Propaganda edition “Ukraine.ru” “Refugees from Toretsk” said that “Ukrainian military constantly pelted civilians with incendiary bombs”:
Hostile media “Abzac” says: “The Ukrainian military took everything out of empty huts in the village of New York to the DPR, which people, leaving, threw with furniture and things. The Armed Forces even took away clothes, which were then handed over to second-hand for weight, said refugee Yuriy Mukhin in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“We adjusted the cars, took all the things - and to Konstantinovka. There was a truck, things for 40 hryvnias per kilogram were taken as a second hand (the one that was in use - for example) and next to the cars they were sold for 60 hryvnias,” recalled the evacuee from the village.
“Arguments and Facts” in the article “They beat like enemies.” The Nazis slaughtered and burned the local population of Toretsk” writes how, advancing in the Donetsk direction, in the liberated neighborhoods of Toretsk, the Russian military “finds many murdered civilians who were destroyed by the nationalists during the retreat.”
“The day before, the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced a forced evacuation in Toretsk, expelling people from their homes who resisted — simply shot, suspecting pro-Russian sentiments,” the propaganda media says.
“They knew where people were hiding, they were watching them from drones, how we were walking on water, how they tried to bury a neighbor who was just shot by the Armed Forces. And they, as always, try to beat in the basements, launch a copter there. They see that there are only women and old. But whoever made it, he jumped out. The rest are dying,” said one woman rescued from Toretsk.
“List of crimes against civilians from the side of the Kiev regime stretches from Mariupol, Avdiivka and other cities,” the media concluded.
Russia is throwing all its forces to capture the cities and villages of Donbas. When the Russian army gets closer to settlements, it turns them into ruins, using scorched-earth tactics. Pokrovsky direction is now one of the hottest areas of the front.
The Russian Defense Ministry constantly states that its troops do not attack cities that are completely focused on military infrastructure, there is no threat to the civilian population.
However, staying in a settlement to which the front is approaching is dangerous. The presence of civilians there hinders the work of the Ukrainian army.
In March 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a resolution on the forced evacuation of children from dangerous settlements. Despite this, the police and volunteers have to persuade the families to agree to the evacuation.
Evacuation in Ukraine has now accelerated. This can be done by evacuation trains, with the help of police crews, the emergency service, military, volunteers and volunteer funds.
People are taken out, resettled, if necessary, documents are restored. It is difficult to convey to people who are practically on the line of contact that they will not leave for good.
Ukrainian and foreign media periodically cover the process of evacuating civilians from cities to which the front approaches.
The Guardian In the article dated August 27 of this year “It just hurts me: Pokrovsk is collecting things because the Russian invaders are approaching” tells the stories of people huddling in the heat near the cars of the evacuation train to go to Rivne region. They are preparing for “a 21-hour journey to a part of the country they do not know, it is unclear if they will ever be able to return.”
“It just hurts me,” — and worries that many other locals have not yet decided to leave the city. “There are still many people left, and they do not realize that they may die. It's too dangerous, especially if you have children.”, — says 33-year-old Marina, a resident of Pokrovska, mother of 3 children, in an interview with the British media.
“The Russians are not changing. They destroyed Bakhmut and Avdiyivka, and what can happen to Pokrovsk?” he says. The conclusion is disappointing: “They frankly say it's a gray area cleared of people,” he says in an interview The Guardian Sergey Dobriak, head of the Pokrovsk city military administration.
Interactive media about Russia's war against Ukraine Frontliner in the photo report “Pokrovsk is evacuated” tells how people leave en masse and export businesses, retail chains stop working, most doctors no longer accept, pharmacies are closed.
“Pokrovsk Center Looks Survived As if the war is not so close, roses bloom in the alleys, the smell of coffee pours from coffee shops, but there are almost no children around, on the streets you can more often meet military than civilians. A sense of anxiety hangs over the city. The war is constantly reminded of the sounds of explosions, which have become commonplace here,” writes Frontliner.
In addition to the evacuation trains, there are several volunteer teams in Pokrovsky district to help people escape from shelling.
There are still people looking for volunteers to help transport livestock. Someone is looking for volunteers who are engaged in the transportation of low-mobility groups of the population.
“Every man has his reasons, Why doesn't he want to leave the city. Someone can not leave sick relatives, someone is afraid that in a new place it will be difficult without their housing and material support from the state. Elderly people say that they want to die in their city on their native land, believe that in other regions no one expects them and no one needs them. It is also difficult to leave the graves of relatives, because there is a possibility that we will no longer return to the city,” he writes Frontliner.
“If I die, I would be better off here. But the military every day explains that we need to leave, because fighting can occur so that we are not a living shield, so that it is easier for them to repulse the city,” Volodymyr, a 66-year-old resident of Pokrovsk, listened to the military's advice.
Since September 5, due to the difficult security situation, evacuation trains from Pokrovsk station have been canceled. Instead, Pavlohrad, located more than 100 kilometers from Pokrovsk, became the departure station for evacuation trains.
Evacuation from small towns and villages is much more difficult. Often these are quite risky trips for volunteers. They go after people in broken settlements, where it is difficult to drive, and cars are constantly hunted by FPV drones.
Odessa photojournalist Vlada Liberova filmed the evacuation from Toretsk at the end of July 2024.
The authorities visited the evacuation together with the volunteer Denis Khristov. Toretsk met them in scorched quarters, alleys, fallen trees and covered with debris. Moving around the city was dangerous due to the constant work of artillery, shelling by Cabs and FPV drones.
Vlada's husband Konstantin told how they came to Toretsk in two separate groups: he with the military, Vlada - with Denis Khristov and his team.
“Two years passed and I lost count of how many times I saw the same picture. All Ukrainian cities are different, with different character and rhythm of life. Russia makes them the same: there is nothing different in death,” Konstantin Liberov wrote on his Instagram.
Vlad and Denis managed to take people and animals for evacuation. However, this trip was not calm. First, two air bombs fell 100 meters from them. They then came under fire from an FPV drone. At the last moment, Vlada managed to run into the concrete dot.
“According to Uncle Vita, a local who, together with five parrots, two cats and Bada the shepherd dog, was taken out by a group of Denis — locals who die from shelling are buried in their own yards. If it can be buried at all.”
Volunteer Denis Khristov with the nickname Dutchman, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has been engaged in the evacuation of civilians from frontline settlements.
Denis captures his evacuation trips on camera. At first, he did it for himself, and then decided to create the project “Travel of Our Time”, episodes of which are broadcast on the TV channel “House”. His goal: “to prevent all the crimes of the eastern neighbors from being forgotten, erased from history.”
Grodivka, Orlivka, Novogrodivka, Myrnohrad, Selydove — this is not a complete list of settlements from where Denis managed to evacuate people in the last month of summer. There were cases when the evacuation took place “practically from the occupation”, when there were already street battles in the city itself.
“Now the phrase “I am on my land”, which I often hear from those who stay there, means — the Donetsk sports hall. Well, then the filtration camp and the looted housing,” Denis captioned a photo from the last trip to Novogrodivk on his Instagram.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Yana Yevmenova
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
Evacuation is a word that absorbed tears, despair, pain of separation, hope for return. It is difficult to imagine what a person feels when standing on a platform in front of an evacuation train.
On June 13, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk stated that 4.6 million people have IDP status in Ukraine as of May 2024.
Russian propaganda spreads fakes on the topic of evacuation, discrediting the Ukrainian authorities, military and volunteers.
In their fake materials, propagandists refer to the words of people who are called “locals”, “refugees” from frontline settlements.
Yes, “Arguments and Facts”, referring to a New Yorker, tells about the fact that the Ukrainian authorities and the organization “White Angel” take children from their parents by force.
“Also, the man told about a case in the Donetsk city of Kostiantynivka, where parents were deprived of parental rights right on the spot.
“A minibus arrived, a mother with two children came out... She was put in handcuffs in one car, the children in another. They look at the state of health - at organs or at pedophiles,” the New Yorker noted, - writes “Arguments and Facts”.
Propaganda edition “Ukraine.ru” “Refugees from Toretsk” said that “Ukrainian military constantly pelted civilians with incendiary bombs”:
Hostile media “Abzac” says: “The Ukrainian military took everything out of empty huts in the village of New York to the DPR, which people, leaving, threw with furniture and things. The Armed Forces even took away clothes, which were then handed over to second-hand for weight, said refugee Yuriy Mukhin in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“We adjusted the cars, took all the things - and to Konstantinovka. There was a truck, things for 40 hryvnias per kilogram were taken as a second hand (the one that was in use - for example) and next to the cars they were sold for 60 hryvnias,” recalled the evacuee from the village.
“Arguments and Facts” in the article “They beat like enemies.” The Nazis slaughtered and burned the local population of Toretsk” writes how, advancing in the Donetsk direction, in the liberated neighborhoods of Toretsk, the Russian military “finds many murdered civilians who were destroyed by the nationalists during the retreat.”
“The day before, the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced a forced evacuation in Toretsk, expelling people from their homes who resisted — simply shot, suspecting pro-Russian sentiments,” the propaganda media says.
“They knew where people were hiding, they were watching them from drones, how we were walking on water, how they tried to bury a neighbor who was just shot by the Armed Forces. And they, as always, try to beat in the basements, launch a copter there. They see that there are only women and old. But whoever made it, he jumped out. The rest are dying,” said one woman rescued from Toretsk.
“List of crimes against civilians from the side of the Kiev regime stretches from Mariupol, Avdiivka and other cities,” the media concluded.
Russia is throwing all its forces to capture the cities and villages of Donbas. When the Russian army gets closer to settlements, it turns them into ruins, using scorched-earth tactics. Pokrovsky direction is now one of the hottest areas of the front.
The Russian Defense Ministry constantly states that its troops do not attack cities that are completely focused on military infrastructure, there is no threat to the civilian population.
However, staying in a settlement to which the front is approaching is dangerous. The presence of civilians there hinders the work of the Ukrainian army.
In March 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a resolution on the forced evacuation of children from dangerous settlements. Despite this, the police and volunteers have to persuade the families to agree to the evacuation.
Evacuation in Ukraine has now accelerated. This can be done by evacuation trains, with the help of police crews, the emergency service, military, volunteers and volunteer funds.
People are taken out, resettled, if necessary, documents are restored. It is difficult to convey to people who are practically on the line of contact that they will not leave for good.
Ukrainian and foreign media periodically cover the process of evacuating civilians from cities to which the front approaches.
The Guardian In the article dated August 27 of this year “It just hurts me: Pokrovsk is collecting things because the Russian invaders are approaching” tells the stories of people huddling in the heat near the cars of the evacuation train to go to Rivne region. They are preparing for “a 21-hour journey to a part of the country they do not know, it is unclear if they will ever be able to return.”
“It just hurts me,” — and worries that many other locals have not yet decided to leave the city. “There are still many people left, and they do not realize that they may die. It's too dangerous, especially if you have children.”, — says 33-year-old Marina, a resident of Pokrovska, mother of 3 children, in an interview with the British media.
“The Russians are not changing. They destroyed Bakhmut and Avdiyivka, and what can happen to Pokrovsk?” he says. The conclusion is disappointing: “They frankly say it's a gray area cleared of people,” he says in an interview The Guardian Sergey Dobriak, head of the Pokrovsk city military administration.
Interactive media about Russia's war against Ukraine Frontliner in the photo report “Pokrovsk is evacuated” tells how people leave en masse and export businesses, retail chains stop working, most doctors no longer accept, pharmacies are closed.
“Pokrovsk Center Looks Survived As if the war is not so close, roses bloom in the alleys, the smell of coffee pours from coffee shops, but there are almost no children around, on the streets you can more often meet military than civilians. A sense of anxiety hangs over the city. The war is constantly reminded of the sounds of explosions, which have become commonplace here,” writes Frontliner.
In addition to the evacuation trains, there are several volunteer teams in Pokrovsky district to help people escape from shelling.
There are still people looking for volunteers to help transport livestock. Someone is looking for volunteers who are engaged in the transportation of low-mobility groups of the population.
“Every man has his reasons, Why doesn't he want to leave the city. Someone can not leave sick relatives, someone is afraid that in a new place it will be difficult without their housing and material support from the state. Elderly people say that they want to die in their city on their native land, believe that in other regions no one expects them and no one needs them. It is also difficult to leave the graves of relatives, because there is a possibility that we will no longer return to the city,” he writes Frontliner.
“If I die, I would be better off here. But the military every day explains that we need to leave, because fighting can occur so that we are not a living shield, so that it is easier for them to repulse the city,” Volodymyr, a 66-year-old resident of Pokrovsk, listened to the military's advice.
Since September 5, due to the difficult security situation, evacuation trains from Pokrovsk station have been canceled. Instead, Pavlohrad, located more than 100 kilometers from Pokrovsk, became the departure station for evacuation trains.
Evacuation from small towns and villages is much more difficult. Often these are quite risky trips for volunteers. They go after people in broken settlements, where it is difficult to drive, and cars are constantly hunted by FPV drones.
Odessa photojournalist Vlada Liberova filmed the evacuation from Toretsk at the end of July 2024.
The authorities visited the evacuation together with the volunteer Denis Khristov. Toretsk met them in scorched quarters, alleys, fallen trees and covered with debris. Moving around the city was dangerous due to the constant work of artillery, shelling by Cabs and FPV drones.
Vlada's husband Konstantin told how they came to Toretsk in two separate groups: he with the military, Vlada - with Denis Khristov and his team.
“Two years passed and I lost count of how many times I saw the same picture. All Ukrainian cities are different, with different character and rhythm of life. Russia makes them the same: there is nothing different in death,” Konstantin Liberov wrote on his Instagram.
Vlad and Denis managed to take people and animals for evacuation. However, this trip was not calm. First, two air bombs fell 100 meters from them. They then came under fire from an FPV drone. At the last moment, Vlada managed to run into the concrete dot.
“According to Uncle Vita, a local who, together with five parrots, two cats and Bada the shepherd dog, was taken out by a group of Denis — locals who die from shelling are buried in their own yards. If it can be buried at all.”
Volunteer Denis Khristov with the nickname Dutchman, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has been engaged in the evacuation of civilians from frontline settlements.
Denis captures his evacuation trips on camera. At first, he did it for himself, and then decided to create the project “Travel of Our Time”, episodes of which are broadcast on the TV channel “House”. His goal: “to prevent all the crimes of the eastern neighbors from being forgotten, erased from history.”
Grodivka, Orlivka, Novogrodivka, Myrnohrad, Selydove — this is not a complete list of settlements from where Denis managed to evacuate people in the last month of summer. There were cases when the evacuation took place “practically from the occupation”, when there were already street battles in the city itself.
“Now the phrase “I am on my land”, which I often hear from those who stay there, means — the Donetsk sports hall. Well, then the filtration camp and the looted housing,” Denis captioned a photo from the last trip to Novogrodivk on his Instagram.
The material was worked on:
Researcher of the topic, author of the text: Yana Yevmenova
Bildeditor: Vyacheslav Ratynskyi
Literary Editor: Julia Futei
Site Manager: Vladislav Kuhar
UAPP is an independent association of professional Ukrainian photographers, designed to protect their interests, support, develop and promote Ukrainian photography as an important element of national culture.
UAPP's activities span educational, social, research and cultural initiatives, as well as book publishing.
UAPP represents Ukrainian professional photography in the international photographic community and is an official member of the Federation of European Photographers (FEP) — an international organization representing more than 50,000 professional photographers in Europe and other countries around the world.
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