Civilians flee eastern Ukraine as Russia intensifies strikes — a report from a transit shelter
Even as U.S, President Donald Trump pushes for a peace deal with Vladimir Putin without a cease-fire, Russia is escalating its strikes on cities and towns in the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, forcing thousands to flee. Bombs and FPV drones are raining down on the streets of Dobropillia, Kostiantynivka and Druzhkivka for hours on end. As a result, local residents are leaving their homes en masse, but so far their future is only certain as far as the nearest transit shelter. Frontliner visited one of them and spoke with the displaced people.
The assembly hall with lilac walls is filled with single beds. The aisles between them are wide, but movement is hampered by checkered bags, wheelchairs, handcarts and cages for pets. The beds are occupied by elderly people. Their requests to the nurses to help them or take them to the bathroom can be heard constantly. Four volunteers carry a woman who cannot walk on a blanket and transfer her to a free bed.
Due to a recent Russian breakthrough near Dobropillia, elderly and immobile people who remained in front-line areas until the last moment were forced to leave. Currently, the transit center in Pavlohrad is operating at maximum capacity. Due to the critical situation, about 400 people from Donetsk Oblast pass through here every day: twice as many as last month.
A transit shelter is the first place where people from front-line areas are brought. Here, they are registered as internally displaced people and provided with assistance, ranging from medical to financial. Volunteers distribute the displaced people to other shelters or look for homes for them in all regions of Ukraine. People can get there by evacuation train from Pavlohrad to Lviv or by bus.
A tent has been set up at the transit center and several dozen beds have been added. But there is still not enough space. The authorities are trying to relieve the center and are rapidly opening shelters in other regions, according to Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine Oleksii Kuleba.
A family from Dobropillia
The center’s courtyard is also crowded. Many elderly people are moving around in wheelchairs, and buses are arriving and departing. Amid the hubbub, birdsong can be heard: a large birdcage stands next to the fence. Inside are several colorful budgerigars. A girl puts her finger between the iron bars and strokes a bird. Her mother smiles. Just yesterday, the Kovalov family left Dobropillia. Their grandmother, parrots and dog went with them.
80-year-old Tetiana Kovalova worked as a lab assistant at a mine in Myrnohrad her entire life. Over the years, she renovated her apartment and hoped that it would be inherited by her granddaughter Albina. But in November 2024, she had to leave her home and go to Dobropillia with nothing.
I looked at my orchids and cried. We went to Dobropillia with only one set of underwear.
Soon the situation in Dobropillia escalated, and the family settled in a basement. She no longer had the strength to survive in such conditions and turned to private carriers. To save herself, she paid them 9,000 hryvnias ($218).
Now the Kovalovs are preparing to move on. They will be taken in by a family in Vinnytsia Oblast.
Displaced people from Kostiantynivka
An elderly woman in a headscarf and a man without shoes are sitting in the yard. Liudmyla and Yurii met on the bus on their way from Kostiantynivka. The man is almost blind and has memory problems. He claims that they were brought here yesterday.
“They said they would give us a refrigerator and everything we need. And my granddaughter will go to school there,” Tetiana says as she begins to cry.
Both are confused and do not know where to go next.
In Kostiantynivka, there are power and water outages, and no gas. It was scary to leave her hometown until the very last moment, says Liudmyla. The elderly woman wondered: where to go, what to do? But the fear for her life overcame everything.
“I wanted to die in my own little nest. But the explosions started getting so loud that I couldn’t take it anymore,” says Liudmyla.
On the eve of the evacuation, volunteers contacted the woman and promised to take her away. Liudmyla was so nervous that she didn’t sleep all night while explosions rang out outside her window.
Yesterday, 80-year-old Yevheniia arrived from Kostiantynivka. The journey was not easy for her: volunteers took her to Druzhkivka, and from there she traveled to Pavlohrad by ambulance. Yevheniia uses a wheelchair and suffers from severe pain in her legs.
“It’s horrible in Kostiantynivka. The stress alone is enough to drive you crazy. There are no more roses, only glass,” she says.
Yevheniia has a large family waiting for her in Uzhhorod: two daughters and eight grandchildren. That’s why she remains in good spirits, despite the pain and the long road ahead.
Text: Diana Deliurman
Photos: Nadia Karpova
Adapted: Jared Goyette
