Today at 00:32
Mandatory evacuation continues in the Donetsk region. But about 10 thousand civilians still remain in the city of Bakhmut and its environs. This was reported in the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). All of them live under daily intense shelling by the Russian army. Russia destroys Ukrainian cities, kills civilians. Experts are confident that this is the strategy of the RF Armed Forces, FREEDOM reports.
In the battles in eastern Ukraine, the Russian army uses almost all types of weapons it has. It hits not only the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbas, but also civilians. Conducts heavy fire from cannon and rocket artillery, mortars, tanks. Deals airstrikes and attacks with drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
So, on March 25, the targets of the Russian army were the center and industrial zone of Kramatorsk, a residential building in Avdiivka, as well as Chasov Yar, Bakhmut, Toretsk, Konstantinovka, Grigorovka, Marinka, Vuhledar and a dozen other settlements in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
“Russia is killing civilians! On March 25, the Russians killed 2 residents of the Donetsk region: in Pivnichny and the city of Chasov Yar. Another 1 person in the area was injured. Now it is impossible to establish the exact number of victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha. Every war criminal will be punished!” – said the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration Pavel Kirilenko on Facebook.
According to Piotr Andryushchenko, adviser to the Mariupol mayor, the number of those who died due to Russian bombing of Mariupol residents exceeds the number of victims in Hiroshima or Nagasaki in 1945. But the world will know the exact number of victims only after the de-occupation of the city. But for now, residents of Mariupol who remain are standing in lines for a free plate of porridge and bread. And the Russian invaders continue to demolish the housing stock, destroying what is left after their shelling. At the same time, Russian propagandists do not get tired of churning out materials about the alleged restoration of the city, and the prepared extras call life in the ruins a “piece of paradise”.
“For the vast majority of people, say, thousands of commercials up to 80 Mariupol residents at least, this is definitely not a piece of paradise, this is a struggle for life every day, this is life in ruins in places, life without light in places, life in basements and in constant survival. There is no salary, at the end of March they began to slowly pay off wages for January. But no one is interested in how people survived all this time. The prices are crazy,” says Andryushchenko.
In the part of the Donetsk region controlled by Kyiv, the mandatory evacuation of the population continues. For 7 months, almost 50 thousand citizens left for safer regions of Ukraine. From Vuhledar, Velyka Novoselka, Chasiv Yar, the police and volunteers took all the children. And they continue to be evacuated from Avdiivka, Seversk, Bakhmut and other settlements. Law enforcement officers took Darina with her family and a parrot Limonchik from Avdiivka to Myrnograd. 11-year-old Igor is also settling in a new, safe place. His dad stayed in his hometown, and entrusted his son’s life to the White Angels evacuation crew.
Residents of Donbas, who are not ready to evacuate, do not leave their basements for days due to the incessant artillery and air shelling by the Russian army. They were left without water, heat and electricity. At times, no connection. The necessary medicines, food and drinking water are delivered to them by law enforcement officers and volunteers.
“All you see is people pushed to the very limit of their existence, survival and resilience. Houses were destroyed by impact fire, roofs were torn off, residential buildings in holes, a constant threat from unexploded shells, bombs. And some people are still living in shelters, trying to survive this fierce fighting,” said ICRC spokesman Umar Khan.
The massacres of civilians and the destruction of settlements are not episodic war crimes of Russians in Ukraine, this is part of the strategy, military experts say. Russia in Donbas is physically destroying cities and villages so that Ukrainian defenders cannot use them for defense. So, in the Luhansk region, Severodonetsk, Popasna, Rubizhne, Shchastia, and Kreminna are almost completely – that is, more than 80% – destroyed. In Donetsk – only ruins remained from Volnovakha, Vuhledar, Maryinka, and Lyman. In fact, Soledar was destroyed. Some settlements after the arrival of the “Russian world” are not subject to restoration.
