The hottest spots in the east are Bakhmut and Avdeevka, which the Russians want to completely destroy with their shelling. “Arrives” and other cities and villages in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions. Local residents are in no hurry to evacuate, there are a lot of children left there.

The Russians now have a completely different goal of the war than they had in 2014 – now they are destroying everything – military facilities, the forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, residential buildings, hospitals, schools, civilians.

Let’s talk about the situation in Donbass.

Konstantinovka Donetsk region

Konstantinovka is a relatively rear city, at least it was for 8 years before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now this is not so, the situation has changed.

When the curfew begins, all people go into their homes, the lights turn off completely, because the blackout mode works here.

At night it is very quiet, and therefore the echo from the arrivals of rockets is felt very strongly, as if it happened next to you, although it was fired at neighboring Bakhmut.

Bahmut

A city that is being destroyed by the Russian army. During the week, the invaders fired at him with rockets and multiple rocket launchers. There are five-story buildings destroyed by rockets, a hostel, the premises of the Gorlovka Institute of Foreign Languages, which was evacuated from the occupied Gorlovka to Bakhmut, where it operated for 8 years. And the day before yesterday there “flew”.

There are currently at least 50 thousand people in Bakhmut, especially there are a lot of children there. There are evacuation flights from the city, people are leaving little by little. Most people are evacuated by their own cars and, of course, those whose houses have been shelled are already leaving. After all, they have nowhere to live.

The shelling affects the entire city, and reaches the quarters remote from the highway, which has already been nicknamed the “Road of Life” and which is heading to Svetlodarsk. That is, it “flies” anywhere and all because the front line is approaching. And the route that follows from Severodonetsk to Bakhmut is already in the zone of destruction of Russian artillery.

Bakhmut is the epicenter of shelling, but they also happen in Kramatorsk and neighboring Konstantinovka. Therefore, the situation is very tense. Despite this, people try to live their normal lives. The city has public transport and food shops. There is electricity and water, but with fuel it is very difficult, the opportunity to refuel falls once every three days, and then, if you can find diesel or gasoline at gas stations.

Avdiivka

The occupiers are shelling Avdiivka with all types of weapons, except for small arms, and are also dropping aerial bombs. But there are still people there, of course, there are fewer of them than in Bakhmut or Konstantinovka. The city is being destroyed in the same way as Popasnaya. It’s been very hot there this week.

Maryinka

Correspondent Yulia Kiriyenko has been traveling to Maryinka since 2014, her husband fought there. The journalist told how the city has changed.

“Maryinka – not at all. In the city – skeletons from houses that burned down due to the fact that an enemy shell flew there. There is no city center, the private sector is burned out. High-rise buildings, of which there are so few, are destroyed. there are only a few of them there,” says Yulia Kiriyenko.

The occupiers have no principles and no concept of honor

The correspondent also compared the two phases of the war: the one that began in 2014 and the one that is now.

“Despite the fact that I worked for 4 years in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, now I can say that I have not seen the war. What is happening now here cannot be compared even with the most active period of the war for the Donetsk airport or Debaltseve. No principles, no concepts of truce or calm, as it was before, no concept of honor to take the wounded from the battlefield is not here now, here the Russians even shoot at medical vehicles when they see a red cross. Their goal is simply destruction. Not specifically military facilities, but everything related to our troops and even civilians. The war is completely different, I don’t remember such a devastating war at all,” Yulia Kiriyenko shared her impressions.

Recall, according to the head of the Donetsk Police Pavel Kirilenko, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russians into Ukraine, 415 civilians have been killed in the Donetsk region as a result of shelling and bombing, another 1146 were injured. At present, the number of victims at the hands of the Russians in Mariupol and Volnovakha is unknown.

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