Enemy at the gates
Pokrovsk, an Ukrainian town of 60 000, is gradually being depopulated – just as Bakhmut and Severodonetsk were – as the frontline of Russian invasion is crawling about 9 km from its borders. However, the worst is yet to come for the citizens. Most of them have nowhere to go, so they choose to stay in the city. Official communiques say that the evacuation organized by the government is going well. However, it is the volunteers who encourage and evacuate people, it is to them that locals turn for help, while the town itself is shelled every hour. The town faces a real test over the next few months. We look at the last signs of regular Pokrovsk life, which take place from 11am to 3pm due to the curfew imposed by the Ukrainian authorities.
How do you watch a city that will soon cease to exist? It’s a strange feeling. You wander the empty streets, there are still recently thrown away cups in the trash bins of a popular café in the centre. Probably nobody will drink coffee here anymore. Dogs still gather under the pet shop – they surely used to get food here. Defenceless animals unaware of the danger. A train leaves the town once a day. Only a handful of people get on – most of those who were supposed to evacuate have left, and those who hope for the best persist in the town. Often they simply have no choice, they are more afraid to leave than to stay. All those people are losing their reality. It’s all pointless, it’s just about making a horror to the others. War is to shatter reality, to destroy the status quo. To burn the land and occupy the ruins of what was once Pokrovsk. This will be called a victory.