War in Ukraine: Not a day without deaths in Donetsk

On day 135 of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the situation for civilians in Donbass continues to deteriorate. In the Donetsk region in particular, towns and settlements are under fire almost every day.

Day after day there are similar images from the Donetsk region: debris from houses, broken glass, civilians covered in dust and blood. After Russian troops have almost completely conquered the neighboring Luhansk region, there will probably be more such pictures from the Donetsk region. The attacks will shift more there – military analysts agree.

When Governor Pavlo Kirilenko reports daily on the situation in his region, you can tell that he sees even worse times ahead. The situation has been difficult to bear since the beginning of the war. Kirilenko explains that there is not a single day on which there are no reports of deaths and injuries in the Donetsk region. He couldn’t even remember such a day – neither in the past month nor in the two to three months before. “People die every day,” he says.

Constant shelling at the front

The front line runs right through the Donetsk region. Kirilenko speaks of constant shelling along the entire front. Day after day he calls on the population to leave the area. According to him, there are still up to 350,000 people in the region.

Many of them are practically in mortal danger. A projectile can come flying at any time. Just like yesterday in the small town of Toretsk, only twelve kilometers from the front. Several single-family homes collapsed. A resident described on television: “Everything burst, the bodies were shredded. There were three women, daughter, mother and grandmother. They’re not to blame for anything. If they slept, then hopefully they didn’t feel anything.”

Impacts also in Sloviansk

Sloviansk, about 50 kilometers to the north, is also in their sights. Pictures show an elderly woman in a nearly empty market in the city. She tells reporters how she experiences shelling and impacts: “You look around, everything has been destroyed, people who have been killed are just lying there. Injured children, injured pets.”

Her voice breaks, you can see that she can hardly hold back the tears. According to various estimates, about 20,000 civilians could still be in Sloviansk, about a fifth of the pre-war population. The supply breaks down regularly. Electricity and water are only available every now and then.

Putin challenges the West

The daily counting of the dead, the daily deployment of the rescue services, the suffering, the fear and the threatening prospect that after a tough four and a half months of war the nightmare has only just begun. Apparently, if Vladimir Putin has his way. Speaking to senior officials in the Russian parliament, he said:

A quarter of Ukrainians on the run

According to the UN refugee agency, more than a quarter of the Ukrainian population is fleeing abroad or at home. One does not reject peace negotiations with Ukraine, said Putin. But it becomes more difficult to negotiate the longer it takes. Talks between the warring parties broke off several weeks ago.