Burnt cars and destroyed trees after a missile attack on Kramatorsk, a city in eastern Ukraine. A body lay on the ground, covered with a sheet. Injured civilians sat dumbfounded and covered in blood. A crater has been carved in the center of a quiet and sunny courtyard.
Across the besieged city, Valerii Ilchenko sat in the shade of a tree, solving a crossword. The 70-year-old widower now has difficulty walking, and this daily ritual in the fresh air helps him get through the day.
The governor of Donetsk province urged the remaining 350,000 inhabitants of the province to move to safer places in western Ukraine. But like many other civilians, who had come under fire during the nearly five-month war, Valerii had no intention of leaving, no matter how the fighting unfolded.
“I have nowhere to go and neither do I want to. What will I do there? Here at least I can sit on the bench, I can watch TV,” Valerii said.
Since the war began, Valerii has been unable to call his son and grandson, who live in Moscow. Although still somewhat self-controlled, Valerii was almost motionless. Volunteers make sure he gets regular bread, water, and tobacco deliveries; Neighbors call from time to time.
As he spoke, an air raid siren sounded. But Valerii just smiled and shrugged.
“Where will I run when the sirens start? I don’t have a basement, so where is it? In this building, we are all right here,” he said.
In urging the evacuation, Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said they would allow the Ukrainian army to better defend the towns, adding that about 80% of the population in the area had already left.
However, for many people, the urge to stay is strong, because they are retired or have so low income that they fear that they will not be able to feed themselves off of what Kyrylenko calls their “safe zone”.
Others worry they will not be welcome in western Ukraine, a concern based on the perception that some of their countrymen resent the predominantly Russian-speaking resurrected people and blame them for their lives. war.
Some people sympathize with Moscow, either from nostalgia for their Soviet past or from watching Russian state television. Still others do not believe that their lives will change significantly under the flag of Russia or Ukraine.
Sloviansk mayor Vadym Liakh says that regardless of the motivations of those who stay, “we find that when their house falls into disrepair, with only a slipper on their feet with a plastic bag, they leave. They don’t think about money.”
Like Valerii, 85-year-old Maria Savon has no plans to leave Kramatorsk.
“Why do I have to leave? Where one is born, one must die. This is our land. We were not needed there, from the olden days. Old people, as far as I know, even ask for their homeland before they die,” said Maria.
She says she wants to live in a country ruled by Ukrainians, not Russians, but she is also suspicious of the West. She wants President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cut ties with Europe and US President Joe Biden, and agree to a ceasefire with Moscow.
A retiree fishing on the Kazennyi Torets River said he loves his hometown but is too old to fight.
“Of course, it would be a pity to have to leave. If I don’t have an apartment, what will I leave for my children? We will wait until this is over,” said the man who identified himself as Viktor for fear of reprisal.
The streets of Kramatorsk are eerily quiet. Most of the shops were closed and the last working cafes were cleared. This once vibrant city with a population of about 150,000 before the war was mostly empty before the Russian advance.
