SOLEDAR, Ukraine—Explosives filled the sky above the apartment complex we had just stood in. They are thermoelectric beam projectiles fired by Many Russian long-range missile systems, infusing white-hot flames onto their target. That day, their target was us.
Thick fireballs, hot enough to melt steel and concrete, slowly descended on the civilian apartment buildings of the town of Soledar, one of the country’s most important battlefields. Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s forces fought for the territory for more than six months.
The city is a hellscape of destroyed buildings, with the constant sound of firecrackers coming and going. Ukrainian military units were moving from basement to basement desperately searching for cover, while quadcopter drones scouting enemy positions buzzed above us. If we were still in that building, we might have burned down.
A demolished civilian house in Soledar.
Tom Mutch
About 15 minutes before the explosion, Darren Roberts, a former British soldier and volunteer aid worker, gave medical attention to Alexander, a 24-year-old Ukrainian civilian who had been hit by Russian artillery fire and wounded. in the shoulder and arm. . We found him topless and wrapped in homemade bandages, lounging on a bench in the yard talking to his mother.
In the five hours we were in town, we saw perhaps ten civilians sitting outside, watching the devastation. Dozens of others are in underground shelters; some have not seen the light of day for months.
Despite the carnage, hundreds of civilians in Soledar—originally a small city of just over 10,000 inhabitants—were unwilling to leave. Many people want to stay in their homes, not to be intimidated by the Russians. Others, like the elderly and sick, have no choice. The loosely organized group of volunteers – who have agreed to follow The Daily Beast – are helping to evacuate people who are physically out of shape to try to leave alone.
Two evacuees rest in a church in Kramatorsk after evacuating from Soledar.
Oskar Hallgrimsson
British aid workers Andrew Bagshaw, 48, and Christopher Parry, 28, disappeared from the same town last week in a similar evacuation. The Russian paramilitary organization Wagner, which led the recent attack in Donbas, posted photos of their passports and claimed to have found the body of one of them on Wednesday.
It seems that others have more nefarious motives to stay. As the volunteers were doing their best to convince Alexander and his mother to leave, three men rode motorcycles to the courtyard and started taking group photos of us with their phones. Immediately, Darren turned to us, looking really scared for the first time
Bryce, Craig and Darren, volunteers working in Soledar.
Oskar Hallgrimsson
Check out the aftermath of the shelling in Soledar.
Oskar Hallgrimsson
“We need to get out of here now,” Darren tells the group, and gets us all into his car. Bryce Wilson, 31, an Australian journalist turned volunteer who organized the evacuation, told The Daily Beast: “They are likely Russian followers. The group quickly arrives at an arranged rendezvous called “Oasis”, named after a small corner shop bearing this name on the western outskirts of town.
As soon as we arrived, Russian artillery began pouring down on where we had just left—and we quickly realized that men on motorcycles might have attacked our position.
It is not clear if they realize that our team consists of journalists and volunteers. The journalists were all clearly equipped in press suits, but the volunteers were all men of military age in armor. The Russian authorities often claim that groups of “foreign mercenaries” are fighting on the Ukrainian side and they probably think we are one of them. Maybe they don’t care either.
Wilson later explained: “I spoke to the Ukrainian military about this and they specifically told us that they had a problem with motorcyclists who would take pictures and send them to the forces. pro-Russian.
Russia’s claim that the people of Donbas are being “liberated” by invasion after being “genocide” by Ukrainian nationalists is baseless propaganda. But that’s not to say that there aren’t some people in Ukraine’s easternmost regions who have fallen for the Russian saga. And in the meantime, they did their best to help the invaders.
The Ukrainian government has been trying to crack down on such “traitors” since the early days of the war, with President Volodymyr Zelensky quickly signing the anti-cooperation law into law after the invasion began on July 1. February 24. Many citizens have been arrested under the law, including 400 in the Kharkiv region alone, according to Related press. Ukrainian authorities have even arrested SBU officials on charges of treason and are said to be planning to create a public “register of collaborators” in the country.
Authorities in the Donetsk region often stop cars near the front lines to check residents’ phones and make sure they’re not in contact with the other side. The Russians are expected to offer huge cash rewards for details on Ukrainian military positions and troop movements.
According to Wilson, a source in the Ukrainian military described a case in which a teenage boy traveled around the area, hitchhiking to various areas, and claimed that he was lost. Later, when he was detained, authorities are said to have found evidence that he had spied on military positions and sent them to the Russians.
Although many who cooperated with the Russians in formerly occupied territories such as Kherson or eastern Kharkiv may have done so under duress, others appear to have no regrets about their betrayal. betray their country.
Locals warned journalists about pro-Russian vandals when I visited the Luhansk region in May, claiming they had seen them slash the tires of Ukrainian military vehicles to prevent them from transporting troops and supplies to and from the area. A pro-Russian civilian from Lysychansk told a France24 crew that they “want to be reunited with the Russians, they are our friends, not the Germans in Europe!”
As Ukrainian troops withdrew from Lysychansk, their last stronghold in Luhansk, they instituted a four-day curfew to ensure that not a single civilian remaining could reveal that they were withdrawing first. Russian troops are approaching.
This week, Russia’s Wagner group announced the complete capture of Soledar and said it had surrounded and destroyed Ukrainian defenders. The UK Ministry of Defense has confirmed that it believes Wagner has almost full control of the city, marking the only major Russian battlefield success of the past six months. Meanwhile, Ukraine has won significant victories in Kharkiv and Kherson – prompting Ukrainian officials to double down on their calls for better artillery and tank support.
