The city of Kramatorsk feels empty. Only a handful of supermarkets, restaurants and hotels are still open. The windows on the main streets are boarded up. Many residents have moved out of their apartment buildings into neighboring villages, where they believe it will be safer.
The few locals walking around behave as if they can’t hear the sirens, and they don’t seem to be startled by the occasional thunder of incoming shells.
Russia’s war in Ukraine is entering a new phase, centered in the Donbass region to the east, and most of its citizens are not taking risks. Regional mayors told the Observer that they said about 70% of the population had left since the start of Russia’s offensive in February.
The Ukrainian-controlled Donbass is surrounded by Russian forces from the north, east and south. Ukrainian authorities believe Russian forces are seeking to encircle the territory by cutting off their supply lines from the west.
Russian-backed forces have held about a third of the region since 2014. Russia had hoped and probably expected its attempts to gain more territory to be popular with the predominantly Russian-speaking population. But eight years of conflict, and especially the last eight weeks, have taken their toll.
“The number of people supporting Russia has dropped dramatically,” said Alexei Yukov, head of the Black Tulips, a volunteer organization that collects and transfers the bodies of people on both sides of the 2014 conflict line.
Yukov said the Kramatorsk region was relatively calm. He did not notice a significant increase in the number of bodies after the full offensive in February. But he and his team have picked up more civilians. They gathered 52 of the 58 people killed in a Russian rocket attack on Kramatorsk station on April 8th.
“But [pro-Russian views] still exists. There are people who do not like Ukraine and cannot even explain why. Their explanations are empty for analysis, “Yukov said. “If someone is killed in front of his eyes for no reason, it doesn’t seem to change anything. They want to believe in what they already believe in, and they don’t want to overestimate. Propaganda is still going on, and Ukraine has not done enough in those eight years to stop it.
Alexander Goncharenko, the mayor of Slavyansk, in an underground shelter. Photo: Ed Ram / The Observer
But Kramatorsk Mayor Alexander Goncharenko said the blockade of Mariupol in the Donetsk region and its catastrophic humanitarian consequences had played a crucial role in changing people’s minds.
“If in 2014 60% of the city was pro-Russian, I would say it is now about 15%,” he said.
Goncharenko is one of many politicians in Donbass who have represented pro-Russian parties in Ukraine. Goncharenko said his policy had changed after former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych “betrayed” Ukraine in 2014. He said there would be no “Donetsk People’s Republic” in Kramatorsk and would take up arms if the city was occupied.
In the neighboring town of Slavyansk, north of Kramatorsk and closer to the front line, Mayor Vadim Lyakh said he had received numerous phone calls and messages from Russia offering him property and security for his family in exchange for a change of country. Leah said he ignored them. Russia has not promised security for Slavyansk residents, he said.
As a local adviser, Lech welcomed Russian-backed separatist forces when they seized his city in 2014 and voted to create the Donetsk People’s Republic, something he did not want to comment on.
“I do not think there is a difference between Kramatorsk, Slavyansk and Kyiv. “Everything is Ukraine and society will not accept to become part of Russia,” Lech said.
He said most people in Ukraine-controlled Donbass have seen better living under Ukrainian rule than in the Russian-backed republics created in 2014.
He said: “But I can’t say that everyone understood that. I can only say that there are more people and that military activities have further reduced the number of people who are for the Russian world.
Residential buildings damaged by shelling in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Photo: Andriy Andrienko / AP
He said that when he came to Slavyansk to study in 1995, identity issues were not discussed. “We were all Ukrainian cities then, there were no problems. Then, in the 2000s, politicians started fighting for us. “
Dozens of people packed their luggage in the nearby town of Kremina in the Luhansk region, next to two front-line towns where fighting between the two countries reportedly continues.
“Most of the people here are waiting for Russian soldiers,” said Victoria Slobodyansk, a 61-year-old retired English teacher who volunteered for the Ukrainian army.
“People only want to hear what they want to hear. They believe that if they were in Russia, they would live much better. So I decided to leave Kremina.
“I’m not afraid of shelling,” she said, “but after Bucha and Hostomel, I’m afraid of Russian soldiers.”
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