Wearing orange gloves, with a broom in hand and a cigarette dangling from his lips, Andriy Gerasimenko picks up the debris from Sloviansk’s central market, which was largely destroyed by a fire caused by Russian bombing of his city Donbas, in eastern Ukraine.
By the time the rocket fell that set the market ablaze “I had already returned home, thank God,” says the 38-year-old, expressing concern for the city as Russian forces advance.
“I think the worst is ahead of us, I’m already thinking about leaving” Sloviansk, where the front line is approaching, after Lisitsansk also fell on Sunday night, then Severodonetsk, about 50 kilometers further east. The two cities were captured after fierce fighting and bombardment that destroyed a large part of them.
In a lane of the almost deserted market, Victoria Koloti, a 33-year-old Ukrainian, admits that she has already sent her children away from Sloviansk but has not had time to sort out all her chores. That’s why he came back, to get what he could from their house. “I don’t foresee anything positive, it’s best to leave” Sloviansk, which has been pounded by the Russian army for a week. On Sunday alone, at least six people were killed and 19 others were injured.
Natalya Butok had just left the market when the explosion occurred. “I heard ‘boom’, ‘boom’ and I saw the fire,” says the woman, one of the few traders who opened their stalls today to sell ginger, vegetables and some tobacco. She herself wonders how the situation will develop and what to do. “I hope the future will be better,” he said with a smile.
In anticipation, residents continue to collect debris between market stalls and other parts of the city where rockets fell on Sunday. In the yard of her small house, among the rubble after the roof and part of the brick wall fell, Valentina Stelmach tells how she was saved because she was in the basement of the building with her brother and daughter-in-law at the time of the bombing. “What are we guilty of? Why do they want to kill us? Stop!” shouts the 64-year-old, breaking into sobs. “The hens, the dog, the cats, they were killed, what harm had they done?” he says, pointing to a dead rooster among the debris.
Her neighbor, whose house was spared, points to a great big piece of metal, deformed by the high temperature. “It’s a Typhoon,” he says, referring to the type of Russian missiles that hit the area.
In Kramatorsk, residents are also picking up debris. On Sunday night, a rocket opened a three-meter-deep crater in a street, where several houses were damaged. Workers were repairing power lines today and a passer-by commented: “We need to show this to Putin.”
Source: RES-MPE
Source: Capital
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