Pokrovsk: everyday life under the fire of FPV drones and the rapidly approaching frontline

Today, it is just over 2 kilometres from the frontline Pokrovsk to the contact line. The enemy is shelling the town every day, and russian drones are hunting around the clock. As of 12 December, according to the information of Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, 11,000 residents, including 18 children, remain in the town. Without electricity, heat, and recently gas, but with working pharmacies, where antiviral drugs and sedatives are in the greatest demand. And with sweets and a choice of food in local shops. At the same time, people have only four hours to live outside the grey, cold walls, fearing that enemy drones may «hunt them down» at any moment. Read on to find out how Vchasno’s journalists saw Pokrovsk in December.

Today Pokrovsk is battered and very grey: bare trees, cloudy sky and lack of any bright details make it look like a wasteland. By the way, it sounds just as eerie — strong wind that blows the blizzard parts of the house with each gust is more and more terrifying because one-metre-long sheets will come off and fly at your head. So, the tumbleweed in Pokrovsk is big, loud and sharp. The streets are empty. Only occasionally you can see a few passers-by. This is what the once noisy and crowded railway station area looks like.

The streets of the Lazurnyi neighbourhood are livelier near the market, with a few shops still open and locals selling canned food and vegetables from their gardens. But the townspeople go out after 11.00 and try to get everything done within two hours. Most of the residents are pensioners and families of miners who continue to work at the Pokrovske Mine, as the company does not stop working even as the frontline is rapidly approaching, and enemy shelling is increasing. According to the local residents, the mine’s management said that the company would continue to operate anyway. This is the main reason why 11,000 Pokrovsk residents are stubbornly refusing to evacuate.

«People have not yet been reduced to living in the basement»: where and under what conditions do Pokrovsk residents live?

In Pokrovsk, only those who have seen first-hand the bloody price of slowness — medics and law enforcement officers — walk in a hurry. One of them, Andriy Bulavin, a paramedic and personal safety instructor at the Donetsk region police, picks us up from the town centre in an armoured car, saying that although the sky is overcast and it’s quite windy, it’s not always a hindrance for FPV. When asked how many people live in basements in such conditions, the policeman smiles in surprise:

«No one here lives in a basement yet. The town is alive, there are people, shops and pharmacies are open. The people have not yet been brought to the point where they are moving to the ground floor», the man says.

Everything is reaching the town today, except for mortars, the paramedic says. As a result, drones, artillery, MLRS, and even incoming aircraft are already «traditional» causes of smashed houses and damaged communications in Pokrovsk. As a result, only electricity can provide the townspeople with the comforts of civilization — it is the only thing that keeps the wells that supply water to the apartments and boilers running. Pokrovsk has recently started having problems with liquefied gas, as one of the arrivals cut off the gas supply pipes. So, it is not only expensive to keep warm by heating a pot of water for several hours, but it is no longer possible — gas supply to the town is cut off on 12 December.

«During my work in Kurakhove and Kostiantynivka, I realised how little you need to be happy — wet wipes and a warm sleeping bag. Wipe yourself and sleep warmly. That’s all. Although the house where I live has a well and the apartment has a boiler. So as long as there is electricity, I have everything. And if not, I run up to my floor with bottles of water. And I have to remember about wet wipes», Andriy Bulavin, a paramedic, says about his everyday life.

Tamara Lysenko, a resident of Pokrovsk, adds that not all houses have such conditions. For example, she carries water to her fifth-floor apartment almost every day and warms herself with a gas portable stove. The stove works thanks to the gas cylinders she bought at the end of the summer, so she can cook meals and get out from under the covers without getting too cold.

«My apartment is 12 degrees Celsius, and at night it drops to 8. Sometimes I can feel the steam coming out of my mouth. The windows are boarded up with plywood, and there hasn’t been any glass for two months since the shock wave broke them. But there is nowhere to go, especially since there are still shops, water and electricity in the city. As long as I can charge my phone and call my daughter in case of emergency, I will stay here. If the situation worsens, I will leave. In the meantime, a blanket, hot tea in the thermos, an autumn jacket at home — and I can still live», the woman says.

By the way, Pokrovsk residents can get water free of charge on a daily basis — it is delivered by water trucks to different neighbourhoods once a day. In addition, there are stationary drinking water distribution points. This is a striking difference between Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, where people have to buy drinking water for UAH 1.5−2.5 per litre or walk 5 kilometres in one direction to get it bottled.

«Exercises» for paramedics: how many kilograms do police officers carry when they run to the ninth floor to check for injuries?

Enemy drones are constantly patrolling over Pokrovsk, especially over the Lazurnyi neighbourhood. There are almost no blind spots here, and there are few places to hide in the bombed-out neighbourhoods. Therefore, it is not uncommon to evacuate wounded residents from the upper floors where people still live, in very different conditions.

«Sometimes we receive information that a drone has attacked a house or the approximate address where it happened. We go there immediately wearing armour and a helmet, which weighs about 25 kilograms. In addition, each paramedic has a backpack with everything they may need to help, which also weighs up to 10 kg. And they have to run up to the ninth floor with 30−35 kilograms of extra weight on them. Sometimes, when this run is useless because no one lives in the building, it is many times harder to go down than to go up. But it’s better to run for nothing than… not for nothing. Because sometimes whole families just dissolve in the craters of arrivals», says the policeman.

Today, driving slowly through Pokrovsk or walking in some areas is not worth it. However, from the window of the armoured car, we can see that the locals are walking slowly. The paramedic notes that this calmness lasts until they hear a drone buzzing in the sky. After that, most people try to get into a shelter or at least a shop as quickly as possible. However, sometimes they forget that in addition to the ceiling, there are several floors of the building above them, which means potentially several thousand tonnes of construction waste in the event of an air strike.

«If necessary, we check all the apartments in the location where, for example, the arrival took place. And then we see the real picture: who is injured, who is safe, and who is beyond help», Andriy Bulavin adds.

Drones and shells are also flying into other areas of the town. In late September this year, two civilians who were standing next to a car in the private sector were killed by a drone drop.

Every day there are more and more places in Pokrovsk where there were arrivals. Gradually, the homes of Pokrovsk residents, where families lived, children grew up, and plans for the future were made, are being turned into ashes and ruins by the russians. The city is dying as the enemy approaches, claiming to have come to liberate it.

When there are wounded people after the shelling, paramedics from Pokrovsk provide them with assistance and then take them to the point of transfer of the wounded people in an armoured vehicle. At that moment, ambulances are already on their way to meet them, which gives the Pokrovsk residents additional minutes to save them.

Andriy Bulavin adds that he is proud that there was not a single wounded person who died in his vehicle or his own arms. However, not everyone survived — some people’s lives were cut short by their injuries in ambulances, others died in hospital. However, the paramedic emphasises that he is confident in himself and his colleagues — they are doing everything they can to save people. As a result, dozens of people survived thanks to the actions of police paramedics.

But sometimes rescues have a bitter aftertaste — when people return to live in the shelled, cold town after being treated in hospitals, even though only a few weeks ago Andriy Bulavin was rescuing them in the town or near their homes. He says there is nothing he can do about it, although he would prefer that people who are wounded choose life over the dubious attempts at survival in Pokrovsk.

«We received a call about a woman with shrapnel wounds to her legs, she worked in a local shop. She was treated… and then came back. But at least she left later. People are aware of the risks, but sometimes they don’t just „not want“ to leave, they can’t — for example, if they work in a mine», the paramedic notes.

«Pokrovsk is still alive»

While listening to the sounds of explosions on the approaches to Pokrovsk, we saw women, municipal workers on the streets, who were very skilfully sweeping the paths in the town centre. The women were working responsibly and ignored the sounds of war. It turned out that one of them, Nadiya Mykolayivna, had moved to Pokrovsk from Krasnohorivka, so she had been hardened by the war since 2014. «I want to help my fellow countrymen and the town. Everything has already been bombed. The biggest problem we have is that there is no heating in our apartments, but we can still live. When people see us, they say: «You are inspiring optimism with your work, which means the town is alive», Nadezhda says. She has no intention of leaving the town yet.

The resilience of Pokrovsk residents is also due to the six pharmacies that are still operating in the town, and even new ones are being opened. In particular, one of them was opened in the town centre at the end of November, Tetiana, a pharmacist says. She notes that she comes to Pokrovsk from Mezhivskyi district to work every morning and goes back every evening. She says that now the most popular medicines here are cold remedies, painkillers and sedatives, which she also takes on noisy days when the town is shelled by artillery and aircraft.

«Not only pensioners come here, but also quite young people. For example, yesterday there were about 50 customers. And the number is quite steady — it no longer happens that everyone runs to the pharmacy to buy a sedative right after the shelling. Everyone already has some stocks at home», the pharmacist says.

Despite expectations, the town’s shops sincerely surprise with the number of products. In particular, meat and sausage products and canned goods are in demand. The locals also sell homemade products, such as vegetables and milk, at their «outlets». In addition, there is still a petrol station in the town — albeit one, but it is still going strong. But how long it will be possible to operate in the frontline town is a matter of time and the density of shelling.

«People come every day. My biscuits are a hit product — they were just delivered today, and I’ve already sold them out. Tomorrow, fresh ones will arrive. I also buy sausage and milk now, so that people can come to me for sweets and get everything they need without having to look for other shops in the town. Before, I only had sweets and cakes», Svitlana Yaroslavivna, a vendor, tells us with a smile.

The woman was born in Pokrovsk, she gave birth to her daughter and educated her. Now she is abroad, but her mother holds on to the roots to the last. She stubbornly believes that the russian terrorists will be deterred. However, if it happens that the defence line is breached, she will not live a minute in the occupation.

«If there are occupiers here, I will not stay! I’ll close the shop and run away even through the fields! But as long as my customers are here and need Yaroslavna, I will stay. Moreover, those people who left earlier are returning to Pokrovsk now. They didn’t settle down anywhere, it’s hard for people, many of them are not needed. And here they have their homes», Svitlana Yaroslavivna says.

The vendor smilingly hands us two chocolates — those popular «sweets» that residents of the whole neighbourhood come to her for.

«Pokrovsk is still alive. We are at home. Believe me, there are almost no „waiting-for-people“ left in the town. Only those who believe in God and the Armed Forces are here. Those who were waiting for russia have long since fled abroad. And I am a patriot of my Pokrovsk», a Pokrovsk resident says with a smile.