Pavlo Dyachenko of Donetsk police says civilians in Slovyansk and Kramatorsk should leave now as Russian strikes on Donbas intensify and forced evacuations begin in the worst affected areas. Slovyansk and Kramatorsk are the biggest cities still under full Ukrainian control in eastern Donbas, and police say the danger has become too high for families to stay.
Dyachenko said, "This is the only way to save your life," after describing how the bombardment of Slovyansk has changed. "If you take Slovyansk, it used to be hit by glide bombs roughly once a week, but now it's almost every day."
Families leave Slovyansk and Kramatorsk
Forced evacuations of families with children have already begun in the worst affected areas, and many civilians have already left Slovyansk and Kramatorsk. The streets in both cities now carry anti-drone nets, a sign of how the attacks have pushed everyday movement deeper into the danger zone.
Over the summer, Russian attacks on the two cities wounded 70 civilians in June and 212 in August. Sixteen people died in June, 20 in July and 15 in August, with residential housing and infrastructure hit in ways that have caused very significant destruction.
Viktor Makurin on the roads
Viktor Makurin, a volunteer from London, described a city where movement itself has become a hazard. "There are often [remote-controlled] FPV drones in the air, you can hear them through the window," he said. "Driving around the city is lethally dangerous."
Makurin added, "There are drones lying in ambush on the roads, too." He also said, "You can always hear explosions in the background, plus there are mobile groups firing at drones."
Kostyantynivka and the fortress belt
Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka form part of Ukraine's fortress belt, while Russia claims to be in full control of Kostyantynivka and reports say Ukrainian troops still have a limited presence there. Russian ground assaults have focused on territory near Kramatorsk and Slovyansk for the past few months, with the Russian army already in control of almost all of Luhansk region and almost 80% of Donetsk region.
The next pressure point is the same one that has driven the evacuations: whether Ukrainian-controlled parts of the fortress belt can keep functioning under almost daily attacks. Civilians in Slovyansk and Kramatorsk are already acting on that answer by leaving, while police push the remaining residents toward the exits before the bombardment tightens further.
