7 kilometers from the front line, practically deserted, the city of Pokrovsk awaits the final blow. “I trust God to protect me”explains Lida Garkouchenko, a frail 72-year-old woman, with a shy smile. On Sunday, November 10, like every day, he waits for customers in front of his meager stall of vegetables, jars and flowers arranged in boxes stacked on the sidewalk. There are few pedestrians in the Shakhtarsky neighborhood, located in the south of the city. Paradoxically, it is this neighborhood, the one closest to the front, that remains the most lively. A dozen businesses are open on two perpendicular streets. In the rest of Pokrovsk the sidewalks are deserted and vehicles are few.
Seeing an old acquaintance, Lida offers him a bouquet of chrysanthemums and strikes up a conversation. In half an hour he will collect everything, because the curfew starts at 3:00 p.m. and ends the next day at 11:00 a.m. Lida says that she has gotten used to the danger and no longer goes down to the basement. “too dirty” of your building. “I’m staying to take care of my daughter’s apartment.”on the third floor of a building located a step away from his position. Sometimes the sound of explosions wakes her up at night, but she goes back to sleep immediately.
Across the street from Lida Garkouchenko’s stall, a handful of soldiers chat in front of the Churchill, a contemporary-designed cafe that seems out of place, surrounded by grayish, dilapidated barricades that are past their useful life. One of the soldiers, a short man of thirty who uses the nom de guerre “Krestik,” confesses with a knowing smile that some of his comrades walk around in civilian clothes. “being able to buy alcohol discreetly”but also because they distrust the local inhabitants, some of whom may be informants for the Russian army.
“They can transmit the coordinates of homes occupied by Ukrainian soldiers or command points”“Krestik” makes a face. He explains that the long curfew is a measure to fight against the “DRG”, an acronym for groups of Russian saboteurs infiltrated behind Ukrainian lines and which, according to him, are very active in Pokrovsk.
Very important human resources
During the day, dull artillery fire regularly echoes in the distance, but the neighborhood remains relatively safe from shelling, as evidenced by the windows of the buildings, which are mostly intact. This Sunday, November 10, residential areas were not bombed, but a very violent explosion tore the air at the end of the morning, probably an aerial bomb that crashed in Myrnohrad, the neighboring town. The strikes mainly affect industrial areas, where the destruction is already very impressive.
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