7 kilometers from the front line, largely deserted, the town of Pokrovsk awaits the final blow. “I rely on God to protect me”explains through a shy smile Lida Garkouchenko, a frail 72-year-old lady. Sunday, November 10, like every day, she waits for the customer in front of her meager stall of vegetables, jars and flowers arranged on crates stacked on the sidewalk. There are few passers-by in the Shakhtarski district, located in the south of the city. Paradoxically, it is this district, closest to the front, which remains the liveliest. Around ten businesses are open in two perpendicular streets. In the rest of Pokrovsk, the sidewalks are deserted and vehicles rare.
Seeing an old acquaintance, Lida offers him a bouquet of chrysanthemums and strikes up a conversation. In half an hour, she will pack everything up, because the curfew starts at 3 p.m. and ends the next day at 11 a.m. Lida says she has gotten used to the danger and no longer goes down to the cellar at all. “too dirty” of his building. “I’m staying to look after my daughter’s apartment”on the third floor of a building located a stone’s throw from his stall. Sometimes the noise of the explosions wakes her in the night, but she goes back to sleep immediately.
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Opposite Lida Garkouchenko’s stall, on the other side of the street, a handful of soldiers chat in front of the Churchill, a café with a contemporary design that looks out of place, surrounded by barricades. grayish and dilapidated building having long exceeded its lifespan. One of the soldiers, a short thirty-year-old who goes by the nom de guerre “Krestik”, confides with a knowing smile that some of his comrades walk around in civilian clothes. “to be able to discreetly buy alcohol”but also because they distrust the local inhabitants, some of whom may be informants for the Russian army.
“They can transmit the coordinates of housing occupied by Ukrainian soldiers or command points”“Krestik” grimaces. 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 significant human resources
During the day, the dull blasts of artillery ring out regularly in the distance, but the neighborhood remains relatively spared from the bombings, as evidenced by the windows of the buildings, which are mostly intact. This Sunday, November 10, the residential areas were not bombed, but a very violent explosion tore the air at the end of the morning, probably an aerial bomb which crashed on Myrnohrad, the neighboring town. The strikes mainly affect industrial zones, where the destruction is already very impressive.
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