Ukraine civilians flee advancing Russian troops in east

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00Columns of smoke on the horizon and this constant noise remind Pokrovsk that war is close at hand

00:08and will soon be on its doorstep.

00:12I have cats. You have to go and get them.

00:17Okay, taking my arm.

00:20This woman and her friend have waited three days for the

00:22volunteers to evacuate them after their building was bombed.

00:27I can't take it anymore.

00:30If I hadn't gone to yours, I would have died.

00:34Shrapnel hit my sofa.

00:37I don't know how we survived.

00:41The whole neighbourhood was devastated by a hover bomb.

00:46One strike too many for this resident.

00:49Now without electricity, her phone battery dead,

00:52she has lived the last few days cut off from the world.

00:56I haven't eaten in several days now.

00:59I need to get far away from this hellhole.

01:01I don't want anything else anymore.

01:06Just when she was explaining that she was waiting for the volunteers to come and get her,

01:10a car arrived.

01:13Look, it's my brother. He's here.

01:17Her brother, worried not to have heard from her,

01:20braved the danger to come and get her.

01:22It's going to be okay. We're going to leave here.

01:25Let's go and get your things. Don't worry.

01:30The sense of relief was short-lived as fear soon returned.

01:34Fear of the bombs.

01:37Fear too that the Russians could come to occupy their neighbourhood.

01:43Here we're less than 12 kilometres from the front line.

01:45We've been waiting for a long time.

01:47We've been waiting for a long time.

01:49Here we're less than 12 kilometres from the front line.

01:51The risk is that the Russians encircle the city.

01:54This would be a disaster for Ukraine,

01:56as Pokrovsk has served as a logistical base

01:58for the Ukrainian army's Eastern Front throughout the war.

02:03This taxi driver can see the Russians getting closer with every passing day.

02:08Look over there. The Russians are coming from there.

02:11They have taken control of the mine.

02:12We can't access it anymore.

02:14Dima was born in Pokrovsk.

02:15He would never have imagined that his city could be taken.

02:18But in the last two days, he's lost all hope.

02:22That was just last night.

02:24Before, we were taking in refugees.

02:26Now we are the refugees.

02:29On the roads, the exodus has begun.

02:31But the evacuation will take time,

02:33with 50,000 people still living in Pokrovsk.

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