Eastern Ukrainians race to escape as fighting near Pokrovsk intensifies

In eastern Ukraine, diplomacy may move between capitals, but the war keeps pushing civilians onto the road.

Russia says it has captured the Donetsk city of Pokrovsk, while Ukraine says the fight is still ongoing. For families living under drones and shelling, that uncertainty isn't politics — it's a deadline. 

At a transit center in Pavlohrad, displaced people arrive with bags and suitcases, stopping long enough to warm up, register, and plan the next move west.

Tatiana Fedorova, who fled Druzhkivka, says fear follows you at night.

"They're flying drones over people, it's terrifying," she says. "Every day you go to bed wondering, 'Will it hit my window? Will I stay alive?' It's intense — every single day, from morning to evening. You can hear Kostiantynivka, and we're being shelled too."

Staff say some don't come by bus, they arrive by ambulance, too injured or exhausted to travel.

Another displaced man, Mikhaylo, describes what he left behind.

"Things are exploding, people are leaving, buildings are destroyed," he says. "Homes are destroyed. Three days ago there was a strike at the market."

But the center's workers warn that the hardest stories are the ones they don't hear, from places they can't reach. They say conditions around Pokrovsk have tightened so much that evacuation runs have effectively stalled.

Evgenya Pinchuk, a supervisor with the non-governmental organization East SOS, calls it "extremely critical."

"For several weeks now there have been no evacuees coming from Pokrovsk itself," she says. "Because the security situation doesn't allow teams to enter the community, and there are essentially no people coming out from those settlements at all."

Volunteers rush to process whoever does arrive, but the silence from blocked communities hangs over everything. When teams can't enter and people can't get out, time becomes the enemy.

So while diplomacy plays out abroad, eastern Ukraine's story is still written in motion: displaced families heading west, one bus — or one ambulance — at a time.