Ukraine civilians flee advancing Russian troops in east
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Transcript
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.