Andrij Onistrat passes his dented Skoda past burnt cars. “This is new,” he says, pointing to the skeleton of the truck.
Titov Evhen/ABACA/Abaca/East News / East Newscar destroyed by Russian shelling, Pokrowsk, 16 March 2025.
We're taking the consecutive road from Bilezke to Pokrovska. 7 kilometers around not 1 surviving soul. Onistrat turns left, through the track of the erstwhile railway station. “Welcome to the most dangerous place in Ukraine,” he says.
We are in Pokrowsk, a city located in the Donetsk region, in the far east of Ukraine. There are trenches a fewer miles distant from which soldiers fire. It utilized to be a large city, with 100,000 inhabitants. present there are only a fewer 1000 — no 1 knows precisely how many. due to the fact that this place isn't precisely fit for life.
“Not even a door remains”
Andrij Onistrat made money as a businessman and banker. In 2022 he volunteered for the army.
— erstwhile there is war, you gotta fight,” he says.
He runs a drone unit in the 155th brigade. There's a drone detector on his lap. He beeps all the time, sometimes captures the signal. Then the image from the drone camera is sent to a tiny screen and we know whether to hide or not.
We hear bomb noises all the time. We're getting out of the car. An older man pushes his broken bike after pieces of glass, heading towards the market. 1 destroyed home after another. Stores are completely empty. A man on a bicycle stops in front of an old store — there is no telling what was sold in it. — Its owners fled last December. Then the looters came. They didn't even leave the door, he says.
“They started shooting at us right away”
There's a young mara on the bench by the road, possibly in their 40s. The woman's in the bag for a while, she's giving me a handkerchief. We dressed up as workers. I am wearing the uniform of a Ukrainian railway worker, and my Ukrainian translator — the uniform of a local miner. He greased our cheeks with a plant — for safety.
— If Russian drones realize you're journalists, They'll shoot us immediately. “Andrij Onistrat says.
I am the first writer in over a period to visit Pokrowsk. From the city centre to the Russian trenches is about 3 kilometres. There's no moving water, no electricity, no mobile networks. People are on their own. Police and emergency services are incapable to scope them.
Onistrat retains its spirit. I'm not afraid. Neither Russians nor Ukrainians, he says. Later we see another resident handing him a bottle of vodka.
— Only people who are mentally sick and pro-Russian live here, says Onistrat.
He is simply a erstwhile marathonist and triathlonist. Usually, it comes to Pokrovska by moving — 15 km back and forth. 'Cause cars are hitting drones. In the city of Onistrat is looking for suitable locations for drone pilots. He spends his luck buying equipment for the army.
Krowsk can do nothing for him, he already feels the worst pain — his eldest boy in the summertime of 2023, at the age of 22, died on the front in Donetsk. erstwhile Onystrat tries to tell about him, he barely draws words from himself.
— He always wanted to be the braver one. I'm the reason he went to war. And it's my responsibility he's dead, he says.
“I only want peace”
Stragan Svetlana is the only place to buy food. She spent her full life in Pokrowsk. He thinks leaving town would be treason. - You can say I'm waiting for the Russians. But I just want peace, he says. What does he look like? I have no idea. We cannot watch the news here, he adds.
People who visit the marketplace pay attention to us — looking at my camera with curved faces. So I turn it off. 1 of the marketplace visitors speaks Russian. - You're gonna get us all blown up.
Titov Evhen/ABACA/Abaca/East News / East NewsBuildings destroyed by Russian shelling, Pokrowsk, 16 March 2025.
Onistrat suits him sarcastically. “ Why would they want to kill you? ” he asks.
We turn around and leave the market. The man is following us. “First I will smash your face and then your camera,” he yells at me. Andrij Onistrat turns to me and explains the passerby.
— It's a hell of a day, he says. He later added that he was 1 step distant from pulling his gun. - I'd shoot in the air. If it didn't work, I'd shoot individual in the leg. Fortunately, I didn’t have to,” he says.
“God has given me his blessing”
War is suffering, failure and death. There are besides many stories about brotherhood, sacrifice, and resilience. Although they aid to last fear, many people in Pokrovsk are just fairy tales. Here war shows its ugliest face.
There are 2 large drinking water tanks in the Protestant church. People fill kettles and canisters with it. Mary says God took distant her fear. He gave me his blessing at the church. From that minute on, I know that everything will be fine, he says.
She's been surviving in 1 place for any time, had to decision respective times before. “I came back 1 day and my flat was on fire, so I started looking for a fresh one. And then another, erstwhile that besides was destroyed, he says.
“I will stay until the end”
Her household lives in western Ukraine. She doesn't want to run. “I will stay here until the end,” he declares. She's hoping to negotiate, ceasefire — and believes in peace. “The next generations will be able to forgive each another and live together again,” he says.
We get back in Andrij Onistrat's car and drive through the city's most damaged neighborhood. 2 Ukrainian soldiers have just left the hideout in the ruins of a single-family house. “My boy was 22 years old, and he only dated a female once,” says Onistrat.
He's against sending specified young men to the front. He besides wants the war to end. “ Without safety guarantees, however, the Russians will destruct us,” he says.
