“It almost ceased to exist,” said Tamaz Gambarashvili, head of the Vovchansk civil- military administration in eastern Ukraine, describing his town as devastated by the conflict with Russia.
The devastated Ukrainian town of Vovchansk in this photo taken in September 2024. (Photo: Ukrainian Army)
In the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region, just 5km from the Russian border, Ukrainian military drone footage this summer showed a scene of ruins stretching for miles. And it has only gotten worse since.
“90% of the city center has been flattened,” said Tamaz Gambarashvili. “The enemy continues to shell heavily.”
The speed of destruction in Vovchansk even exceeded that of the city of Bakhmut in the Donbass region, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in the conflict, according to Lieutenant Denys Yaroslavsky, a Ukrainian officer who fought on both fronts.
“I was in Bakhmut so I know how the battles unfolded. What happened in two or three months in Bakhmut happened in two or three weeks in Vovchansk,” said Mr. Yaroslavsky.
Before the war, Vovchansk had a population of about 20,000 people. That now exists only in the memories of the survivors who managed to evacuate.
Vovchansk was quickly taken by Russian troops after Moscow launched a special military operation in February 2022, but Kiev retook the town in a lightning counteroffensive in the fall of that year.
Despite frequent Russian bombardment, the town of Vovchansk remained relatively peaceful until May 10, 2024.
Exhausted after weeks of fierce fighting on a front 100 kilometers to the south, the Ukrainian 57th Brigade was assembling near Vovchansk when a reconnaissance unit noticed something unusual.
“We spotted two Russian armored personnel carriers just crossing the border,” recalled Lieutenant Yaroslavsky, the unit commander, who said they were the vanguard of thousands of Russian soldiers entering the town.
“There were no fortifications or booby traps to slow their advance,” Mr. Yaroslavsky said, blaming “negligence or corruption” as the cause.
“About 17,000 people have lost their homes. Why? Because some people did not build fortifications,” the 42-year-old officer said angrily. “We control the town now, but what we control are ruins.”
Linh Ukraine runs in front of a burning house in Vovchansk, May 2024. (Photo: SCMP)
President Volodymyr Zelensky canceled a foreign trip to rush to the capital Kharkiv, an hour and a half drive from Vovchansk. He admitted that Russian troops had advanced 5-10 km further into Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the people of Vovchansk were going through a real nightmare. Galyna Zharova, who lived at 16A Stepova Street, a now-destroyed apartment building, recalled: “The Russian army started bombing. We were right on the front line. No one could come and take us out.”
The 50-year-old woman lives with her family in a university dormitory in Kharkiv. Her husband, Viktor, 65, added: "We ran down to the basement. All the buildings were on fire. We were crammed into the basement for almost four weeks, until June 3."
The couple eventually decided to flee on foot. “Drones were flying around us like bees and mosquitoes,” Ms Zharova recalled. They walked several kilometres before being rescued by Ukrainian volunteers.
“Nice town, friendly people. We have everything,” librarian Stryzhakova sighed. “No one could imagine we were almost wiped off the face of the Earth.”
The Russian Defense Ministry did not answer questions about what happened in the Ukrainian town of Vovchansk.
Mayor Gambarashvili, who was hit in the leg by shrapnel while overseeing the evacuation of Vovchansk, shook his head when asked to estimate the number of casualties. "Definitely dozens. There could be more," he said.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/thi-tran-vovchansk-gan-nhu-bi-xoa-so-boi-xung-dot-nga-ukraine-ar904365.html
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