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In Avdiivka, as in Bakhmut and devastated posts at the front, the majority of the population has long since left, but there are die-hards.
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By Yousur Al-Hlou and Masha Froliak
Reporting from Avdiivka, Ukraine
When the bombing begins, the other people who remain in the devastation of Avdiivka shudder a little. In truth, the bombing stops a bit. In this devastated city in eastern Ukraine, the thud of Russian artillery echoes every minute or two.
“Do you listen? It’s flying,” one resident said as a rocket flew overhead. “Then a boom,” he added as it exploded.
As Russia carries out a broad-front offensive in eastern Ukraine, it has stepped up its bombardment of Avdiivka and outlying villages near the Russian-controlled regional capital, Donetsk, in recent weeks. The dam left Avdiivka, already battered and largely abandoned by citizens. After a year of war, no electricity, running water or intact shelter for its hardy civilians.
Moscow’s advance, which has been going on for months, has been slow: it has yet to capture any major cities. But it is also devastating, killing tens of thousands and leaving it in its wake in rubble.
On Monday, the Ukrainian government banned civilians from entering the city, raising security concerns; Avdiivka’s most sensible official, Vitaliy Barabash, called it “like a post-apocalyptic movie site. “A team of bloodhounds from the New York Times visited it on Monday just before the ban was announced.
Residential communities were dotted with ruins of destroyed buildings, sidewalks, and vehicles, making streets nearly impassable for cars. Schools, clinics, grocery stores and apartment buildings were left with gaping holes. Pieces of unexploded ordnance were coming out of the streets.
The remaining citizens lived in damp, candlelit basements in Soviet-era apartment buildings, overrun by stifling smells, where they had installed beds, makeshift kitchens, shelves and small Orthodox shrines. Ukrainian police went from basement to basement, trying to convince civilians to evacuate.
The long-standing target of the Russian offensive, Bakhmut, is 34 miles to the northeast, and Moscow has not stopped its attack there, even as fighting intensifies elsewhere on the front, officials from both sides said Tuesday. Russian forces fought for nine months to capture Bakhmut, advancing in three directions and recently taking the eastern side of the city, but the Ukrainians held firm on the western side.
“They are giving up their attempts to surround and capture the city,” Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed leader in the Donetsk region, told Russian state television that Kremlin forces were advancing, wresting a steel factory west of Bajmut from the Ukrainians, a claim that may not be independently verified.
The war there killed or wounded thousands, and officials on both sides claimed that the carnage was used to exhaust their enemy.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update on Tuesday that a parallel effort to encircle and capture Avdiivka had a very sensible Russian precedent, but that it had “made only marginal progress because of heavy losses in armored vehicles. “
The Ukrainian army general said Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had repelled 62 attacks in the past 24 hours in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka, other towns near the east.
With the arrival of tougher Western guns and the recruitment of new troops, Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive soon, hoping to regain territory from Russian control. Analysts say the main advance is expected to be further west, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. .
In Zaporizhzhia, “there is an apparent increase in the number of infantrymen on both sides, military equipment, etc. ,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, the United Nations’ main nuclear energy watchdog, said in an interview Tuesday. “Our groups are also watching, listening and seeing more army activity, adding detonations. “
Grossi is in the region and plans to stop Wednesday at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, seized in Russia last year. Grossi is seeking to negotiate a deal to turn the factory and its landscape into a demilitarized zone.
Ukrainian officials claim the danger increases when Russian occupiers abuse the corps of numerically disadvantaged Ukrainian workers at the plant and station troops and weapons at the plant, which the Russians have denied.
Russia has alluded to some other kind of nuclear danger: the use of nuclear weapons. On Sunday, Putin said Russia could soon station such weapons in Belarus, its ally, which borders Ukraine to the north. The Belarusian government said Tuesday it would be open to Russian tactical nuclear weapons on its soil.
Western analysts say such talks are likely boastful and point out that Russia already has the capability to conduct nuclear moves in Ukraine, but threats remain the topic on the minds of Ukrainians and Westerners.
The United States has informed Russia that it will no longer share the percentage of knowledge about U. S. nuclear forces as required by the New START nuclear weapons treaty, Biden administration officials said Tuesday. Putin said last month that Russia was postponing its participation in the treaty and had already blocked U. S. inspections of its arsenal under the treaty.
Despite the suffering and risks, neither Moscow nor Kiev has shown any serious interest in ending the war, except in situations that the other side calls unacceptable. Russian pre-specter Vladimir V. Putin has said that his most sensible precedent is the conquest of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which his forces basically control. His government claims to have annexed those two provinces, as well as Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, to Russia, but does not control all four.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would settle for nothing less than withdrawing or expelling Russians from all Ukrainian territory. Stopping the fighting before that, according to Ukrainian and U. S. officials, would only consolidate Russia’s illegal gains.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken reiterated that position Tuesday in a thinly veiled move to a proposal by China, Russia’s top ally, that includes a ceasefire. While not mentioning China by name, Blinken warned that he opposes any plan that simply gives Russia room “to rest and reorganize, and then strike again,” he told foreign ministers in a video conference of foreign ministers from around the world.
“What seems horny on the surface, who needs the guns to shut up, can also be a very cynical trap that we need to be very, very careful with,” he added.
Where weapons make maximum noise, near the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine, most citizens fled long ago, but some remain. The forces took it in 2014.
Of the other 30,000 people who lived in Avdiivka before the large-scale Russian invasion, Ukrainians say only many remain. They usually stay underground, where it is safer. One retiree said she hadn’t left in five months.
People stayed for a variety of reasons. Some say they are too sick, others also in their pre-war life. Most are middle-aged or older.
“I have lived here for 43 years. How can I leave Avdiivka?”said an older resident, Polina, who came out of a basement to drop off cat food for a neighbor and check if her apartment was damaged. Like others interviewed for this article, he gave his first name, fearing for his safety.
“At my complex age, I don’t need to move to other apartments elsewhere,” she added.
Nearby, a construction that continues to smoke after a recent rocket launch.
Still others say they are too weak to move. Some seem psychologically paralyzed after months of bombing. Many are just in their beds and staring.
And in a region with strong ties to Russia, loyalties are shared. Two elderly citizens gave the impression of helping Russia and accused both sides of the war of bombing their community.
Many citizens knew a couple of policemen they had visited on Monday, on previous visits, and were used to his attempts to convince them to leave.
One mother, Natalya, agreed to be evacuated with her 3-year-old daughter, Marina. She was distraught as she packed her few belongings into plastic bags and said she had no cash to start a new life.
But most of those who approached chased away officials, then ran to their basements and locked the doors.
The report provided through Matthew Mpoke Bigg of Kiev, Edward Wong of Washington and Enjoli Liston of London.
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