Ukrainska Pravda publishes exclusive images of Chasiv Yar after five months of Russian offensive

Journalists from Ukrainska Pravda have recorded what the centre of Chasiv Yar now looks like after five months of intense offensive by the Russian military. The town in Donetsk Oblast used to be home to 14,000 people, but now it is a battlefield and a strategically important height to deter the offensive on the adjacent Kramatorsk agglomeration. 

Source: UP journalists; Serhii Chaus, mayor of Chasiv Yar, in a comment to UP

Details: The UP journalists, who have been covering the Russian offensive on Chasiv Yar since February, have observed an increase in the number of damaged high-rise buildings, cars burnt by FPV (first-person view) drone attacks, and trees split in half. 

It is impossible to cross to the part of the city beyond the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas canal. A local resident named Andrii told UP: "We don’t go there anymore. Russia is there." However, we know from the military in the area that the Defence Forces still have positions on the other side of the canal. 

Some locals have stayed in the town despite the regular Russian bombardments. Mayor Serhii Chaus said that as of 25 June, there are about 650 people living there.

The locals live in the basements of high-rise buildings and collect humanitarian aid at the invincibility centre [a heated premises stocked with food and power banks to assist residents facing hardships due to power cuts – ed.]. There is only one place in the city where you can get drinking water. Otherwise you have to wait for volunteers to bring it in bottles.

There are no communications in the town, only occasional mobile phone coverage. People in Chasiv Yar send messages to their families, including children abroad, through a local volunteer, Yevhen Tkachov, a member of the UN Refugee Agency's Proliska humanitarian mission.

The only way to get around the city is by bicycle. On one occasion, UP journalists saw two young men with backpacks on their bicycles evacuating from Chasiv Yar towards the neighbouring settlement of Kostiantynivka.

The journalists also met people who have evacuated to nearly relatively peaceful settlements but regularly drive to Chasiv Yar to check whether their homes are still standing.

Photos: UP journalists Olha Kyrylenko and Alex Klymov from Chasiv Yar

Support UP or become our patron!