To use this site, please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page.
This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies.
Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Courtesy of White Angels Gennadiy Yudin, left, evacuates a resident in Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in early February.
By Hiroshi Uesugi / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
7:00 JST, March 3, 2025
KYIV — A Ukrainian police rescue team is continuing to evacuate civilians stranded on the front lines in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces are taking more territory.
Having endured three years of war, the White Angels of Ukraine’s National Police are determined to save as many residents as possible who have not yet left their hometowns. With the situation looking increasingly grave for Ukraine, there has been a rise in the number of areas that require evacuation.
In early February, Gennadiy Yudin, 48, head of the White Angels in the Donetsk region, drove an armored car to a house in a suburb of Pokrovsk.
The mining town of Pokrovsk is now the site of the war’s most intense fighting, and it is a key stronghold for the Ukrainian military.
The police team was asked by family members outside the country to take away two grandparents who were still at home.
Olena Yurasova, 78, was living with her 78-year-old husband in a cold and dimly lit house with no electricity or gas, about 3 kilometers away from an area occupied by Russian forces.
The rescuers and the couple argued back and forth outside the house for about 20 minutes. “We have to go,” the police said, and one of the grandparents responded, “This is our land and we’re not leaving,” amid the intermittent sound of shells being fired by the Russian military.
Eventually, Olena and her husband gave in and agreed to evacuate.
According to Yudin, the greatest terror one feels while travelling is from the self-destructing drones.
The drones are remotely controlled by Russian soldiers, and they are said to target civilians as well. Recently, one drone crashed into a vehicle belonging to a nongovernmental organization helping the police team, seriously injuring the driver.
About 7,000 people are believed to still be in Pokrovsk, which had a population of about 60,000 before the war’s start. Many of the remaining residents are elderly. “The fear they have right now, fear that they don’t have a place to go, is stronger than their fear to die,” Yudin said.
Many would rather live in their hometowns, even at the risk of death, than live in uncertainty in an unfamiliar place, he said.
The White Angels department was formed in December 2022. They operate on a regional basis, with 25 members in the Donetsk region. So far, they have evacuated about 10,000 people. About 30% have been evacuated since the beginning of this year, when the Russian military stepped up its offensive in the region, Yudin said.
Yudin’s hometown of Avdiivka was ruined in a Russian onslaught and fell in February 2024. His strong feelings for his hometown motivate his work. The other members of his group are also from the Donetsk region.
Olena currently lives with her husband in a housing complex in Dnipro, an arrangement facilitated by a support group.
When asked how her life is there, she said on the phone, “It’s like heaven. It’s very warm here.” They were reluctant to evacuate because they believed that the Ukrainian army would eventually drive the Russians away, she said.
According to an aid organization that provides housing to evacuees, the number of people fleeing Donetsk and other regions to Kyiv or Lviv continues to rise. Rents, however, are going up, and it is becoming more difficult to secure housing.
