DONETSK OBLAST – Along a bumpy highway that used to link the cities of Pokrovsk and now occupied Donetsk, used to lie quiet and picturesque towns and villages whose names only locals would know.
Yet – Novohrodivka, Selydove, Petrivka – are now well-known in Ukraine, stuck between the advancing Russian troops and their main goal – Pokrovsk.
For the thousands of civilians living under the constant threat of Russian fire, life has become unsustainable, but leaving is not always an option.
In Selydove, a transit point has been hastily put together by NGOs for people who have just evacuated for nearby settlements about to be occupied by the advancing Russian troops.
Olena and her son Stanyslav have just arrived from the nearby settlement of Novohrodivka.
Sitting next to the few plastic bags in which they have packed their belongings, they are still in shock over the swiftly deteriorating situation.
"We are from Novohrodivka. There was no one left there, and now we are hoping to go to Khmelnytskyi, where friends are expecting us," Olena said, who declined to provide her last name for security reasons.
Next to her, her son was shaking. Eight-year-old Stanyslav, born a few years after Russia first invaded his region, said he is not afraid despite his body language saying otherwise.
Olena hopes to register him to a new school as they get to safety, as he never attended classes offline because of the war.
Asami Terajima
A few kilometers away, in the settlement of Petrivka, seven kilometers west of Selydove, a humanitarian point has been set up by local and international NGOs.
There, water tanks and care packages are provided to those who haven't yet left.
Angelina, a humanitarian working with NGO Caritas, also a native of Novohrodivka, talks about the life she was taken away.
"Novohrodivka was a town that had a lot to offer. People were there for each other. It was still bearable a month ago, but not anymore," Angelina, who declined to provide her last name for security reasons, said.
"The other day, a missile hit my parents' house, they almost died," she added, saying that a few elderly people remain in the city.
As she faces the prospect of not being able to return home, Angelina helps other locals survive.
"People are very confused; they don't know what to do or where to go, what to get rid of, or what to bring with them. It is scary, and it is difficult not to also share those emotions," she added.
Denys, another humanitarian working in Petrivka, explains: "Every day, people leave their home as the front line comes closer to them. The settlements of Myrnohrad, Selydove and Novohrodivka are those where families with children are currently being evacuated."
"Everyone who physically can leave does, but often, the elderly, people with disabilities, or those with no money stay behind. We see them here every day, as we distribute 50 to 80 hygiene kits to them on a daily basis," he added.
That day, in the Selydove humanitarian aid distribution point, retiree Anatoliy came to pick up a package with bare necessities provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Back in 2022, on the onset of the full scale invasion, Anatoliy had sought refuge in Zhytomyr Oblast for four months, but ran out of money and had to return to the outskirts of Selydove.
"I would gladly evacuate, but it's just not possible. Rent prices are so high that I would have to choose between paying for a flat or for food. Now, I'm simply waiting for peace, that is all I want," he said.
Back in Pokrovsk, piles of donated clothes are neatly folded in the main hall of a refugee reception center.
The center's head, Svitlana Savchenko, herself born in now occupied Luhansk, said they have seen thousands of refugees come and go throughout the war.
"When our cities started to get bombed, people from Bakhmut, Siversk started to be evacuated here. People come from all places that see Russians coming, and now we work around the clock to help them," Savchenko said.
Police captain Andriy M., who has just returned from Myrnohrad, where he evacuated a family, said the situation is getting worse by the minute.
"Measures are being taken to evacuate families with young children, as the situation in Donetsk Oblast becomes more and more complicated, we do everything possible to bring them to a safe place from where they can then travel further west," Andriy said.
Among those evacuated was Yulia from Novoekonomichne along with her two younger children, Yaroslav and Ruslan, and her neighbors.
She describes the hellish daily life that she has just escaped from.
"There are incoming (bombs) after incoming (bombs), big pits and ditches everywhere," Yulia said.
"All the windows are broken. Our church has also been destroyed."
During the latest shelling, the neighboring house was destroyed, and Yulia injured her knee when running for cover. But what worries her the most now is that Dmytro, her elder son, and her husband don't answer the phone anymore.
She shares that the two of them went "for a break from all the shelling" to Kurakhove, a settlement south and slightly further from the front line but also regularly shelled.
Yulia is on her way to Rivne, a regional capital in western Ukraine, where she is taking her two children and an elderly neighbor with her.
"I don't have close relatives: no parents, no siblings, but my cousins are there, and we have reached out to them," she said.
On Aug. 16, Governor Vadym Filashkin announced that thousands of people had been evacuated from the front-line settlements in Donetsk Oblast. Thousands of others remain within the 10-kilometer front line zone.
The city of Pokrovsk, once home to 60,000 people, has been urged to evacuate as well, as the Russian army was spotted within 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the city's outskirts.
Owen Racer
