Russia attacks the once quiet Toretsk in Ukraine

Compared to other people in war-torn eastern Ukraine, Galyna Poroshyna was fortunate to live in Toretsk, a mining town in a relatively sleepy section of the front line.

Then suddenly the Russian attacks began and life in the city, about 40 kilometers north of Donetsk, deteriorated dramatically.

As rockets and airstrikes rained down on the shaken population this month, Poroshina and her neighbors sought shelter in basements and emerged between the volleys to survey the damage.

The internet and electricity failed. A grenade hit near Poroshina’s house. The Ukrainian armed forces struggled to hold the positions they had controlled for months.

Like her mother and grandmother, the 63-year-old was born and raised in Toretsk. She married there. Her son was born and buried in the city after he succumbed to an illness.

“It’s a kind of bond that’s hard to break. I can’t just leave and go away. I can’t do that,” the 63-year-old told AFP, breaking down in tears.

Russia’s now targeting Toretsk underscores a worrying trend for Kyiv as the war enters its third year.

Already exhausted and outnumbered, Ukrainian troops are under even greater strain from new Russian attacks and advances along the more than 1,000-kilometer-long front line.

– “It’s so painful” –

Kiev said the Russian attack came after a “prolonged lull in fighting.” But the Kremlin is determined to capture the entire Donetsk region, which it considers to be part of Russia.

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Like many other cities in eastern Ukraine, Toretsk had a different name during the Soviet era: Dzerzhinsk, named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, the notorious founder of the Kremlin’s secret police.

Poroshina’s husband Oleskandr described it as a quiet industrial settlement – mines below, roses above, and where about 12,000 ordinary people led ordinary lives.

“It was a good city. Small, compact and always clean. Many people stayed here and got married,” he said.

That changed with the invasion of Russian forces in 2022. First there was no water supply, then no gas and finally no heating, Poroshina said.

“But it was OK. We somehow survived,” she said. “People get used to everything, including this.”

She and her husband described how they took the city’s tranquility for granted, reminiscing about their favorite park and visiting restaurants and concerts.

Her hometown has been turned into a “dead, broken city” by the recent increase in Russian attacks, she said.

In Toretsk, charred Soviet-era apartment blocks destroyed by Russian bombings can be seen. The emptying streets echo with artillery fire. Black smoke rises over the horizon.

“The most important thing now is human life, survival,” she said. “The memory of relatives must also be preserved. It is so painful when you cannot go to the cemetery.”

– ‘We go’ –

Oleksandr Bobryk, 41, was also born in Toretsk, grew up there and spent his entire life there. But that was about to change.

His grocery store was torn apart and his house destroyed in recent Russian attacks

A year earlier, he had already moved his business from an area more exposed to Russian artillery fire, and now he was preparing to move again, perhaps permanently.

“There are dozens of strikes every day. It’s very scary to be here. We’re leaving,” he said.

Bobryk didn’t know what would happen next to him and his family after they fled from danger.

“We haven’t thought about that yet,” he told AFP.

Following a series of new attacks, the governor of Donetsk this week called on residents to make the same decision.

“The best thing is to evacuate and not endanger your life or health,” said Governor Vadym Filashkin.

– “Mistakes were made” –

Stopping the Russian advance in the region is becoming increasingly “difficult,” a 30-year-old commander of a Ukrainian military unit stationed near Toretsk told AFP.

Russian forces dropped devastating guided bombs, fired missiles and sent out small sabotage teams, said the soldier nicknamed Kurt.

The Ukrainian armed forces also botched a troop rotation, jeopardizing their defense of the city, he added.

“Certain mistakes were made. The enemy analyzed them and exploited them,” he said.

AFP journalists who visited Toretsk several times during the increasing Russian bombing saw that Ukrainian fortifications had been prepared behind the city.

Kurt was not convinced of their effectiveness.

“The defense lines outside the city mean nothing,” he said, pointing out that Russia had captured other cities supported by such fortifications.

Poroshina was sure that she would not leave Toretsk, no matter how bad things got.

However, she admitted that she had no idea what her life would look like.

“God, this kind of oppression has been going on for ten years,” said the former kindergarten teacher, referring to the time when Kremlin-backed separatists first took over large parts of the Donetsk region in 2014.

“You know, I don’t make predictions anymore.”