Izyum, south-east of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, has become a focus for the Russian military as it retreats from territory around Kyiv in northern Ukraine. The city once of 40,000 people is a gateway to the Donbas region. It has been a battleground since the start of the war, and although on Friday it fell to Russian forces, residents and military officials say intense fighting continues close to the city.
“For three weeks there has been no civilisation. The city has been brought to ruins and intentionally so,” said Volodymyr Matsokin, the deputy mayor of Izyum, who has left the city but is working nearby and speaks to residents regularly.
This is the story of one family in the city. Names have been changed to protect sources from possible Russian reprisals.
“Yesterday morning started with hell,” my father, Andriy, told me when he called from Izyum last week. “There were as many bombs as there have been in the past month. The town centre was heavily bombed. It is shelled every minute. Even now when I tried to call you it’s going on.”
Like all the residents of the occupied city, my father, 57, has survived for three weeks without electricity, heating or running water. He spends 15 minutes a day trying to “catch” the unstable mobile phone connection to call me.
His house is now surrounded by trenches and destroyed houses and his new neighbours are Russian soldiers. They have prepared a list of individuals to “hunt”, people who may own a gun, are rich or “dangerous”, including businessmen, activists, military and their families. My father observed one hunt for a local businessman, who had already escaped when the raiding party arrived.
To survive he takes water from the neighbours’ well, lives off preserves and dried food supplies and usually cooks on an open fire. He abandoned his bed at the start of the war and now sleeps in a corner of the house where he feels more protected by walls. “I’m already used to the cold. I sleep under two duvets and take the cat with me,” he told me. At that time it was snowing there.
“You don’t hear when the bomb is coming. You just hear it half a second before it lands,” he said. Half the neighbours’ house has been destroyed. When the artillery starts, our house creaks and trembles. He hides our dog in the cellar.
“Today I went to the city. God, everything is destroyed, there is not a single building still standing. First came the Russian planes, then came the answering fire,” he said.
Authorities describe a list of war crimes recounted by those who have fled, which match reports from other parts of Ukraine. Russian soldiers have been accused of rape, kidnap, killing civilians and looting shops and homes. They have moved into civilian homes, in some cases kicking out residents, according to authorities.
Many of Izyum’s residents are hiding in their basements, and some have died there under the rubble. Rescue workers do not have the right equipment to get people out after attacks, says Volodymyr Matsokin, the deputy mayor.
There is nowhere to bury those who are found. “Some corpses are buried in the central park or near to the people’s houses and in gardens. The situation is like what it was in 1942. The morgue doesn’t work. Bodies were taken there at first but now it is too full,” Matsokin said.
There are Russian bodies too, abandoned by their comrades in arms. “I have seen three armed vehicles full of corpses. There were bodies even lying on the roofs,” my father said.
Shortages are costing lives. With the fighting and the Russian checkpoints barring passage of humanitarian convoys, food and medicine are running out. The hospital has been partly destroyed and people with diabetes or cancer cannot get treatment.
My grandparents are still in the city. I haven’t seen them for two months or spoken to them for a month, after they refused to leave. They lived in a Ukrainian-controlled area but moved to the occupied part to stay with other family members who live there.
They had not believed the war could start. As children of the Soviet Union, they were sure that Russia would never attack.
At least 5,000 people need to be evacuated from the city but there is no safe way to escape any more. All of the bridges have been blown up, and the only crossing left is a partly destroyed footbridge.
“I feel like it will take months to stop the war,” my father said during our last call, as the explosions continued. “I can’t imagine how it will end. Stalingrad continues.”
