Ukraine gambled that its move into Russia would draw Moscow’s forces away from the town of Pokrovsk. It didn’t happen. And now resigned residents are evacuating daily.

With the Russian Army at its doorstep and closing in quickly, Pokrovsk is a town bowing to reality. The police drive around with loudspeakers blaring instructions to leave now. Municipal workers have shipped out library books, elementary school desks and statues from parks and squares.

By late afternoon, with a curfew in effect, the streets were eerily deserted last week, except for military vehicles zipping about.

The Ukrainian military’s surprise attack into Russia last month came as one of Kyiv’s boldest gambles of the war, bringing swift gains in land and prisoners captured. But hundreds of miles away, inside Ukraine, the wholesale evacuation of Pokrovsk is evidence of the operation’s risks.

MBFC
Archive