Ruined Lysychansk eerily silent, residents remain in bomb shelters, after fall to Russia

(Reuters) – Lysychansk was as soon as a metropolis of a 100,000 folks in Ukraine’s japanese Luhansk area, nevertheless it now lies in ruins after its fall to Russian forces with many residents nonetheless residing in bomb shelters and basements.

Town was eerily quiet on Tuesday with scorched buildings, overturned autos and rubble a testomony to the ferocity of the battle it has endured.

Tatiana Glushenko, a 45-year-old Lysychansk resident, advised Reuters there have been folks nonetheless in basements and bomb shelters, together with youngsters and the aged.

Glushenko mentioned she and her household had determined to remain in Lysychansk on worries about security in different elements of Ukraine.

“All of Ukraine is being shelled: western Ukraine, central Ukraine, Dnipro, Kyiv, in all places. So we determined to not danger our lives and keep right here, at residence at the very least,” she mentioned.

However Glushenko is hopeful that peace will return to her metropolis and “that there will probably be some order”.

Since abandoning an assault on the capital Kyiv earlier in its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has concentrated its army operation on the commercial Donbas heartland that includes the Luhansk and Donetsk areas, the place Moscow-backed separatist proxies have been preventing Ukraine since 2014.

Russia mentioned the seize of Lysychansk on Sunday, a couple of week after the autumn of dual metropolis Sievierdonetsk, provides it management of Luhansk – a significant purpose of the conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a “particular army operation” to make sure Russian safety and shield Russian-speaking folks in Ukraine.

Russia says it doesn’t goal civilians, however the close to five-month conflict has killed hundreds, displaced thousands and thousands and flattened cities, notably in Russian-speaking areas within the east and southeast.

For aged Lysychansk resident Evgenia, who didn’t present her final identify, the prospect of rebuilding rtheir residence from the ruins left behind is a frightening process.

“The roof is damaged. You must repair it, however how and the way do you pay for it? The place? From who? Winter is coming quickly too, my pricey,” mentioned Evgenia, sitting in a darkish shelter.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Himani Sarkar; Enhancing by Michael Perry)