Evacuees from the city of Pokrovsk arrive at the train station in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on Oct. 15. They are fleeing to cities in western Ukraine or other points in Europe. Pokrovsk, a coal mining center in eastern Ukraine, is under frequent Russian artillery barrages and aerial attacks.
Michael Robinson Chávez for NPR
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Weary Ukrainian civilians escaping war arrive every day. They come from the chain of coal mining towns that line this east-west highway. The E-50 connects Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, with Donetsk in the eastern Donbas region, but it now ends partway, in Pokrovsk, an increasingly dangerous and embattled city at the edge of the front line.
Most of the people arriving here are transferred to trains heading farther west to connect with family members. Others have nowhere to go, and stay in a theater, now serving as a shelter for displaced people in Pavlohrad, another coal mining city.
A mother and her child from the city of Pokrovsk, Ukraine, board a bus joining other evacuees in Pavlohrad, on Oct. 19. They were transferred to a train headed for western Ukraine or farther into Europe. Pokrovsk, a coal mining center in eastern Ukraine, is under frequent artillery barrages and aerial attacks by the Russians who are making a push into the region.
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Evacuees from the mining city of Pokrovsk listen to a safety briefing at a theater turned shelter for displaced people, in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on Oct. 19. Organizers at the facility, which offers counseling and humanitarian assistance, say that the number of people arriving has been steady with higher numbers following larger Russian attacks.
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A displaced woman from eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region lifts her luggage onto a train that leaves daily for Dnipro from the station in the mining city of Pavlohrad. From Dnipro displaced people are fanning out into western Ukraine and into Europe to stay with relatives.
Michael Robinson Chávez for NPR
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This coal corridor leading to Dnipro is now also the path advancing Russian forces could take deeper into Ukraine — should Pokrovsk fall. Freshly dug defensive line positions can be seen in fields outside of Dnipro. Ukraine’s mining towns are an essential link of the dwindling supply chain keeping the national steelworks industry afloat. The industry is already operating at minimal capacity, producing approximately 7 million metric tons this past year, around a third of the output level before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Residents of the region are traumatized by the daily barrage of missiles and attack drones. Many have moved away. Miners are now fighting and dying at the front, leaving the mines short-staffed.
“I cannot sell, I cannot work at home in Pokrovsk,” says Lilia Lymanska, 53, who now sells her home-cured meats to shoppers in Dobropillya, another coal mining town, 18 miles north of her hometown of Pokrovsk. “It is too loud, the explosions, the drones. Too dangerous. We cannot stay.”
Lilia Lymanska (right) sells home-cured meats at her market stall in Dobropillya, Ukraine, on Oct. 17. Lymanska lives in nearby Pokrovsk, a coal mining center that is very close to the front line and is under frequent Russian artillery barrages and aerial attacks. She says it is impossible to sell her goods there and it has become increasingly dangerous. Dobropillya is also frequently coming under attack by Russian missiles, drones and rockets.
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Residents fill bottles with water from a public spigot in front of a bombed-out student dormitory in the coal mining town of Dobropillya, Ukraine, on Oct. 17.
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A car loaded with suitcases and a bicycle heads west on the main highway from Dobropillya, Ukraine, in October. The number of displaced people fleeing the Pokrovsk region has grown as Russian troops continue a steady advance on the coal producing area.
Michael Robinson Chávez for NPR
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Dobropillya is hardly a safe haven. The city remains a frequent target. Cars, loaded with evacuees and their belongings were leaving the city on a recent visit by NPR. The cultural center is now a distribution point for humanitarian aid and food for those in need.
Dobropillya’s state-owned coal mines remain open but their output is minimal compared to those in Russian-occupied areas and Pokrovsk, where two female miners were killed in a recent missile attack.
The quality of the coal matters for the steel producers. Many miners say Pokrovsk has the region’s best coal. How long its mine can remain operating under the steady barrage of missiles is unknown.
Daria Kuznetsova picks through a coal pile while her husband, Voldymyr Kuznetsov, holds one of their cats outside their home in Dobropillya, Ukraine, on Oct. 17. Kuznetsova complains that the coal she has received this season is of poor quality and full of stones.
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A slag heap from a nearby coal mine is seen from a cemetery at the edge of the mining town of Dobropillya, Ukraine, on Oct. 17. The front line is nearby as Russian forces advance on Pokrovsk an important coal mining center a little over 8 miles southeast of Dobropillya.
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Daria Kuznetsova burns coal in her kitchen stove in Dobropillya, Ukraine, on Oct. 17.
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People also use the coal in their everyday lives. “This is terrible coal, they gave us awful coal. It is full of stones and we need twice as much to cook and heat the house,” Daria Kuznetsova complains in her kitchen, as a pot of soup simmers on the coal-heated stove. She and her husband live in a home at the foot of one of Dobropillya’s many slag heaps. This one is nearly 500 feet high. Her husband, Voldymyr Kuznetsov, is a retired coal miner and as part of his pension receives a season’s worth of coal each year. A few of their cats roam around them as they pick stones out of the coal pile. Power outages at their home are common and running water cuts out several times a day.
Victoria Yakhno holds a banner showing her missing son, Maksym Yakhno, during a demonstration on the main square in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on Oct. 19. The relatives of missing and imprisoned soldiers line streets across Ukraine, usually on weekends, to draw attention to their missing loved ones. Pavlohrad is part of a chain of mining centers along a highway stretching east from the Donbas region.
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A Soviet-era mosaic celebrating coal miners at a bus stop in Dobropillya, Ukraine. Like the nearby coal mining center of Pokrovsk, Dobropillya frequently comes under aerial attack from Russian missiles and drones.
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In Pavlohrad and the neighboring city of Ternivka, demonstrators lined the road under a heavy overcast sky holding posters of loved ones who are missing or being held prisoner by Russia. It is a sad ritual that occurs in towns across the country most weekends. Victoria Yakhno wept while raising an image of her missing 24-year-old son, Maksym Yakhno, up to passing cars at Pavlohrad’s main square, some honking their horns in solidarity. He has been missing since March.
Parishioners attend a church service at an Orthodox church in the coal mining city of Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on Oct. 20.
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A banner under the title “Wall of Hope” shows the faces of missing relatives and prisoners of war captured by Russia during a demonstration in the mining town of Ternivka, Ukraine, on Oct. 20. Many male coal miners have been conscripted into military service as Ukraine continues to battle against Russia’s invasion of the country.
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A woman lights candles during an Orthodox church service in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on Oct. 20.
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Some residents find solace in candlelit churches. The parishioners, mostly women and elderly, slowly file past the images of saints to light candles as offerings. The lack of men is evident along this stretch of road. Most are fighting, many have been killed. The war veterans’ section in the cemetery at the edge of Pavlohrad has rows of fresh graves.
Paranoia runs deep. There is a strong fear of being conscripted into the Ukrainian military and of pro-Russia collaborators. On a recent visit to the Pavlohrad public market, a seller summoned the police, accusing this NPR team of journalists of being spies. The episode was quickly resolved by the market’s supervisor who had given the team permission to document the sparse offerings on sale.
A Ukrainian man from the city of Pokrovsk goes to board a bus in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, to seek safety in the western part of the country or elsewhere in Europe, on Oct. 19.
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Evacuees from the city of Pokrovsk arrive at a train station in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, on Oct. 19. Pokrovsk, a coal mining center in eastern Ukraine, is under frequent Russian artillery barrages and aerial attacks.
Michael Robinson Chávez for NPR
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A woman exits a building after receiving humanitarian aid in Dobropillya, Ukraine, on Oct. 17. Dobropillya frequently comes under aerial attack from Russian missiles and drones.
Michael Robinson Chávez for NPR
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Russia’s strategy going into each winter of this nearly 3-year-old conflict is to inflict as much damage on Ukraine’s energy sector as possible. This season has been no exception. There is less coal for people’s homes across Ukraine, including in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, a steelworks hub. Russian forces are bombing the steel smelters regularly.
Evacuees from the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk prepare to depart after spending the night in a shelter for displaced people in Pavlohrad, on Oct. 19.
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“It is hard to stay,” says Lymanska, the meat vendor at the Dobropillya market, “life here is becoming impossible.”
