In eastern Ukraine, rockets fall like rain

Mud splattered all the way up a nine-storey apartment building facade. (Neil Hauer)

DRUZHKIVKA -

It’s a bright spring day in Druzhkivka, a town of 50,000 in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. The harsh winter months are just now giving way to warmer weather, with locals taking advantage. Parents guide young children down the city’s broad avenues; older men gather in the central park to drink coffee and chat, perhaps even play a game of backgammon.

But “normality” for Druzhkivka, and other cities like it in Donbas, now includes a deadly addition: Russian rockets. Since last summer, the town has come under regular shelling from advancing Russian forces, just a few dozen kilometres away.

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Artur Shevkov’s house lies just outside the urban core of Druzhkivka, its backyard opening onto a large farming field. Chickens roam around a pen just next to a gaping crater where the remains of a rocket that fell just hours ago have embedded themselves.

“I was at home when the rocket hit,” Shevkov says. A 55-year-old local, he was inside his home when the strike occurred just metres away. “I heard it hit and I couldn’t even react. I didn’t even have time to be afraid,” he says.

ROCKET DEBRIS CAN CARRY UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE

On this particular day, Druzhkivka (and Shevkov) were relatively lucky: the city was not struck directly by any rockets, with only the booster stages of a pair of missiles landing in civilian areas. The day after our visit was less fortunate - two Russian missiles hit a suburb of the city, killing two civilians and wounding four more.

Even the rocket debris, however, can still carry deadly unexploded ordnance, requiring professional removal. For that, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (DSNS, by its Ukrainian acronym) is here.

Dmitry Zamoreyko is the leader of a five-man DSNS team that arrives at Shevkov’s home. Equipped with a large truck-mounted crane, he and his men begin to set up for the rocket’s removal.

Dmitry Zamoreyko, DSNS team leader, is seen in this photo. (Neil Hauer)

“The first step is to identify the munition,” says Zamoreyko, outlining the procedure his team performs dozens of times each month. “Here, we have a 300mm SMERCH (‘Tornado’) rocket - one of the most dangerous Russian rocket artillery weapons. Since it’s next to the house, we will need to remove it and transport it to a safe place to detonate whatever explosives remain,” he explains.

DSNS has its work cut out for it. They have just 11 teams for the entirety of Donetsk Oblast, a territory roughly the size of Massachusetts, although only perhaps a quarter of that remains under Ukrainian control. Nearly the entire province is a battleground, a fact underscored by the constant low boom of artillery fire audible in Druzhkivka.

Zamoreyko’s team has come here from Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine about 700 kilometres away, in order to assist the Donbas crews. Despite the additional resources, it’s the equipment that leaves them wanting: Druzhkivka has just one truck-mounted bomb disposal crane for the entire city, meaning long wait times for life-threatening situations.

As it turns out, the rocket tail section lodged in Shevkov’s yard is too deeply embedded in the thick spring mud for even the crane’s heavy-duty hydraulics to pull free. The crew has no choice but to block off the area and return later, as any remaining explosive material could prove deadly.

“It’s a shame when it happens like this,” says Vitaly Borshchov, a member of another DSNS crew that has arrived to assist. “We just don’t have the right tools to handle things properly,” he says.

Borshchov’s story is similar to many of those across Ukraine who took any opportunity to aid in the country’s defence following Russia’s invasion last February. A Druzhkivka native, the 59-year-old sent his wife and children to safer areas of western Ukraine before coming out of retirement and donning his old uniform once again.

“I couldn’t sit by and watch my country being destroyed without doing anything,” Borshchov says. “I’m a specialist at what I do - I had 36 years of experience as a firefighter, saving people’s lives. My boss called me [last February], asked, ‘Are you with me?’, and I answered, ‘I’m with you’,” he says.

A HUGE CRATER LIES IN FRONT OF A PLAYGROUND

Borshchov offers to show some of the destruction of the past 14 months across the city. Driving through the central square, boarded-up shopfronts and damage from shrapnel is everywhere. On one corner stands a ruined bank - the victim of a direct hit during working hours just three days earlier, killing two civilians and wounding two more.

Borshchov drives the car to an apartment complex just outside the centre. There, a huge crater lies in front of a playground, a gash in the earth five metres deep. A few local men are piling the dirt around its edges with shovels.

Zamoreyko and his team survey the bomb crater. (Neil Hauer)

“This was in February,” Borshchov says. “Look at the size of the explosion - this building is nine storeys tall, and it threw dirt all the way onto the very top floor,” he says, gesturing at the mud-flecked facade of the apartment building.

One of Borshchov’s former colleagues, another retiree, walks over from the site. He lives in the building opposite the site of the strike.

“Thank God it was still winter when this happened,” he says, gesturing at the crater. “If it was warm out, this playground would have been full of children. Can you imagine then?” he asks.

More than 100 Russian missiles and shells have struck Druzhkivka since the war’s start, despite its position over 30 kilometres from the nearest frontline. The city’s surprisingly handsome industrial district, with its wide parks and neoclassical edifices amongst the factories, testifies to this.

“Look over there,” says Borshchov, pointing at one half-ruined building. “This was an excellent mining equipment factory. Bombed. Over there, a brick factory -- bombed. Five factories just in this area, and every one bombed,” he says with a sigh.

Another call comes in on his walkie-talkie. Another civilian has just been wounded by the remnants of one Russian strike, unexploded ordnance come to life.

Borshchov readies to go to this new scene, with a parting word.

“Make sure you tell people what’s happening here,” he says. “We will need all the world’s help we can get.”