A few days ago, I came across a text published on Facebook by a Ukrainian serviceman that I think should be read by a wider, non-Ukrainian-speaking audience. In this text, Dmytro Diomshyn explains what the approach of the frontline does to a city—how the urban organism adapts, mutates, suddenly grows, then begins to shrink and shudder and finally collapses. Diomshyn shows this step by step, showing the changes of an unnamed city as Russian troops get within 50 kilometers of it, then 30, then 10, then 5, as the urban battle unfolds and after they’ve taken the place.
The text obviously had a huge impact on people, as it was shared close to 7,000 times just on Facebook.
It is in my experience a depressingly accurate telling. I took the very unremarkable picture attached to this newsletter from the back of an evacuation armored van as we entered the city of Pokrovske (Dnipropetrovsk region) on October 18. Russian forces were then about 17 kilometers from the city. Gliding bombs had been dropped on bridges leading to the approach of Pokrovske the previous day, but it was quiet that morning — and the rest of the day — and a police officer told me that FPV drones weren’t used in the area just yet. We didn’t stay long in the city itself, but I could see some life, civilian cars, people on bicycles, a few shops working.
The drones arrived in the days and weeks that followed, as Russian forces closed in and strikes intensified. Footage appeared showing that place in the picture on fire after an attack. Russian troops are now nine kilometers away from Pokrovske. The hardened volunteers I entered the city with barely a month ago say it’s now too dangerous to go there.
The text is long, but I’ve only very slightly trimmed it—I think it deserves to be read in full. It was translated using DeepL and then edited by me.
A few days ago, I came across a motivational post on Facebook talking about the need to join the army, because otherwise your city will be looted, women will be raped, your property will be forcibly taken, and you will be sent either to Siberia or to the front line, depending on your luck.
I understand the objective of such a post, and I even support the author’s goal of encouraging people to enlist, but it doesn’t work that way. Everything he wrote is nonsense, and many people are fully aware of this. And if you talk nonsense and then call on everyone to do something, people won’t even want to do it subconsciously, because no one wants to follow the calls of someone who talks nonsense.
So I’ll tell you how it actually works, step by step.
When the frontline starts to approach a city, say the distance to the LBZ [line of combat operations] gets to 50-70 kilometres, military personnel begin to arrive en masse. That’s rear units, brigade depots, which are being moved away from the immediate frontline for security reasons. Housing rents rise sharply, and it becomes almost impossible to find accommodation. The infrastructure begins to struggle to cope: lines appear in shops, you find yourself waiting for hours at [private postal service] Nova Poshta, you can only go to the hairdresser if you have an appointment and need to wait at least a week to get your car checked at the repair shop.
This is a period of economic prosperity, and most of these cities (except for Kharkiv) see more money than they ever have. Hardware stores, auto part stores, repair shops, grocery stores, coffee shops, pizzerias, sushi bars, hairdressers, Nova Poshta branches — they all pop up like mushrooms after the rain. If there’s no large supermarket in the city, prices are rising for everything. If there is a retailer like ATB or Varus, prices remain stable — until the frontline gets within a distance of 35-40 kilometres.
At that point, most of the rear units leave and start being replaced by combat brigades. Big retail stores pull out along with the rear units, and the market becomes entirely local. That’s when everyone starts losing their income.
The military immediately starts establishing their quarters, and since most of them have to settle into dilapidated buildings, there’s a huge cost to renovating and making those at least habitable. Lorries owned by large construction stores start delivering goods several times a week. Bombings begin: mostly in the industrial area and the forest around the city, sometimes in the city itself, but not often enough to scare the locals — because, for them, it’s time to make some dough.
There’s also an influx of money going into the local budget, which local authorities rush to spend: new road markings, new flower beds, new lighting, restoration of destroyed buildings, new windows in schools and kindergartens that no one attends... there’s no limit to their imagination.
The frontline grinds forward by another 10 kilometres and things change a bit — more strikes, focusing increasingly on civilian rather than military targets. New Post offices, construction stores, car repair shops (I’m not sure why they like them so much, but as far as I remember, five such shops have already been destroyed by gliding bombs). People gradually begin to leave. But the most desperate remain, and prices rise even more. I’ve seen them charge 120 hryvnias for a jar of olivier salad in a shop, 200 for a pack of cigarettes and 100 for two litres of vodka (just enough to get wasted quickly).
15-20 kilometres. Strikes become more frequent. There’s no one to repair the lights anymore, mobile communication is sputtering out, FPV drones are becoming more and more common on the streets. A few damaged shops are still operating but most of them have closed, and there’s already burnt-out cars in the parking lot that nobody bothers to clean up. Almost all the residents are gone, leaving behind a few hundred pensioners, a few hundred beggars, and a few hundred people who aren’t so right in the head and believe they have nowhere else to go. Even the shop workers are gone: their bosses bring them in in the morning, and take them to relative safety in the evening.
You see a lot less soldiers in the streets, because most of them have moved their bases around ten kilometres from the city. They stop at the shops on the way in and out, and then take off. The shops themselves, these islands of civilisation, gradually close down, or get hit.
5-10 kilometres. The bastards start demolishing the city with gliding bombs, artillery, multiple rocket launcher systems and missiles. Many of the locals still present finally realise that it doesn’t matter where they go, the only important thing is to leave. Some are taken away by volunteers, others by the police, others yet get out by themselves. Some cannot leave because they are buried in the remains of their homes.
Then enemy groups begin to infiltrate the city and to look for shelters -- and now it is our turn to destroy every possible shelter, the houses and the cellars and the basements. Sometimes the frontline inside the city shifts several times in one direction and then another, adding to the destruction.
After the armed forces of Ukraine leave the city, the enemy tries to create a logistical centre within its ruins to regroup, accumulate troops and resources for the next assaults, and then we demolish the city with gliding bombs, artillery, multiple rocket launcher systems and missiles.
After a few months, maybe around six months, the city becomes a relatively safe area where you can walk around. That’s the time for looting and raping and stealing but it’s impossible because there is noone and nothing left to take. The city disappears, there are no habitable houses, no infrastructure, no roads, no electricity, no water of gas supply. The only thing you can do in those city is to collect scrap metal, a dangerous business because the scrap can suddenly explode right in your hands.
To prevent this from happening, you need to join the Ukrainian military, or to donate as much money as possible if you cannot enlist. Because if those faggots reach your city, you’ll be able to make money off the military, but then you’ll be left without a home, without a business, without property, because all of this will burn down, as it has burned down many times before. The lack of people is one of the main reason the enemy is able to advance, because we fight much better, but they overwhelm us with their numbers.
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