Evacuating Civilians Under Fire in Ukraine: Dangerous Human Rights Defender Works at Its Best
Donetsk—Last week, I again joined Ukrainian Human Rights Defenders Sasha Humaniuk and Daniel Zakharchenko of the Kharkiv-based Rose on Hand evacuation team to evacuate civilians living in villages under fire.
I worked with them in June, July, and August, evacuating people from along the front line, and I have seen firsthand how they rescue people from places of extreme danger.
This time we went to Donetsk, to the small city of Pokrovsk and surrounding settlements, about 150 miles south of the city of Kharkiv. The Russian military has made steady advances here in recent weeks as part of a push before the coming winter freeze makes ground fighting almost impossible.
Russia claims to have already taken some of the villages we visited, including Selydove and Hirnyk. But Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are still battling street by street, and control of neighborhoods can change from hour to hour. This is literally the battlefront, where the most intense fighting is now taking place, and the shelling is constant. Many civilians, often elderly, are trying to escape, and rely on volunteer evacuation teams to rescue them.
Pokrovsk has been an important military hub for decades and is familiar with war and slaughter. During the Second World War, it was occupied by Italian and then German forces who forcibly took locals to labor camps in Austria. A 1942 massacre by Nazi soldiers of the city’s remaining Jewish community was followed the following year by a massacre by the Soviet Army, who killed over 500 prisoners of war and 88 civilians.
A few weeks ago, Sasha and Daniel were confronted by a Russian soldier here as they were evacuating elderly people.
Sasha texted me that night: “Hi Brian, today was a very busy day. We were hit by a drone, it exploded, we were in an armored car and then we ran into a Russian soldier, thank God he didn’t kill us, he let us go and let us get three people out …[in all today] 20+ people were taken out.” The encounter was filmed here.
We returned there in early October to spend a long day evacuating people.
3.00am – Leave Kharkiv City in a Rose on Hand van for the long drive to Donetsk.
8.05am – Arrive in Pokrovsk. Sasha explains we are first going to the village of Selydove. “It’s 50-50 Russian and Ukrainian controlled,” he says. A woman has called from there and asked to be evacuated.
9.15am – Arrive at Selydove, and find Angela at her home; she is packed and almost ready go. As she prepares to leave, we run along the street banging on doors and looking into basements shouting Evacuatsi in case anyone wants to make a last-minute decision to come with us and escape, but everywhere is empty.
9.25am – Explosions around us. Rescue a street cat and take him with us.
10.45am – Leave Angela at local center for evacuated villagers at Kurakhove. This is also a village under fire, but marginally safer, a few miles from the fighting. Those evacuated from the most intense danger are gathered here and moved out later in the day. We agree to take two other elderly women who show up here and explain we will drive them out later.
11.25am – 12.15pm – Arrive at village of Kurakhivka, but can’t find the address of where the elderly woman who wants to be evacuated. As usual, we park the van under a tree to avoid detection by drones, but the longer we linger the more chance we will be spotted. Eventually, we find Lydia, but there is a problem.
She is with her son who refuses to leave with her. At 56 years old, if he is evacuated to safety he is liable to be put into the Ukrainian army. His choice is between staying in a village under heavy fire, which could be taken imminently by Russian soldiers, and taking his chance on being conscripted into the Ukrainian military. He doesn’t look the warrior type, and a fraught 20 minutes pass with the mother and son in tearful argument.
The explosions around us seem very close as the pair stand in the street discussing what to do. We nervously scour the skies for drones as they finally decide they will both come with us. In some distress, Lydia says goodbye to her house, making elaborate religious blessings outside the front door as she walks away.
12.15 pm – As we leave, a small street dog jumps into our van in a successful bid to self-evacuate.
1.30pm – Drop Lydia and her son back at the meeting place in Kurakhove.
1.50pm – Drive at high speed to the village of Hirnyk across a narrow bridge scarred by several recent missile hits.
2.10pm – Find the home of a man wanting to be evacuated. He’s packed, ready to go, and jumps into the van with a few bags and a kitten in a box. Pickup takes 30 seconds. Ideal.
2.15pm – Arrive at a nearby church in Hirnyk to fetch a woman. But the gates closed, and waiting around is very risky. Someone appears and gives directions to a house a few streets away where the woman is waiting. More explosions around us, varying from a heavy rumble to a sharp crack. As we drive to the house our Sugar Cube drone detector beeps—there is something flying above us. We find her, she is ready to go, bags packed, in the van and away within 60 seconds. Full speed back over the bridge at high speed, past the village of Illinka on the left, and back into Kurahkhove.
3pm – More people show up at the center in Kurahivka asking to be evacuated. We leave with them and those we have rescued to make our way to a prearranged pickup point.
4.45pm – Hand over those we have evacuated—nine women, two men, two dogs, and two cats—to the NGO Helping to Leave. They board a big bus and are taken away from the front line. Some will go to relatives, others will be accommodated in government-run shelters, and others will be housed by NGOs. For now, they are much safer than they were.
10pm – Arrive back in Kharkiv city.
Sasha, Daniel and the other volunteers in the Rose on Hand team spend most days evacuating people at great risk to themselves. Because international NGOs and donors rarely visit the places where the evacuation teams work, much of this lifesaving activism goes unreported and unrecognized, but this is Human Rights Defender work at its most basic and its best.
A few days after this trip, Tigran Galustyan from the evacuation team returned to the area in the Rose on Hand van and was targeted and killed by a Russian drone in Illinka. He was 37 years old.
