Vlad, a resident of Slovyansk, a city in Donetsk that the Russian Army has already put on the target, never thought that going to collect water from a sewage treatment plant near his house it could cost you your life.
This 58-year-old man is one of the hundreds of neighbors who pass through this place every day, the largest supply point in a city where running water stopped flowing weeks ago due to Russian bombing.
The old sewage treatment plant, with a brick tower and blue basins from which the neighbors obtain water with a hose, had not been attacked since the beginning of the warlast February 24.
It seemed like the right place to report on the plight of the civilian population -without water and with the front getting closer– at a time when Russia applies a scorched earth strategy in Donbas.
But then they started to fall rockets of a multiple launch system. It was 12:32.
Las explosions destroyed part of the facilities and the blast wave shattered all the crystals from a neighboring office building. Everything was enveloped in a cloud of dust.
There were at least three detonations that unleashed a storm of shrapnel. Only by chance there were no fatalities, although there were several injuries.
“I can’t believe they bombed the purification plant, what can we do to fix it? We can’t leave people without water.”repeated Sergei, one of the municipal officials of the center, while waiting in a shelter for the bombs to stop falling.
“This is the help that Russia sends us”Said another of the neighbors who had witnessed the explosions.
Among the injured was Vlad, who had a gash in the head and whom we accompanied to the hospital. His condition is not serious.
Shortly after 1:00 p.m. wounded began to arrive at the medical center bloodied by the impact of shrapnel and glass cuts. A wave of attacks had hit various points in Sloviansk.
Around 2:00 p.m. several columns of black smoke could be seen over the city, which It has suffered the heaviest bombardment in weeks.
“There are 15 sources of fire. Many dead and injured,” the mayor, Vadim Lyakh, reported on his Telegram channel. Regional authorities later gave the figure of six dead and 15 wounded.
The day before, four other civilians were killed in the city by Russian attacks. The Ukrainian authorities believe that these indiscriminate bombings are part of a new strategy to terrorize the country and try to subdue him.
Among the six dead on Sunday are a couple and their nine-year-old daughter, who died in their apartment after being hit by a rocket. The deceased lived near Inna and Ciril, who went to the hospital with minor injuries.
“This is the worst day since the start of the war,” says Ciril. Inna, who has a glass cut on her elbow, adds that until now they had never considered leaving the city, but the intensity of the attacks made her change her mind.
“We may have to look for an alternative,” he says.
The municipal authorities have asked the residents to leave the city, but around 25,000 people still live in Slovianskwhich before the war had about 100,000 inhabitants.
Many of those who do not want to leave are older people or people without resources who trust that the fighting will not affect them, despite the fact that the Russian forces base their advances on an artillery war with which they take cities only after completely destroying them.
Sloviansk may become the next big target of the Russian offensive to take the Donbas regionwhere the majority of the population speaks Russian.
With Lisichansk under his control, Russia controls almost all of Lugansk and it could regroup forces to launch an offensive against Ukrainian-held Donetsk cities, notably Slovaksk, Kramatorsk, and Bakhmut.