'We held on until the last moment': evacuees flee Donbas
STORY: Women, children and elderly, some in wheelchairs, were seen boarding the train and settling in the sleeper carriages ahead of a long journey to safety. Volunteers helped get people on board the train bound for Lviv in the west of the country near the border with Poland.
Lyuba, a resident from Lysychansk - 130 km northeast of Pokrovsk - said she didn't want to leave but her home had been destroyed and she feared for her life.
"We have no place to live. We held on until the last moment, we didn't want to leave, but life has forced us to survive," she said, as she waited for the train to depart. "We are leaving, we don't know where, to whom, but we are leaving.”
Ukraine’s State Railway operator said the train going along the route of Pokrovsk, Dnipro and Lviv is the only train used for evacuations. It is free to board for people fleeing warzones in Donbas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine would prevail in its war with Russia, now focused on an artillery slugging match over an eastern Ukrainian city.
