As Russian military pressure escalates in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, Ukrainian authorities have ordered mandatory evacuation orders for remaining civilians in the strategically critical cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, where daily bombardment has turned urban life into a lethal nightmare. These two adjacent settlements are the largest population centers still fully under Ukrainian control in Donbas, a territory that forms the core of Moscow’s stated war aims more than two years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Pavlo Dyachenko, a senior official with Donetsk region’s police force, confirmed that forced evacuations are already underway for households with children in the hardest-hit districts, describing the evacuation order as the only viable path to saving civilian lives amid a catastrophic collapse in local security. “The frequency of attacks has spiked dramatically,” Dyachenko explained, noting that where Slovyansk once faced roughly one glide bomb strike per week, it now endages deadly bombardments on a near-daily basis.
Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, and the nearby southern city of Kostyantynivka form a critical segment of Ukraine’s eastern “fortress belt” — a layered network of heavily fortified defensive lines designed to halt Russian advances deeper into Ukrainian-controlled territory. But recent frontline reports indicate only a limited Ukrainian troop presence remains in Kostyantynivka, while Russian officials have claimed full control of the city, a development that would leave the two larger northern cities even more exposed to offensive operations.
Capturing the entirety of Donbas, which encompasses the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, has been one of the Kremlin’s most prominent stated objectives since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Moscow has repeatedly framed its military campaign in the region as a “liberation” and “protection” of ethnic Russian-speaking communities, a justification that has been widely rejected by the international community as a baseless pretext for territorial aggression. Russia already controls nearly the entire Luhansk region, and currently holds approximately 80% of Donetsk — the oblast where all three fortress belt cities are located. For months, Russian ground forces have concentrated their offensive operations around the Kramatorsk-Slovyansk axis, and a full Russian seizure of the two cities would open a clear path for Moscow to push further west into Ukraine.
Civilians still residing in the two cities face constant threat from Russian drone and artillery strikes. Viktor Makurin, a London-based volunteer working on the ground in the region, described daily life as saturated with violence: key city thoroughfares are now draped in protective anti-drone netting, and FPV (first-person-view) attack drones routinely patrol roadways in search of moving targets. “Driving anywhere in the city is a death sentence,” Makurin told the BBC. “You can hear the constant buzz of drones through your window, explosions never stop ringing out in the distance, and Ukrainian air defense teams are constantly engaging incoming unmanned aerial vehicles.”
Data compiled by Ukrainian police, analyzed by the BBC, lays bare the rapidly worsening human cost of the intensified bombardment. Over the summer months, the number of civilian wounded jumped from 70 in June to 212 in August. Monthly civilian fatalities have held steady in double digits: 16 people were killed in June, 20 in July, and 15 in August. Residential apartment blocks are as frequently targeted as critical infrastructure, leaving widespread destruction across residential neighborhoods. The number of Russian glide bombs — widely considered one of the most lethal weapons in Moscow’s current arsenal — has surged from 40 in June to 109 in July and 92 in August.
Unlike unguided free-fall munitions, Russian glide bombs are fitted with wing kits that let them navigate precisely to their targets from long range, putting most of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk within strike range from Russian-held positions. They typically weigh between 250 and 500 kilograms, though Russian forces have been documented deploying 1,500-kilogram variants capable of leveling entire city blocks. “The destruction they leave behind is unimaginable,” Dyachenko said. John Auckland Abbey, another British volunteer working in the region, described the weapons as silent killers that have shattered civilian morale. “They come without warning, and after the first explosion you know more are on the way,” Abbey wrote on social media. “As you lie motionless in the dark, the only question is: will the next one land on me?”
One of the deadliest recent strikes hit Kramatorsk on August 25, when nine glide bombs targeted the city. Seven of the munitions hit civilian apartment buildings, wounding 24 people including a two-month-old infant. A second major strike followed just two days later, when seven glide bombs hit Kramatorsk and another five struck Slovyansk. As of this week, seven additional civilians were wounded in a new round of shelling targeting Kramatorsk.
Strategically, Kramatorsk holds major political significance for Ukraine: it currently hosts the headquarters of the Donetsk regional civilian administration, after the original oblast capital of Donetsk was seized by Russian-backed separatist forces in 2014.
The fate of remaining Ukrainian-held Donbas has recently moved to the center of international diplomatic efforts around the war. Last weekend, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Donbas’s status reported to be a core topic of discussion. Witkoff has previously expressed public sympathy for Russian territorial claims to the region, but Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out withdrawing Ukrainian troops from any portion of Donbas.
Zelensky confirmed that Putin has set an end-of-year deadline for his military to fully occupy all of Donbas, with the Kramatorsk-Slovyansk-Kostyantynivka axis remaining the Kremlin’s top military priority. To shore up defenses in the region, Zelensky has recently established two new defense taskforces led by seasoned Ukrainian commanders Andriy Biletsky and Denys Prokopenko, tasking them with holding the remaining Ukrainian-held portion of Donetsk. One senior unnamed Ukrainian general described the ongoing fighting for the area as far more than a battle for territory: it is shaping up to be the defining conflict of this year and next, the general said.