By Inna Varenytsia

Item 1 of 5 Ukrainian servicemen help volunteers to evacuate a resident from the frontline town of Dobropillia, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine July 29, 2025. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia

[1/5] Ukrainian servicemen help volunteers to evacuate a resident from the frontline town of Dobropillia, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine July 29, 2025. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

DOBROPILLIA, July 31 (Reuters) – A forlorn group of evacuees filed into a bus, bags bulging with whatever remnants of their lives they could take with them as they left Dobropillia, a Ukrainian town which has seen the frontline of Russia’s invasion creep ever closer.

“It’s hard, to live in one place and then to tear yourself away. But what can I do? Nothing,” said Liubov, who declined to give her surname, as she sat on the bus which would take her away from her hometown.

The frontline has been moving towards Dobropillia – once a sleepy Soviet coal mining town of 30,000 people – for 18 months.

Russian soldiers, who were more than 50 km (30 miles) away at the beginning of last year, are now about 15 km from the edge of the town – close enough for it to come under fire from kamikaze drones carrying explosives.

A half-tonne Russian glide bomb hit the main shopping centre on July 16, killing two people and wounding more than 20.

Denys Naumov, a volunteer aid worker from local aid group Proliska which is helping manage the evacuation, said the situation there had deteriorated over the past two weeks. Around 1,250 people had been evacuated over that time.

“Just now, when we conducted an evacuation, we heard explosions,” Naumov told Reuters.

Liubov said she did not see any prospect of a ceasefire, even after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Moscow with tariffs and other measures if it did not make progress on ending the war by end of next week.

“I don’t believe it, I don’t listen to anyone,” she said, shaking her head sadly.

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