The most dangerous place in Ukraine. “Not suitable for life” [REPORTAŻ]
Andrij Onistrat passes with his dent skoda next to burned cars. “This is new,” he says, pointing to the truck skeleton.
We go a straight path from Bilezke to Pokrowska. Seven kilometers, around a single living soul. Onistrat turns left through the tracks of the former railway station. “Welcome to the most dangerous place in Ukraine,” he says.
We are in Pokrowsk, a city located in the Donetsk region, in the Far East of Ukraine. Line a few kilometers away are trenches, from which soldiers are firing. It used to be a large city, with a 100,000 residents. Today there are only a few thousand – nobody knows exactly how much. Because this place is actually not suitable for life.
“There is not even a door there”
Andrij Onistrat made a businessman and banker. In 2022 he volunteered to the army.
“When there is a war, you have to fight,” he says.
He manages the drone unit in the 155th brigade. There is a drone detector on his knees. He squeaks all the time, sometimes intercepts the signal. Then the image from the drone camera is sent to a small screen and we know if you need to hide or not.
Every now and then we hear the sounds of bombs. We get out of the car. Some older man pushes his rickeled bike after glass shards, heading towards the market. One destroyed house after another. Shops are completely empty. The man on a bike stops in front of the former store – it is impossible to say what was sold in it. – His owners escaped in December last year. Then came the looters. They didn't even leave the door – he says.
“They immediately started shooting at us”
Young Mara is sitting on the bench by the road, they are in their forties. The woman puts a moment in the bag, after a while she gives me a face tissue. We changed for workers. I am wearing a uniform of a Ukrainian railway employee, and my Ukrainian translator – the uniform of the local Górnik. He smeared our cheeks – for safety.
“If Russian drones realize that you are journalists, they will shoot us immediately,” says Andrij Onistrat.
I am the first journalist in over a month who visited Pokrowsk. There are about three kilometers from the city center to Russian trenches. There is no running water, electricity or mobile network in it. People are only on their own. Police and emergency services are unable to reach them.
Onistrat retains fortitude. – I'm not afraid. Neither Russians nor Ukrainians – he claims. Later, we see how another resident hands him a bottle of vodka.
“Only mentally ill and pro -Russian people live here,” says onistrat.
He is a former marathon runner and triathlon. Usually, there is more and more to Pokrowsk – 15 km and back. Because drones hit the cars. In the city of onistrat, he is looking for the right places for drone pilots. He devotes his fortune to the purchase of equipment for the army.
Pokrowsk can do nothing for him, he already feels the worst pain – his eldest son in the summer of 2023, at the age of 22, died on the front in Donetsk. When the Onistrat tries to talk about him, he barely brings out words.
– He always wanted to be the bolder. He went to war through me. And it's my fault that he is dead – he says.
“I just want peace”
The Svetlana Stall is the only place where you can still buy food. She spent her whole life in Pokrowsk. He believes that leaving the city would be treason. – You can say I'm waiting for the Russians. But I just want peace – he says. What can he look like? – I have no idea. We can't see the message here – he adds.
People visiting the market pay attention to us – they look at my camera with contorted faces. So I turn it off. One of the market visitors speaks Russian. – They will blow us all through you.
Buildings destroyed by Russian fire, Pokrowsk, March 16, 2025.
Onistrat corresponds to him sarcastically. – Why would they still want to kill you? – he asks.
We turn around and leave the market. The man follows us. “First, I will smash your face and then the camera,” he screams in my direction. Andrij Onistrat turns to me and explains the passerby.
“It's hellish everyday life,” he says. He later added that he was one step away from pulling out the weapon. – I would shoot in the air. If it did nothing, I would shoot someone in the leg. Fortunately, I didn't have to – he says.
“God gave me his blessing”
War is suffering, loss and death. However, there are also many stories about brotherhood, sacrifice and immunity. Although they help survive fear, for many residents Pokrowska is just fairy tales. Here the war shows its ugliest face.
There are two large drinking tanks in the Protestant church. People fill it with kettles and canisters. Maria says that God took her fear. – He gave me his blessing in the church. From that moment I know that everything will be fine – he says.
He has lived in one place for some time, she had to move several times. – One day I came back and my apartment was burning, so I started looking for a new one. And then another, when that was also destroyed – he says.
“I will stay to the end”
Her family lives in western Ukraine. She doesn't want to run away. “I will stay here to the end,” he declares. He hopes for negotiations, suspension of weapons – and believes in peace. “The next generations will be able to forgive each other and live together again,” he says.
We get back into Andriy Onistrat's car and pass through the most damaged district in the city. Two Ukrainian soldiers are just leaving the hideout in the ruins of a single -family house. “My son was 22 years old and only once met a woman,” says onistrat.
He is against sending such young men to the front. He would also like the war to end. “However, the Russians will destroy us without security guarantee,” he says.
