Thousands Are Fleeing Ukraine’s Donbas Strongholds as Russia Pushes Closer
Evacuees from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, waited to be processed at a transit hub in Lozova, Ukraine, last month. Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times While Kyiv’s fortunes have brightened in other ways in the war, Moscow’s forces are raining bombs and drones on “fortress belt” cities like Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. By Cassandra Vinograd and Oleksandr Chubko Reporting from Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Ukraine ’s Donetsk region, and from the Kharkiv region . The New York Times , June 22, 2026 Updated 11:57 a.m. ET see also BBC Nadiya Trofimchuk, 79, had lived in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk her whole life and never thought about leaving, even as war raged for years not 20 miles away. Yet there she was one recent morning at a makeshift evacuation center, sitting next to a small folding table with water and tea but touching neither, just focused on leaving. “We had a strike,” she explained, eyebrows raised over purple and gold cat-ey...
