Nicolas Tonev (special correspondent in Ukraine), edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: JOSE COLON / ANADOLU / Anadolu via AFP 5:53 a.m., February 23, 2024

The town of Kramatorsk, located about forty kilometers from Bakhmut, taken by the Russians last year, is increasingly targeted by missiles.

Europe 1 went to this town to meet the residents, who live to the rhythm of increasingly present warning sirens.

REPORTING

11 a.m., one day in February, another alert on Kramatorsk.

The capital of the Donetsk region for the Ukrainian-held side is increasingly targeted by Russian missiles.

The city is subject to daily alerts and bombardments 24 hours a day.

The evening before, the siren sounded without stopping the deadly machine: the missile destroyed the water filtration station and blew away the neighboring buildings.

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“It exploded 150 meters away,” said a resident, with tears in her eyes.

"Last night around 8 o'clock, there were three explosions. Everything shook... Horrible", informs another local resident at the microphone of the Europe 1 special envoy to Ukraine.

“Since the fall of Avdiïvka, there have been more bombings”

In the city center, the alert is heard again.

“You have to be afraid, especially in the evening and at night in the dark. And sometimes, it explodes first, and the alert comes later,” says Serguei, a resident.

Not far from there, in a café, Europe 1 meets Vicka, a 31-year-old photographer, for whom "since the fall of Avdiïvka, there have been more bombings".

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This anxiety of death makes this photographer work like never before.

"There are a lot of marriages and love stories of girls with soldiers. When I take the photos in nature, there are often drones, shootings... But we do the sessions because we live in day by day, you have to do everything quickly,” says Vicka.

This Ukrainian woman still promises to leave if the bombings become more intensive.