By Serhiy Chalyi<\/p>\n
TAVRIISKE, Ukraine, Feb 4 (Reuters) – In the last few weeks, buses have stopped running to the village of Tavriiske in southeast Ukraine from the major city \u200bof Zaporizhzhia, some 50 km (31 miles) away.<\/p>\n
As the war with Russia has drawn nearer, the \u200cvillage is slowly emptying. Maryna Vyshnevska, 35, said it had become too dangerous for her and her five children – some \u200cof the few remaining residents – to stay.<\/p>\n
“We thought they (the Russians) would be driven back and all this would stop,” Vyshnevska said, before packing her family and a handful of belongings into a police evacuation bus. “But when we realised it would only get worse and worse, it was better to leave.”<\/p>\n
As Russia and \u2060Ukraine start new U.S.-brokered peace talks \u200cin Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, Moscow’s forces have slowly ground forward along various parts of the 1,200-km (745 mile) front line in recent months.<\/p>\n
While closing on the \u200dso-called “fortress belt” of cities in the eastern Donetsk region, Russian troops are also advancing toward Zaporizhzhia – which is the capital of one of four Ukrainian regions the Kremlin has claimed as its own despite occupying only part of \u200bthe Zaporizhzhia region.<\/p>\n
‘EVERY WEEK, WE SEE MORE DESTRUCTION’<\/p>\n
Fighting has intensified in recent weeks in key \u200careas of the southeastern front, Ukraine’s military has said, particularly around the town of Huliaipole – 40 km (25 miles) to the east of Tavriiske.<\/p>\n
In Tavriiske and nearby villages, which sit in a bulge in the frontline with Russian forces on three sides, residents told Reuters during a recent visit that they feared for their lives amid the constant threat of drone and bomb attacks.<\/p>\n
Police teams and volunteers roam \u2060the main regional road – which is shrouded in anti-drone netting – \u200bto rescue residents in danger. Local authorities said almost no \u200bfamilies remain in the area around Tavriiske.<\/p>\n
“Every day, every week, we see more destruction and a greater risk of entering towns like these,” said volunteer Vlad Makhovskyi, \u200d51, adorned with a \u2060tactical helmet and gear.<\/p>\n
At one location, two men lugged an elderly woman out of a ramshackle house on a bright pink bed sheet.<\/p>\n
Nataliia Fedorenko, 66, broke down into tears describing the \u2060mounting emotional toll of remaining in a war zone as fighting worsened. Like Vyshnevska, she also left.<\/p>\n
“It’s scary. Nobody wants \u200cto die. I know I don’t have much time left, but this kind of \u200cdeath…?”<\/p>\n
(Writing by Dan Peleschuk, Editing by William Maclean)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Serhiy Chalyi TAVRIISKE, Ukraine, Feb 4 (Reuters) – In the last few weeks, buses have stopped running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7655],"tags":[219616,332,173261,219617,657,35749],"class_list":["post-742195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-russia","tag-maryna-vyshnevska","tag-russia","tag-russian-troops","tag-tavriiske","tag-ukraine","tag-zaporizhzhia"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116013532719789083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}