"Aktuaalne Kaamera's" news crew visited one such evacuation point, in the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk oblast, which has been the focus of a renewed Russian assault in recent days.

As has been the case for a few days now, an evacuation train was scheduled to depart from Pokrovsk station on the day ERR's Anton Aleksejev and Kristjan Svirgsden filed the report.

However, this was canceled at the last minute due to the rising threat. From Thursday, evacuees have been relocated to safer areas by bus. Filling these buses, however, has itself proven to be a challenge, as many are still reluctant to leave home.

Evacuation coordinator Viktoria said: "Everyone is waiting for some kind of miracle. They are hoping everything will be okay, that somehow this war will come to an end. But it is better to plan in advance, to look after your safety."

Pokrovsk has recently come under increasing Russian missile fire.

The adjacent town of Myrnohrad is in an even worse situation, ERR reported.

UN worker Olena said: "About two thousand adults remain there. We have already evacuated the children. All the stores and institutions are already closed, and today the gas was turned off."

"Water and electricity are still available. The people are holding on, but it's very hard for them to leave their homes behind," she added.

There are also those evacuees who don't need to wait to be convinced to leave. For one, Jelena, this is not the first time she and her son have had to evacuate.

When fighting raged near Avdiivka, which had held out from the start of the invasion to February 2024, two years later, they were evacuated to Pokrovsk, around 55 kilometers to the west.

"This was terrifying. Very hard," she said.

"I was most afraid for my child. You don't know where to run, where to hide, and nothing can save you. I don't believe that taking refuge in the basement will change anything. You can only really hope for divine intervention. Now we're heading to Pavlohrad, and we'll see from there," Jelena added.

Pavlohrad is a further 100 kilometers westwards, in Dnipropetrovsk oblast.

Most people, however, remain unwilling to leave their homes even now. Some hope to return, while others simply want to embrace their relatives for one last time.

Jekaterina said: "I really want to return. We've become attached to this place. We've lived here our whole lives. This year marks 50 years of living in Pokrovsk."

"It's very hard to leave," added another local resident, Natalya.

"My father stayed behind. I couldn't persuade him. He said he's already 80 years old and has been living here for 60 years. He wanted to stay and die in his homeland. Everyone has their own decision to make."

While Ukrainian forces have made larger territorial gains elsewhere on the front, in the Kursk oblast, Russia has focused its efforts on the eastern front including Pokrovsk, both a road and rail hub. Its capture were it to happen would make defending surrounding areas harder for Ukraine to defend, in a similar approach the invading forces took with Bakhmut, to the northeast, which held out for nearly a year, to the summer of 2023.

The eastern front fighting has also been noted for the Russian use of military contractors such as those in the service of the infamous Wagner Group.

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