San Francisco Frontiers - 'They could be here in two days': Ukrainian town braces for Russian advance

Russia has said it is advancing into the surrounding eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in its three-year invasion.

Mezhova, a town just 13 kilometres from the flashpoint Donetsk region, now risks becoming a target for a Russian ground offensive.

Few locals dare venture into the nearest village to the east, where drones reportedly strike nearly every vehicle.

Yevgen Grinshenko, 26, and his friends fled Pokrovsk, a Donetsk mining town that has suffered intense Russian-Ukrainian clashes.

"I'm no longer afraid of anything. We've been through it all," said the round-faced aid volunteer, wounded by Russian projectiles in Pokrovsk.

"That fear has become a part of my life," he told AFP.

But the apparent calm in the town is deceptive. Most of its original residents have fled, said Yevgen.

"Everyone who remains is displaced."

Since an order to evacuate local children was issued last month by the authorities, the town is "panicking a bit", an elderly passerby told AFP.

- Explosive drones -

In Mezhova, colourful Soviet-era cars have been replaced by khaki 4x4s, and eerily quiet streets are patrolled by soldiers.

Olga Motuzenko, a 66-year-old teacher, fled fighting in Pokrovsk and reached Mezhova. Wearing a small white lace hat, she was selling onions from her garden by the side of the road.

"They could be here in two days," she said.

She and her husband had believed Mezhova would be safe, that the front would hold.

"But it didn't work out," she said with a sigh.

Her home in Pokrovsk "no longer exists", and she had to leave with her husband, taking barely half of their belongings.

"I don't feel good here. We are thinking about moving elsewhere again," she murmured in a frail voice.

For now, she stays so her ailing husband can still receive treatment. What would force her to leave?

"If everything is bombed."

But Russian explosive drones already fly overhead, and some vehicles have been hit, she said.

- Russians 'very close' -

Lieutenant Colonel Oleksander came to a cafe to mark his 60th birthday with fellow soldiers -- a celebration he once pictured sharing with his wife and grandchildren, not on the front lines.

"It's unfortunately true, fighting is happening here and there," the trim-moustached officer said, warning that the Russians "are already very close" to the regional border.

"They are advancing slowly, very slowly, but they are advancing."

In fruitless talks with Ukraine, Russia demanded recognition of its annexation of Crimea and four other regions where its forces are deployed -- including Donetsk -- as a condition for any negotiations.

Asked whether he feared Moscow might lay claim to a sixth Ukrainian region, Oleksander brushed off the idea.

"They could claim all of Ukraine belongs to them. It won't matter. Our resistance won't change," he declared.

For his 60th birthday, Oleksander had just one wish -- for the war to end quickly. He was weary of seeing young people "die every day".

"It's hard," he said. "Impossible to accept."

Z.Sanchez--SFF