Kyiv, Ukraine, February 4, 2025 — As fighting intensifies in the Pokrovsk region, the human toll continues to mount. Thousands of people are directly affected, enduring relentless rocket strikes while facing frequent power and heat outages.
With 7,000 people still remaining in Pokrovsk, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is providing financial aid to those in need, striving to reach as close to the frontlines as possible. We are also assisting families evacuating from Pokrovsk at the Pavlohrad transit center, offering support to children and their parents, medical care, and urgent legal advice to those who have lost everything overnight.
IRC’s Yevhen Bondarenko traveled to Dobropillia in the Pokrovsk region to deliver financial assistance to affected families:
For people fleeing villages near the frontlines, the journey is exhausting. They arrive drained, often in tears, sharing the horrors they have experienced. Many have learned to distinguish different types of bombings by sound, as explosions are a constant reality. There are people with disabilities, large families, and cancer patients, all struggling to meet their basic needs.
When I asked why they hadn’t left earlier, they said they had tried but were too afraid because they didn’t have the money to leave everything behind. Some had left before but, unable to rebuild their lives elsewhere, had no choice but to return—only to find themselves once again living under the constant threat of shelling.