It is understood that some 30,000 to 40,000 people from Lisichansk’s pre-war population of around 100,000 have remained, ensuring that Ukrainian forces sometimes share residential buildings and other structures with civilians, many of whom hope to be defeated.
The Russians “bombed the school, the technical school, the Silpo store and many others,” said Mykhailo, a resident of an apartment complex in Lisichansk, who gave only his first name to avoid retribution. “Everywhere the Ukrainian military is stationed is being bombed and everything is being destroyed.”
Russian officials say they are not attacking civilian areas, but Ukrainian and international investigators say they have incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. And Ukrainian politicians and human rights activists, as well as international scholars, argue that Ukrainian soldiers have largely been forced to defend territory under Russian attack.
“The complete absence of any positions, equipment or even a single soldier near a school, hospital, kindergarten, church or museum will not protect them from Russian attacks with air, artillery, tanks, incendiary or cluster munitions”, Roman Avramenko , director of the non-governmental organization TruthHounds, which investigates war crimes, wrote on Facebook. “The presence of civilians has never stopped the Russians from attacking these sites.”
Others pointed to well-documented atrocities committed by the Russian military in urban areas.
“In hundreds of occupied towns and villages, what we saw in Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel is happening right now,” said Olga Reshetilova of the Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian advocacy group, referring to the suburbs of Kyiv that have become synonymous with barbarism. “That’s why I don’t want the Ukrainian army to leave my city.
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