DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president vowed
vengeance in blood after 19 troops were killed in an insurgent rocket
attack Friday, and residents of the rebel-held city of Donetsk began
fleeing in large numbers for fear of a government siege.
The
barrage of rocket fire just before sunrise at a base near the Russian
border was a devastating setback for government forces, who had
seemingly gained the upper hand last weekend when they pushed the
pro-Russian fighters out of their stronghold city of Slovyansk. In
addition to those killed, 93 soldiers were wounded, the Defense Ministry
said.
"For every life of our soldiers, the militants will pay
with tens and hundreds of their own," Ukrainian President Petro
Poroshenko warned. "Not one terrorist will evade responsibility.
Everybody will get what is coming to them."
Ukrainian government
troops have been fighting for more than three months against separatists
in eastern Ukraine, and in the last two weeks, they have cut the
territory held by the rebels in half. Driven from Slovyansk, the rebels
have regrouped in Donetsk, an industrial city of 1 million, and Ukraine
has said it will cordon off the area.
In anticipation of a siege,
leaders of the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic announced they will
evacuate entire neighborhoods. Many residents have rushed to pack up
and leave for fear of getting caught in the cross-fire, given the
insurgents’ strategy of using residential areas for cover.
"The
militia has begun blowing up roads, so I want to get out while there is
still time. I don’t want to turn into a living shield for the
militants," said 56-year old businessman Andrei Koziyatko.
High-end
shops are boarded up, and many other businesses, including insurance
companies, real estate offices, beauty salons and notaries, have closed
their doors. "For sale" and "For rent" signs abound where there were
none a few weeks earlier. Property values have collapsed, with
one-bedroom apartments in the city center now selling for $15,000, or
one-third of what they cost before.
Estimates of how many people
have left vary. The mayor’s office said 30,000. Donetsk People’s
Republic prime minister Alexander Boroday put the number at 70,000 and
rising.
At the Donetsk train station, people waited in long lines
at the ticket office. Four trains a day go to the capital, Kiev, and
three others travel in the opposite direction, to the southern Russian
city of Rostov-on-Don.
"People are trying to go in any which
direction. But all the tickets for the coming week are sold out,"
station director Irina Nikolaicheva said.
Irina Khodyko, a 38-year
old accountant, said she was leaving for Kiev with her 10-year old son
and 12-year old daughter. Their apartment is by the once-gleaming
international airport — now a bombed-out ruin in a district rendered
inaccessible by the daily clashes.
"Life has become impossible.
Every day they shoot. All the windows in our apartment are shot out. The
children have stopped sleeping," Khodyko said.
She said insurgent forces tried to press-gang her husband into fighting, but he fled.
"The
Ukrainian army is in no rush to liberate us. They have just abandoned
us, and we are forced to get ourselves out of this mess," she said.
Koziyatko,
the businessman, has been forced to close his lumber and building
equipment supply business, which employed 17 people, after more than
half his workers left Donetsk.
"The smartest, best-educated and most talented people are fleeing. And who is going to stay?"
he asked.