Putin Wants It All' Russia's Kamikaze Advance Displaces a Fresh Wave of Ukrainians

It was last year when Valentyn Velykyi noticed Russia's war with Ukraine was getting closer. In early summer, it arrived on his doorstep.

- Luke Harding

"Recently missiles started flying over my house. There's a rumbling sound. You can see a trail in the sky," the 72-year-old recalled. Velykyi's home is at No 18 Petrenko Street, in the small agricultural village of Maliyivka. It is located on the administrative border between Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk provinces in central-eastern Ukraine. Once Russian troops were far away. Latterly, they have crept nearer, capturing one grassy meadow after another.

Europe's biggest war since 1945 continues to rage. Its scale is epic: battles are fought across a 600-mile frontline. In recent months, the Kremlin has stepped up its bombardment of Ukraine's cities and towns. Most nights it sends hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles. A weary population has got used to the wail of air raid sirens and the kettle drum boom of explosions.

In May, fighting engulfed Maliyivka. First, the house by the old bus stop was destroyed. Then everything got hit. The village's 300-odd residents left, with the exception of Velykyi and his equally stubborn neighbour Mykola. For a while volunteers dropped off food and water for the pair. Eventually, when it got too dangerous, they stopped coming.

Last week, Velykyi went to call on his friend, bringing tea and sweets as usual, only to discover that Mykola had vanished. Dead chickens lay in the yard. "I called Mykola's name but he'd gone. I thought: 'My God, is it really true that our military is going to retreat," he said. He spent the next day hiding in a dugout, venturing out in the evening to fetch water from Mykola's well.

While he was away a missile fell on his house. "I heard BANG. My shed was gone, in a split second. It was probably a glide bomb or something," he said. At dawn, he freed his animals and set off on foot across the fields. To the right a crater-pitted road; ahead the large village of Velykomykhailivka. He walked for six hours under a sweltering sky.