Thread by @bellingcat

The Ukrainian city of Vovchansk has been pummelled by Russian forces. Hospitals, schools, residential blocks and more have been flattened. Now, a new analysis suggests close to 80% of buildings in the city have been either damaged or destroyed. bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/2…

Bellingcat and journalists from the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Paris bureaus of @AFP investigated the destruction of Vochansk and spoke to residents who had fled.

Situated in the north-east of Ukraine, Vovchansk is just five kilometres from the Russian border. In 2022, it had 17,000 inhabitants, many with relatives in Russia.

An analysis of satellite imagery suggests that 60 percent of buildings in the city have been completely destroyed. Partial damage was observed on a further 18 percent of buildings, leaving just 22 percent of the city where damage has yet to be detected as of late September 2024.

We used SkySat imagery (@planet) to carry out a damage assessment on a building-by-building basis. Green corresponds with no observed damage, orange categorises indications of damage, and red means the destruction of a building.

Kindergartens, schools, religious sites, factories and libraries have all been destroyed. In the north, where the majority of fighting has taken place, it is almost entirely destroyed or seriously damaged. Within the city centre, it appears few structures remain.

A resident of 40 years, Nelia Stryzhakova said: “The city is beautiful, the people are beautiful, we had everything. We didn't even think that in (just) five days we would be blown off the ground like that.”

The city of Bakhmut was battered during intense fighting in 2023. Lieutenant Denis Yaroslavsky of Ukraine’s 57th Brigade Reconnaissance Unit fought both there and in Vovchansk. "What happened in Bakhmut in two or three months happened in Vovchansk in two or three weeks.”

Videos posted to social media channels have documented the weapons, tactics and targeting that have led to the Vovchansk’s obliteration.

One video from late May, filmed from a DJI drone, showed Russian glide bombs landing a direct hit on a multi-storey residential building.

In the south of the city, a July 9 video posted to Telegram by Russian news outlet, Izvestiya, showed simultaneous impacts of several Russian FAB-500 glide bombs near a road leading into the city centre.

Reports had suggested Russian forces dropped an ODAB-9000 thermobaric bomb in the centre of the town in late September. However, Ukrainian authorities disputed this claim, suggesting that a smaller and less powerful munition had been used.

We looked up the homes of former residents. Galina Jarova, a 50-year-old native of Vovchansk, who described living at 16 A Stepova Street in the north of the city until May this year. Damage analysis and satellite imagery shows the family home completely wiped from the map.

“We were right on the front line, you understand? No one could get us out of there,” Jarova said.

“All the buildings burned down and we were crammed into cellars,” her husband, Victor, 65, continued. They managed to flee on June 3.

Before the conflict, Vovchansk had a population of 17,000 people. By the time Russia’s May assault began, that had reduced dramatically.

Tamaz Gambrachvili, head of the civil and military administration of the urban community of Vovchansk, estimates that there were around 4,000 people remaining when Russia’s most recent offensive began.

Father Igor Klymenko, a priest in the city, shared images and videos of his congregation, as well as footage showing damage from shelling while he was still there. There is now little left of the parish with recent satellite imagery showing its remains.

Spokesperson for the Kharkiv regional military forces, Vitalii Sarantsev, was recently reported as saying that Russian troops continued to use "the maximum range of weapons" near the city. kyivindependent.com/russia-intensi…

Lieutenant Denis Yaroslavsky of the 57th Brigade Reconnaissance Unit told AFP that everyone was tired. “I hate to say it, but a lot of fighters who have been on the battlefield since the beginning of the war are now tired, want to complete their mission and move abroad.”

Find Bellingcat’s other reporting on the invasion of Ukraine here: bellingcat.com/tag/ukraine/

You can also find our map plotting out civilian harm incidents in Ukraine here: ukraine.bellingcat.com

Find the video that @AFP published alongside their report here:

You can also read this report on @CEDMOhub

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