By now, those who really want and can have left. The rest are gradually being reduced to four stubborn categories of leftovers that can be found in any front-line city.
There are dedicated local officials and volunteers who do not want to leave their city, their citizens and their work. It is very likely that there are pro-Russians quietly hoping for “liberation”. There are the poor, the elderly and the infirm who cannot travel and have nowhere to go. And then there are the very vulnerable, drunk and helpless.
Alexander, a middle-aged man drowning a burzuika and maintaining the point of invincibility, falls into the first and third.
He has a role and salary here (at least for now). But he also has debts and alimony payments. Leaving work is not an option.
Others say they feel trapped.
“How did you get here?” asked Daria, a 32-year-old fast food worker who was charging her phone. — You weren’t taken at checkpoints? Don’t they take ordinary guys at checkpoints?
What if my husband is taken away? she came. “Could you imagine life without a spouse? I couldn’t either. If they take him, I have nowhere to go.
