Vovchansk Wiped Out: The Story of a Ukrainian City Erased by War
Once an unassuming industrial town, Vovchansk stood as a quiet, hard-working community near the Russian border, roughly three miles from the vast neighbor that would eventually decimate it. Now, what remains of Vovchansk is little more than a wasteland, reduced to ruins by Russian artillery in one of the fiercest and most rapid campaigns seen since the invasion began. Once home to a population of around 20,000, the town’s streets, schools, homes, and factories have turned to rubble in a matter of weeks.
Mayor Tamaz Gambarashvili, overseeing Vovchansk’s remnants from Kharkiv, describes a near-total annihilation. “Ninety percent of the center is flattened,” he says, having been displaced from his post along with nearly every other resident. His words only hint at the full tragedy – a tragedy now visible from both drone footage and satellite images, which show the center of Vovchansk levelled north of the Vovcha River.
Annihilation in Fast Forward
Ukrainian military officials, including Lieutenant Denys Yaroslavsky, who served in the grinding battles of Bakhmut, are stunned by the speed of destruction. Where months of shelling reduced Bakhmut to ruin, Russian troops dismantled Vovchansk within just a few weeks. The relentless assault on the town followed an initial Russian occupation early in the war, a period when Vovchansk’s residents clung to the hope that the worst was behind them. Ukraine briefly reclaimed the town in a counteroffensive in late 2022, which sparked further shelling but not the swift obliteration that would come later.
The turning point arrived on May 10, when Russian forces launched a brutal assault on Vovchansk, catching the Ukrainian 57th Brigade by surprise. The brigade had pulled back to Vovchansk for a needed respite from relentless combat 100 kilometers south. But with few fortifications and no barriers, the brigade was vulnerable. Russian tanks and infantry streamed across the border, overwhelming defenders and pushing deep into Ukrainian territory. Mayor Gambarashvili blames corruption and negligence for the absence of fortifications, attributing much of the devastation to that oversight. “Seventeen thousand people lost their homes,” he said. “Why? Because someone didn’t build fortifications.”
Life and Death Among the Rubble
Vovchansk’s civilian population paid the heaviest price. Those unable to flee found themselves trapped under ceaseless bombardment. Galyna Zharova, a resident of Stepova Street, was one of the few who stayed, seeking shelter in her basement. “We went down to the cellar,” she recalled. “All the buildings were burning around us.” The family huddled there for almost four weeks, enduring explosions and fire as drones buzzed above, relentlessly monitoring the destroyed landscape below. Eventually, the Zharovas fled on foot, covering several miles before they were rescued by Ukrainian volunteers.
Others were less fortunate. Volodymyr Zymovsky, a 70-year-old resident, attempted to escape by car alongside his elderly mother and wife. But on May 16, Zymovsky and his mother were both killed, likely by a Russian sniper. His wife Raisa, captured by Russian troops, barely managed to escape. Today, her only solace lies in finding her family’s bodies to give them a proper burial.
Many families, once closely tied to Russia, have been fractured beyond repair. For some, these bonds – once crossing borders without barriers – have been completely severed by the conflict. Lifelong relationships and cultural ties were shattered overnight as Russia and Ukraine became locked in this brutal struggle.
A City Obliterated, Its Legacy Erased
Vovchansk may have lacked the grand historical significance of other cities, but it was rich in its own achievements. The town was home to a regional hospital, schools, and a technical college, along with a hydraulic machinery plant that sustained much of the local economy. A workshop even made period film carriages, a unique source of local pride. For many residents, Vovchansk was more than a place to live; it was a community with its own identity and character. Nelia Stryzhakova, the town librarian, fondly remembers the 125,000 books that lined her shelves – all of which went up in smoke.
Satellite images reveal Vovchansk’s library at 8 Tokhova Street, obliterated like much of the town, while on the other side of the border in Russia, former friends and even family members remained largely silent about the devastation. Stryzhakova herself, once a lover of Russian literature, can no longer bring herself to read the classics. Her only son, Pavlo, lost his life in the Battle of Bakhmut, a loss she squarely blames on the Russia she now despises.
The Future for Vovchansk
A few survivors still linger in Vovchansk, perhaps hoping for some semblance of normalcy to return. But the practicalities of rebuilding a town so close to the Russian border are daunting. Gambarashvili and other officials, wary of its strategic location, wonder whether resources could be better used elsewhere. For now, Vovchansk is a ghost town. Its ruins bear silent witness to the thousands who lived there, their lives forever changed, their town scarred beyond recognition.
For those left behind, like Raisa Zymovska, whose faith as a Christian offers her no easy path to forgiveness, the question remains: Can such suffering ever be reconciled? The war took her husband, her mother-in-law, and her home, leaving her only with memories and scars that time may never fully heal. “As a Christian, yes, but as a human being… What can I say?”
In the destruction of Vovchansk lies the story of a city caught in the crossfire of history, and of a people left to grapple with loss on a scale beyond words.
