Police in Ukraine's Pokrovsk plead with reluctant residents to leave

Members of the White Angel unit of Ukrainian police officers who evacuate people from the frontline towns and villages, evacuate a resident from his flat in an apartment building, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the frontline town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine January 31, 2025. REUTERS/Inna Varenytsia

POKROVSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - When the elderly Ukrainian couple refused Hennadii Yudin's pleas for them to evacuate their war-torn eastern city of Pokrovsk, the sturdy police officer tried another tactic: calling their grandchildren.

"Come on, tell them they need to leave," he implored them over a mobile video call. "We're standing here - we came here just for them."