when they are left alone a few days for the calendar check February 24of fateful memory in the collective imagination of the ukrainians for being the date on which the president Vladimir Putin ordered, a year ago, the invasion of his country, no one would say dniproone of the most important and populated towns in the Slavic state, which just 250 kilometers heading east, the fiercest fighting on European soil since World War II is taking place at this precise moment. the cafes are open without exceptionand normality presides over the movement of people in the central boulevard flanked by trendy stores and banners from a well-known American chain of fast food restaurants. Only when questioned do the locals agree to talk about their fearstheir expectations and its forecasts about what will happen on this imminent first anniversary of the ukrainian war.
In Russian, although promising to stop speaking his mother tongue as soon as possible and to do more in Ukrainian, Serhii Probiholovostudent at the computer science faculty at a local university, he takes it for granted that something will happen on such an important day. “Something will happen, probably a massive bombing (against civilian infrastructure); as has already been shown in the past, the Russians love them these dates“, he predicts in the middle of the street, while an icy wind blows and the thermometer shows two degrees below zero. “Rockets will fly,” she anticipates, before congratulating herself that tranquility is the dominant note in the city, the electricity supply works almost normally and homes have heating.
Improbable attack on kyiv
Together with him, Stanislav Sukhoruchenko, fellow student, share in its entirety Serhii’s predictions, assents to his proclamations, and rules out, as a defiant note, that Russia launches a new raid against kyiv, the capital, or Kharkov, the country’s second city, just like it did last year around this time. “I very much doubt that something will happen in kyiv, I don’t think that there, Russia has any chance, because our Army He’s prepared to stop an attack from the north”, he analyzes. In recent days, the frequent holding of meetings between senior officials Belarusians and Russians have made experts fear the possibility of reopening this war front, even though the Institute for War Studies considered premature such an eventuality, and predicts that if this happens, it would be at the end of this year.
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As director of a local television channel, Irina Kuzmina his reluctance to speak in Russian is extreme, despite being the majority language in Dnipro, and he warns that any statement he makes about the war in Ukraine will be made in the indigenous language from the country. Asked about her feelings on the first anniversary of the start of hostilities, this woman assures “she does not” have “fear” to the Russians, since it considers this war like “of defense of the mother country and of liberation”. He only cares about their familiesbefore the possibility that something happens to them.
According to Anatoli, an elderly taxi driver who does not reveal his real name and earns his living picking up passengers at the railway station and transporting them to their destinations, there are no more citizens in Dnipro who defend Russia or advocate a greater integration with the powerful neighbor to the east. “There are no longer pro-Russians here; there are only people who defend continuing the war” and recovering all the lost territory, and people who prefer a ceasefire“a bad peace“, according to their own terminology. But the latter seem to be in the minority and even older people like Leonid Boitenkosupposedly more sensitive to the demands of the Kremlin having lived most of their lives under soviet Governments, They advocate continuing the armed struggle. “We cannot hand over territory, there has been too many dead“, he justifies. The possibility of a Russian military victory worries him greatly. “If Russia wins, it will convert us in his slaves; It’s that clear,” he says.