With two aircraft bombs in the center, the Russian troops announced in February. The explosions destroyed the town hall, the pharmacy, a café and the local Lyceum in Novopavlivka. The current and water supply fell out. That’s how it starts.
“We expected this to happen,” says Mayor Mykola Gavrylov from his surrogate office at a secret location. “Yet we hoped until the last moment that it would be better than expected.”
Gavrylov (58) has gray -blue eyes and a healthy hue, even at the end of winter, even after three years of war. “You could say that I am president here,” he says. He earned a lot of money “as Mafioso in the chaos of the nineties,” he jokes, “not really write down.”
In the Russian attack with 250 kilograms aircraft bombs, one person lost his leg, two ran a concussion and some others got scratches and splinters of the flying shards. Since then, the Russians attack with kamikazedrones and other guns. Dozens of houses were damaged.
For a long time the Ukrainians thought that the front would not come here. That it would stay in the Donbas, and in the south – good, and in the north on the Russian border at Karkiv, Soemy and Kyiv. But not in the Central-Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk? This is not one of the four Ukrainian provinces that Russia has already assigned itself constitutionally.
But the Kremlin seems to see benefits in a Mars towards Central-Ukraine. If the front follows the heart of the country, it also affects the Ukrainian moral. And view politically/militarily: Russia can try to occupy a part of DNIPRO, and use it as a means of exchange for territory that has already been ‘annexed’ but not yet conquered militarily. That an official affiliated with the Kremlin laid this week The Moscow Times out.
It’s not that far yet.
Mayor Gavrylov portrays on the table with chocolates how it went. One with a purple wrap is the industrial city of Avdiivka, which fell last year. Then it went fast. Russia steamed through in the southwest direction and countless villages were subjected. Places indicated with a red wrap and yellow wrapping already fell, and the Russian men gnaw at Twix (Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad).
Those cities are well defended, around Pokrovsk the Ukrainians the Russians push back, but the surrounding rural villages are an easier prey. So the front keeps moving. In the meantime, the Russian armed forces Novopavlivka have approached 10 kilometers. “Let’s drive a bit,” says Gavrylov, “I will show it.”
A Russian guided air bomb in a garden in Novopavlivka fell and did not explode. The area has recently officially become a ‘military region’. In the area there are long rows of dragon teeth – concrete pyramid -shaped monolith.
Photo Kostyantyn Chernichkin
Panic
When the Berlin Wall fell, Gavrylov was a designer engineer in the Antonov plane factory. He used the new liberties to import medicines. He opened a chain of pharmacies in Kyiv. “I realized that God had given me the talent for entrepreneurship.”
In his SUV we bump over an unpaved road to the village of Datshne, the southernmost town of the municipality. Rolling hills. It is agricultural area. There are no mines like in the Donbas. The municipality covers eleven settlements with around 4,000 inhabitants before the invasion.
I don’t want to leave, I want to die here
Here are ordinary rural houses between regular fields. Plated earth. The vegetation is still hibernation. But the sound of the artillery that the Russians stops now sounds in everyone’s back garden. In Datshne, between the grass, Gavrylov shows an unplaced airplane bomb that recently invaded. Another 250 kilogram explosive. The bombs are not very precise and sometimes land far from their goal. It requires decisions. And farewell.
Mayor Gavrylov must prevent panic. He loves between ‘everything will be fine’ and preparing for the worst. The area has recently officially become a ‘military region’. In the area there are long rows of dragon teeth – concrete pyramid -shaped monolith. There are roles of razor thread. There are deep anti -tank channels. And that is just what catches the eye.
“I do not believe that people here understand that this village will no longer be there,” one soldier with short black hair and a large beard, who is not allowed in the newspaper with his name.
The question is above all: when evacuating? “Fortunately I don’t have to make a decision about that,” says Gavrylov diplomatically. That decision lies with the armed forces and the military boards. But on Facebook he regularly appeals to the authorities in video messages to the authorities. “When will the military administration of Dnipropetrovsk collect to announce a mandatory evacuation ???” he wrote last Tuesday. Aid organizations have already started evacuating on their own initiative.
Russian Observatierones
Although conversations about a ceasefire are hanging in the air, the danger here can no longer be tolerated here. 10 kilometers from the Russians means within reach of the artillery. And every movement in the village is potentially seen by the enemy: Russian observation pours crashed. Air videos of attacks on the village can be found online in Russian chat groups.
Gavrylov’s brother Volodyymyr is in his living room where blue light shines, as in a dry aquarium. He has black spines, gray on his sleep. Almost all personal belongings have been packed, just to be sure. “You don’t want you to be late,” he says. “It is not very scary here, but unpleasant.” Brackets in the wall where family photos hung. Suitcases and boxes are piled up.
The mayor of Novopavlivka and his brother Volodyymyr. The latter has already packed almost all his personal belongings.
Photo Kostyantyn Chernichkin
VolodyYyr is the director of the Farmers Family company – the successor of the Kolchoz – a collective farm in Soviet time. And he’s in the city council. “Make sure you don’t write down that I am leaving,” says VolodyMyr. “The employees are here. We are like the captain. The latter to leave this area are he and me.” Volodyymyr nods at his brother.
That does not mean that packing is not heavy. “We moved to this house on the day that Ukraine voted for independence [in december 1991]”, He says. He was a driver in the Kolchoz.” Then we had nothing. This room, a TV, couch and coffee table. And a daughter. ” The couple built this house for thirty years. And to the farm. “Now we are facing the unknown.”
I have plans to get the Ukrainian dance on the red square then
Then, putting things into perspective: “If God wants to worry, and if God wants that, life will come back here.” His wife Olha Gavrylova adds: “I have plans for the Ukrainian dance then on the red square.”
The Gavrylovs were born in Novopavlivka. There were two collective farms in the Soviet time – one named ‘Ukraine’ where Novopavlivka is located. Where the artillery now sounds, the Kolchoz was called ‘Russia’.
Their mother Raisa Aleksejevna Gavrylova (82) worked all her life in the Kolchoz ‘Ukraine’. Their great -grandparents were all born between these hills. Raisa Aleksejevna still lives in Novopavlivka and is preparing for evacuation. “Evacuation?” Schampert Gavrylov. “What are your Dutch people dramatically. This is not an evacuation, she just visits my wife in Kyiv.”
On the edge of her bed (raisa) gavrylova is in a flower dress. She cries. “I don’t want to leave,” she says. “I want to die here.”
On the cemetery of Novopavlivka, on a hill, Gavrylov’s grandmother and Grootoma are next to each other. Gavrylov drives us there. In 2009, when father Vasyl died, every Gavrylov got a new, black -granite tombstone.
The mayor of the graves are in black Oxford shoes, with black pants and black flat cap. He has a hurry and much to show. He greets his ancestors who have sounded to the ground. Grandma Anastasia. And grandpa Volodyymyr and grandma Nina Lapko. “Lapko, a pure cow bag name,” says Gavrylov. “They were great roofing cats. They covered their houses with reeds. Grandpa had a bunch of sons. He was drunk and fell on the floor during a job. He died six months later.”
This is where I once saw a swan with 21 little ones
The jewel of Novopavlivka is the river. The Solena winds through the landscape. There are swans, geese, wild ducks. The black stork. “This is where I once saw a swan with 21 little ones,” the mayor points out. He shows the video. His company said he has put a million in cleaning and dredging the river. Plastic waste is not there. Gavrylov wanted the area to be exclamated into a nature reserve. “There is so much to see here.”
On the cemetery of Novopavlivka, on a hill, Gavrylov’s Grootoma and overrogoma are next to each other.
Photo Kostyantyn Chernichkin
He remembers his childhood. Swimming in the river. Fish. Run through the reeds. We drive past the place where his mother lived as a girl, when their house was struck by lightning, burned out and she became homeless. There is nothing left. Gavrylov drives to the house where his father grew up. Gavrylov climbs on a tractor band to look over the fence. “I had never seen this,” he says, scolds De Pottijkijkers for the current resident. There is a house of clay and wood with a corrugated iron roof and a well in the garden. The mayor urges the photographer to shoot. Unpredented: if the front does not hold, he will not return here soon.
Finally, the park that Gavrylov had installed, “with red lanterns, that’s how I imagined it”.
In Novopavlivka it smells like grasses, hay, wet earth. It is two degrees and heavy fog hangs above the country. Something metal scrapes in the distance, the Ukrainian armed forces fires a cannon. The clouds and diving offer coverage for drones. It is quieter about the front if there is fog.
Early in the morning. In the twilight there is still a big fog such as the tractors with rooimachines and other agricultural equipment. Like many farmers for them, the Gavrylovs bring their expensive equipment to safer land. If the village is actually occupied, Gavrylov says, I go into the army. “I have already discussed a position with a general,” says Gavrylov.
But it’s not that far yet.
“So we hoped that this would not happen,” said Gavrylov behind the wheel of his SUV. “Although we knew it would happen. Yet we hoped and believed and think so far that this will not happen.”
While agricultural equipment drives out of the village, dark green military trucks roll in the opposite direction.
