roars the russian war machine as soon as the van enters the deserted and snowy avenues of Chasiv Yara small commuter town less than a dozen kilometers west of bakhmutthe capital of the homonymous district and whose conquest Vladimir Putin aspire to brandish as war trophy on the occasion of First anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Between the dry and constant roar of artillery fire, an unquestionable indication of the proximity of the Kremlin troops, the defending forces They aspire to stop the Russian winter offensive at this precise geographical point, temporarily converted into a kind of logistics center for the evacuation of wounded and civilians from the besieged city. The locals, meanwhile, survive no electricity, television or running waterand the majority, although with exceptions, claims to trust the promises of the Government of Volodimir Zelenskywhose representatives assure, actively and passively, that they will establish here a new defensive line and that the occupying forces will be stopped before they reach their homes.
Sheathed in a colorful fur coat And till flirtatious and pizpireta despite the disasters of war, Alla Vrizhnichenko, 52, rules out that Russian troops threaten the population, echoing the statements of his own authorities. “They won’t get here, ours will stop them,” he assesses in a firm tone next to a building where humanitarian aid is distributed among the locals. Alla raises her voice and intentionally uses the Russian word nashi which in Spanish comes to mean “ours”, to make it clear in what side of the conflict has deposited his loyalty and its hopes. He has no intention of leaving his home in Chasiv Yar, where she owns farmlandand take care of cows And till Ducks. Of course, it has been “two months” since he has not gone to Bakhmut due to the ferocity of the fighting that is taking place there. “Before we went to visit each other at the hospital, there was two markets very good…”, he sighed.
The official historiography dates as the official date of the beginning of the battle of bakhmut in the month of August, once the Russian occupiers of Ukraine seized control of Lisichansk and completed the conquest of the neighboring province of Lugansk. However, the bombardments inside the urban area have been constant since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, turning the daily existence of its inhabitants into something like a deadly lottery, as EL PERIÓDICO was able to verify last May. In recent months, the fighting has been fierce, with the Ukrainian side going so far as to accuse Russia of sending its own soldiers to certain death, launching waves of fighters into the Ukrainian lines with a utter contempt for human life. The kyiv government has just urged the near 6,000 inhabitants who are still inside the city to abandon it, given the possibility that the Russian occupiers finally manage to close the clamp around it.
“They attack all the time”
Oleg Radchenko74 years old and disabled “from the second group”, a classification that classifies him before the Ukrainian health authorities as mentally ill, admits to being very afraid for the russian bombing. “They attack all the time and people die, I’ve seen it,” she insists. Despite privations and the threat of an approaching Russian Army, she has decided to stay, come what may. “My parents and my relatives are buried here, in two cemeteries; I am the only one left to clean and take care of their graves, I will not abandon them,” he promises, his face hidden behind a pair of sunglasses and wrapped in a camouflage tunic.
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Almost identical scenes are repeated in Kalinivka, a small settlement of two-story houses just a couple of kilometers north of Chasiv Yar. Here, in the premises of a closed school, Olga Bellous and Natalia Saks run a -so called- center of resistance, where they offer those who have not fled, among other services, a bed, hot tea, or even the possibility of recharging mobile and lanterns. “There is no electricity in the whole city and here we have a generator,” explains Olga, who, in times of peace, worked as an educator in this same nursery. “I don’t want to be evacuated because if everyone leaves, who is going to dedicate himself to those who are still here, who are the elderly and poor?” She wonders. Like Alla, she is confident that the Ukrainian troops will block the invaders.
His partner Natalia, on the other hand, does not have them all with me and distrusts the government promises. He complains about the lack of information and regrets not knowing what is happening “even a dozen kilometers” from Kalenivka. “We live in total isolation,” she criticizes. If the Russians end up entering his city, he promises, over and over again, that will not be evacuated. “For what? To end up sleeping in a sports center in Kramatorsk? I already I’m not old“, advance.