Survivors of the Chernihiv siege collect the leftover wood from the destroyed houses to make fires and stay warm this winter
The war came in Chernihiv on the same day that the invasion began. Located just 70 kilometers from the border with Belarus, this city of 280,000 inhabitants was surrounded by Russian troops from February 24 to April 4. The main access bridge over the Desna River is broken and can only be reached via the pontoon bridge installed by the military. The seeming normality in the center is broken when the pink silhouette of the hotel in Ukraine emerges, with the last three floors destroyed by a rocket impact.
A few minutes by car is Chornovola Street. The clock stopped on this street on March 3 at 12:15 pm, the time when Russian planes fired six missiles and killed 47 people. Two large apartment buildings and a hospital were badly damaged. Seven months later, the inhabitants of this area are gradually trying to restore normalcy, a task that is not easy. Valentina has returned to her apartment, but repairing the windows has cost her 95,000 hryvnias (2,400 euros in return), a fortune in a country where the minimum wage does not exceed 200 euros. “First we put some plastic, but as soon as I could, we closed it. Winter is coming and we don’t know if we will have heating or not, but we are Ukrainians and we are going to work and work to get ahead,” he says from the balcony of his house.
The cold is one of the neighbors’ major concerns. Thermometers will soon dip below freezing and the country is in a serious crisis due to Russia’s ongoing attacks on power plants. Kirilo Timoshenko, “number two” in President Volodímir Zelenski’s office, called on citizens to wake up between 8:00 and 11:00 (local time) in the morning and between 5:00 and 23:00. to reduce consumption can even lead to schools closing in the winter and teaching online again.
Leonid and his son Volodymyr did not have the luck of Valentina, and their apartment was razed to the ground. It is the third of a ten-storey tower in which there is no neighbor. «Now we come to save everything that can burn this winter, furniture, books, door and window frames… the winter will be long and the furniture will burn well. Even when we finally have gas, it’s too expensive and we can’t afford it, so I hope the furniture will burn well,” said Leonid, a former local factory driver. His son is the one who carries the heaviest pieces and lowers them to the door from the third floor.
“Help? The authorities came the first day and gave us a certificate with the damage we suffered. They promised they would help us, but given the situation the country is in, we assume that the help will only come when the war is over and we don’t know when that will be,” says Volodímir. Father and son have not a minute to lose. They load their blue Lada 1200 with the wood and leave this haunted place that was their home until February.
The front now seems far away from Chernihiv, but everyone knows that the threat is still there and very close. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has declared a state of alert and has deployed his troops along the border. Vladimir Putin’s ally warns of the “terrorist threat” and “that is why we have launched a joint defense procedure between the Belarusian army and units of the Russian Federation.”
The Ukrainian counter-offensive is targeting the east and south of the country, where pro-Russian authorities have even asked Moscow to help evacuate civilians. Russia, for its part, has shown that it can strike anywhere in the area. In addition to cruise missiles, drone strikes have been repeated in the past week, and Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov assured that the enemy has supplied “about 300 units” of these kamikaze drones from Iran. According to Rezkinov, Russia is in talks with the Islamic Republic to buy “thousands of additional devices”.
On the old Lenin Avenue, renamed Myru, Sergei follows the latest war news on his cell phone and worries about Lukashenko’s movements. “I don’t think he will take the step to cross the border and strengthen Russia, but if he does, we’ll be here waiting for him. If we can withdraw the Russians, we will undoubtedly do the same with the Belarusians.
Source: La Verdad
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