Continued bombardment. A few residents are resisting underground in this neighborhood that Russia is relentlessly attacking
Russia insists in its official communications that its “special operation” is focused on Donbas, but since February 24, its troops have not forgotten a single day in Kharkov. Ukraine’s second largest city is under daily attack and the Saltivka district in the northeast is the main target of Russian artillery. It’s the closest point to a front line just a few miles away and it’s also a sort of haunted area that had over 500,000 inhabitants before the war and now numbers just a few hundred. “We got used to it, after two months the explosions have become a part of our lives, what can we do?” asks Sergei, the only neighbor in his entire block of flats who opposes the war because “this is my house and I’m not going to abandon it, I’m going to repair the damage and I’ll have it ready for the day of the victory, that day my wife and children will return from the safe place where they have gone».
Sergei walks his dog through the long Soviet-style avenues of this sleeping area full of parks and trees. Destruction and explosions coexist in a macabre balance in this neighborhood where bunkers are home to survivors. The United Nations puts the number of civilian casualties in Kharkov at 530 and, according to the municipality, 2,100 buildings have been damaged, most of them in Saltivka, which in just two months can be considered one of the areas in Europe worst hit by bombing since the WWII. The attacks are so continuous that the sirens no longer sound because the alarm here is permanent.
Olga Ivanovna has changed her job as a real estate agent to that of organizer of the bunker of her building where thirty neighbors now sleep. The buildings erected during the USSR era have shelters in the basement, the floors are made of sand, and you have to bend so as not to be injured by the network of pipes. In this bunker, a stamp of San Miguel watches over the safety of those present and they also have a small library.
«The worst were the first days, when everything was new to us. We didn’t know how long it would last and there were panic attacks. As the days passed, many people left and those of us who stayed have formed a whole family, we are united, we support each other and we want to be here until the end, because this is our city, our homeland,” says Olga. , whose agenda now includes all your neighbors’ phones, he keeps in touch with all of them and they organize themselves so that there is nothing lacking in a neighborhood where they no longer know what it’s like to have electricity or running water. They can go to other neighborhoods in going out of town, getting on a train to the west of the country, traveling to Europe… but they choose to stay.
As he takes notes, a loud explosion rumbles the ground. The projectile has hit very close and soon a huge gray smoke rises into the air. He doesn’t flinch. “We’re used to it,” she says, preparing food in the communal kitchen outside the bunker.
Life here has not changed after the Defense Ministry announced the liberation of ten villages on the outskirts of Kharkov from enemy hands. The Ukrainian counter-offensive seems to have forced the Russians to slow down their positions, but the attacks on Saltivka continue. That doesn’t change. “I want to thank the West for all the humanitarian aid it sends us and for the good reception of our refugees, but I especially appreciate sending weapons to our troops because that is the key to resisting and winning this war .” says Olga, accompanied by Ludmila and her pet, a Yorkshire with a small ponytail.
The volume and number of blasts are surprising, and the naturalness with which these survivors digest each of the attacks is even more surprising. People get used to everything, including war. Saltivka is the example.
Source: La Verdad
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