The operation by air, land and sea launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin generated many feelings among Ukrainian citizens. These are some testimonials
“Men are prohibited from crossing the Ukrainian border. We have to stay to fight. And that’s fine, we are going to do it, we are going to resist, we are going to fight to the end, as the President asked us, that he is the best of all”. As he queues at one of the few open supermarkets in this capital under siege and intermittent shelling since Thursday, Eduard has no doubts. As many civilians have already done, he will take up arms, defend the country from him.
The aggression by air, land and sea launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in defiance of the world, against Ukraine, if anything, it has unleashed something new among the terrified inhabitants of Kiev. desire for revengepatriotism, will to resist at all costs.
In these last days of terror, combat, bombing, sirens that wail every three or four hours calling people to go down and take refuge like rats in basements, subways and other shelters, President Volodimir Zelensky, a former comedian who won the 2019 elections supported by the US and until recently criticized for its handling of tension, it has recompacted and united the Ukrainians.
“I think that in these few days it has changed, he has shown great coherence, courage, that he has balls, that he is a commander in chief determined, that he will not lower his pants to Putin, ”says Eduard, a 50-year-old taxi driver who took advantage of the approximately 40-minute window that usually exists between bombings to go out and buy a few beers.
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“In fact, if Putin looks so distraught, so furious, it is because our president, Zelensky, defies him, does not obey his orders. And that drives him crazy,” he explains.
Fifty years old, blue eyes, black knit cap, like all the Kievans who stayed, the taxi driver is living in a shelter. And when the Russian troops arrive in the neighborhood of Podin –with beautiful buildings of old architecture, many bars, artists’ workshops and a huge panoramic wheel–, he will take up arms and fight, according to him.
His wife and daughter, 6 years old, are part of that mass that was already able to flee from Kiev, escaping first to Poland, in order to go later to Dusseldorf (Germany), where his brother and mother live.
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If Putin looks so distraught, so furious, it is because our president, Zelensky, defies him, does not obey his orders. And that drives him crazy.
“I stayed to fight, we men can’t leave, we have to defend ourselves against Russian invaders and assassins,” says Eduard. “Don’t be afraid, we’re going to win,” he adds, making the V for victory with his fingers.
Fighting for the freedom of the country and against what he describes as the new Hitler, Putin, is what he has been asking the population for days Zelensky, who everyone believes is showing great courage. Despite the fact that he has been offered asylum by both the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, the president has been haranguing for days that he does not intend to leave, that he is going to stay, that he is going to fight, that he is willing to die.
I stayed to fight, we men cannot leave, we have to defend ourselves against the Russian invaders and murderers”
So much so that appeared on the screens of cell phones and television, dressed in military greento announce that he was alive, that he had survived the bombardments that night, which were among the most intense and dramatic since the beginning of the total invasion, which began at dawn on Thursday.
More information: Videos of the moment when a Russian missile hits a residential building in Kiev
The worst was a missile launched by Russian forces surrounding the city against the top of a residential building 7 kilometers from the center. An attack against civilians that incredibly did not cause deaths, but that even more outraged inhabitants who do not understand this cruelty, this madness.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, so far the total invasion launched by Russia in this former Soviet republic caused the death of 198 civilians, including 3 children; and left 1,115 civilians injured, including 33 boys.
Ghost city
“Crazy situation, crazy situation” (“crazy situation, crazy situation”), says, in limited English, Anton, a 20-year-old who went out to buy water and takes the opportunity to smoke a cigarette in the open air in an increasingly ghost town, silent and without any cars, except for some brave people on foot who go out to shop for essential items. The situation, in fact, is degenerating with the passing of the hours.
The metro service, which was working, stopped doing so and the railway service is interrupted. Not only have several bridges surrounding Kiev been blown up to prevent the advance of the Russian armor that surrounds the city, crossed by the Dnipro River, but also some train tracks. In another sign of the worsening situation, the curfew, which until yesterday started at 10 p.m. and ended at 7 a.m., now starts at 5 p.m. “Whoever is outside after that time will be considered an infiltrator”Mayor Vitali Klitchko warned.
In the supermarket normally open 24 hours, but now only from 7 in the morning to 8 at night, the lines at the registers are long past noon. Nobody speaks behind her mask, there is silence and the faces speak for themselves of the generalized panic, although it is contained. On the shelves there is still everything, dairy, meat, cookies, although the lack of bread and the scarcity of water, potatoes and vegetables are beginning to be noticed.
‘I do not know where to go’
Viktoria, 22, speaks English and says that until now she has been hiding in her workplace – a telephone company. But since they told her that it was no longer safe due to the bombing in that area of the city, yesterday she went to see some friends whose building has an underground shelter, in the Podin neighborhood.
“We are a group of six and we don’t know what to do, nobody knows. My parents are in Kherson, in the south, under Russian occupation, it is very dangerous there, the Ukrainian police have left, so I don’t know where to go, ”she says. “I don’t know whether to stay in Kiev or try to go to Poland,” she confesses.
When asked what she thinks of President Zelensky’s performance in this dramatic moment, Viktoria shakes her head and sighs, searching for the right words to show her immense admiration. “He is the best, he is the best of the presidents we have had so far, the best, by far, he is honest, brave, the best.” What about Putin? “Fuck him, we hate it,” she replies.
ELISABETTA PIQUE
Special Envoy to Kiev
The Nation (Argentina) – GDA
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