FROM THE ENROLLMENT TO SIEVERODONETSK. «I would like the world, the West, Europe to be more involved in the tragedy that is devastating Ukraine, because the Russians are behaving like criminals. I wish the skies above our country were closed because this is the only way to stop the destruction around us. I would like you to send us bigger weapons because this is the only way we can drive out the invader ». Listening to these words one would think that a politician, a devoted representative of Kiev, is in front of him, instead the one to pronounce them is Danil, 16, residing in Lysycansk, Lugansk Oblast, in the part controlled by government forces. Resident until yesterday, because Danil was evacuated together with his family, his mother, his sister and his grandfather, not his father, he went to fight. Danil is disarming in answering a very different question: What is your dream? “This is my dream, you don’t have to go far to have a dream, mine is this, here, now right away.” Words that dramatically coincide with those of the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba. Words that in this part of the country are heard, if possible, even more, because here the war has existed before, here we are in the Donbass.
The journey to get there is yet another cross-section of the conflict, to make it even more intense is the one who guides us in this corner of hell at the gates of Europe, Father Oleh, a Greek-Catholic priest of the Salesian order. From Dnipro the priest courageously brings medicines and basic necessities to the areas close to the contact line, on his return he loads civilians to bring them to safety. The appearance is of the man who carries faith to the border, or even beyond, wears the military green Zelensky-style tunic, the yellow and blue flag. And a conspicuously rough cross around his neck. The appearance is worn despite the forty springs, originally from Lviv, he lived eight years in Italy, between Lombardy and Piedmont. His Italian is seraphic. When I trust that my grandfather studied with Don Bosco’s disciples he gives a smile, his chest swells. “I wanted to work with young people, I wanted to change the world, I discovered Don Bosco, an instant vocation”.
The long journey to the deep Donbass becomes lighter thanks to his stories, despite the road that clearly bears the wounds of Putin’s bombing. The spell is interrupted by the bleak spectacle of the endless lines of cars on the run, days ago the evacuation order was triggered, the Ukrainians know that Moscow’s plan B will see the showdown in the Donbass.
Endless columns of people, luggage and household goods that thin out as the fire zone advances. We head to Sieverodonetsk, which translated means “Donetsk above”, even if the town is located in the Lugansk Oblast, divided between government and pro-Russian, the Kremlin tanks are within range. As we get closer, the villages become more and more bare, columns of smoke follow one another, like the carcasses of cars: destruction and death. Ahead of us is a truck full of soldiers, they go to the front to relieve the comrades who have been engaged for weeks against the Russians. The first stop is in Lysycansk where a second van arrives, on board there is another priest, also a Salesian. It’s Don Sergio, three and a half years spent in Italy were enough for him to master the language in an embarrassing way. His van brings some evacuees he met on the street along with food and medicine. At each checkpoint the priest is passed as a general, there is no soldier who does not know him.
The acrid smell of burning is gradually more penetrating, as is the desolation of the streets traveled almost exclusively by gaunt, hungry, sick dogs. «This gas station attendant was hit three days ago, we were very close – says Don Oleh -. This car was also fully taken, too bad it was new ». Let’s try to change the subject, if only to exorcise: how often do you do this operation? «Two or three times a week, it depends on how much strength we have and on the availability of medicines and food. Today it will be fast, let’s go to the hospital, not to the people in the basement, it will take about two hours ». Two hours of fire. We enter the hospital complex, which has already been bombed several times, the paediatrics ward was seriously damaged three days ago: “We had to evacuate all the little patients.” It now functions as a sorting center. The volunteers open, we begin to unload the goods: “Here everyone lends a hand,” says Don Sergio with the smile of the fighter accentuated by the long beard. Among the foods there are made in Italy products, the sandwich bread comes from Turin, we notice it betraying a pinch of pride. “Send us helicopters and tanks to defend us,” a volunteer chills us. The tour inside the pediatric ward is a sinking heart, to see cots and cradles filled with rubble. When we get back on the road we hear two cannon shots, a third, a fourth, we lose count, stronger and closer, closer and closer. “Everyone inside,” says Father Oleh. It is a large-scale attack as evidenced by the three aerial bombardments near the railway bridge connecting Slovyansk to Kramatorsk, three evacuee trains are blocked. At a sign we get into Don Sergio’s van, and off we go with a pindaric acceleration. “Don Bosco protects us,” he says with the grin of those who frequent the front line not infrequently. There is time for a break, Andrey and Lina get on, they had been stuck for days after the attack on the hospital. They will spend the night in Dnipro, then we’ll see, they hold us in a liberating embrace. We return to Lysycansk where with Danil there are other evacuees, some come from Popasna, among them there is a director of a school. “They risk more, the Russian occupiers force them to collaborate, to use the Russian language in all their teachings – says the father courage -, if they say no, they end up badly”. Let’s take advantage of that last stretch of road to understand the meaning of this war according to a man of faith: whose faults are there? “When they raped 14-year-old girls, Putin didn’t do it, when they looted Putin didn’t do it, when they destroyed the theater in Mariupol Putin didn’t do it, when schools and hospitals are bombed, the person who flies the plane knows what it is. ‘is inside – he explains -. The book ‘Hitler and the Germans’ is teaching, it is necessary to analyze the responsibilities of a people, more than 80% of Russians support Putin and agree with the war, if you support Putin and the war you are co-responsible for all this “.
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