By Florence Aubenas
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ReportThe city, which was Russophile before the war, proved to be the linchpin of popular mobilization against the occupiers.
Ladies in straw hats and sunglasses chat comfortably in the village square, it feels like a market day in Lymany, a few kilometers from Mykolayiv, in southern Ukraine. The day before, May 27, the whole village received the same SMS: “Attention, Lymany is bombed. You have until May 30 to flee or join the Russian forces. Victory will be on our side. “Several gunshots already devastated the town hall in April, then the school in a neighboring town and left two dead in a building in the village. However, no one seems to be panicking. “More propaganda to sow panic,” cuts Natalia Panachy, mayor and physics professor, into the tone one would use to talk about intrusive advertising.
Here, too, the war can sometimes seem like an eerie routine: the topic that occupies people’s minds on this day remains distribution Sugar, 5 kilos per family, waited for hours in the rising heat. At the small supermarket across the square, the shelves are crowded, well stocked, but the only customer is a soldier offering himself a chocolate ice cream cone. Three months after the Russian invasion, the situation seems to have changed in places: goods are no longer lacking, as in the first phase of the fighting. It’s the money. Finally the distribution begins. “And if they end up forgetting about us in Europe? ‘ says someone in the queue. In the silence the voice of a retiree with an impeccable hair dryer rises: “I like sugar. But I’d prefer guns. She said it politely, without reproach.
Residents of Lymany during a food aid distribution led by Natalia Panachy, village leader. Lymany, Ukraine, May 26, 2022. CHLOÉ SHARROCK / MYOP FOR “THE WORLD” Also read article reserved for our subscribers In Mykolaiv, living under the threat of Russian guns: “Tell others that from now on we will shoot without warning will”
In the distance, plumes of smoke and artillery fire outline the horizon of the fighting. The Russian advance was stemmed and pushed back out of the city by Ukrainian troops at Mykolaiv, a major port on the Dnieper estuary. The front line has now stabilized 20 kilometers south on the edge of Kherson Oblast, the only region occupied by Moscow since February. “Their soldiers retreated right along this administrative border,” explains a Ukrainian soldier. It makes him laugh. “We know the Russian bureaucracy well. In this flat steppe, as far as the eye can see, every movement is immediately perceived. The two armies encamp in a trench warfare, each watching the other digging ever more impressive trenches under the incessant hovering of enemy drones.
“It’s true, we loved the Russians”
Mykolayiv can be reached from the front line through the Korabelny district, to the south through the major shipyards. The Russian columns expected to enter without a fight or almost; only strategic shelling, including the military airport, was planned. According to documents found on Russian prisoners, most of the troops were even supposed to bypass the city and head straight for Odessa, 130 kilometers to the west. The population, according to residents, seemed to have acquired everything.
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