The Russian invasion of Ukraine a month later: the special thing

February 24thAt 5 a.m., the Ukrainian sky lit up with tracers. The echoes of the explosions woke incredulous towns: “The Russians really did it, they’re bombing us!” people cried in horror as they fled into the bunkers. Since then everything has changed: thousands of people have been killed, whether soldiers with guns on their shoulders or mothers holding children’s hands. The cities have crumbled, civil life has been wiped out, the poor are imprisoned. Millions of refugees flee gasping for breath amid mines and ambushes.

A month of bombing overwhelms the lives of those who suffer and upsets the balance of this troubled world. Repubblica tells it here on its website (and today on newsstands with a 16page special) with its correspondents in this field and its big names: Maurizio Molinari and Ezio Mauro, Concita de Gregorio, Gianluca Di Feo, Paolo Garimberti, BernardHenri Levy, Gianni Riotta and Gabrielle Romagnoli.

It’s hard to understand that the world changes when normality is suddenly reversed. Two hours after that first bombing, on February 24, busy people, briefcases in hand, were walking the sidewalks of an oddly silent, wounded Kiev as usual to get to work as usual. Pastry shops, shops and even wine bars reopened. But at noon this Ukraine no longer existed. Closed, closed, afraid. Shocked by the invasion of a brotherly people who strangle her and stain her with blood.