by Lorenzo Cremonesi
They sprout from the trees of the occupied cities. And the resistance also underwrites the murders of the collaborators
FROM OUR SEND
SAPORIZHIA – We are talking about the Ukrainian partisan resistance, which is getting stronger and better organized, so much so that it puts the Russian army on the defensive. Their militants are distributing thousands of yellow ribbons in the disputed areas. They can now often be seen on the roads of the southern regions between Kherson and Mariupol: yellow ribbons, thin but clearly visible at bus stops, on public buildings, in hospitals, on tree branches in parks, even in front of barracks.
They are the symbol of our hope for salvation, especially in Kherson. The partisan guerrilla sympathizers are hanging them, especially in the offices charged with organizing that hated Russian annexation referendum that no one wants, and also in the places where they just struck to kill the treacherous collaborators. Russians go mad with anger as soon as they see them, they rip them away, but the next day they are still there, says 42-year-old Anastasia Poliakova, who met her in the tent of the reception center for displaced people in Zaporizhia. the same where three months ago the exhausted refugees arrived, in Mariupol, and now those from the new Poles of the war are converging.
Anastasia was a senior executive at Oshad, Ukraine’s main state bank, until early March. But he immediately refused to continue working. The Russians demanded that we register our documents and sign a letter declaring our willingness to cooperate. I didn’t sign and lost my job. But I’m happy with that, I don’t want to betray my country for Putin, she explains. And the short step from personal choice to guerrilla warfare sympathies. For all of us, the heroes of Zhovta are Strichka, the Yellow Ribbon. They give us hope, they arrive where the army won’t strike, they force Russian commanders to divert men and vehicles to hunt them, he adds. Many of the displaced speak about it with respect. The partisans are erasing the Russification slogans and writing that the Ukrainian army will be here very soon, they are destroying television antennas in Moscow, they are frightening their patrols, says Viktor Porokniuk, a 17-year-old who arrived with his mother.
The topic of the Ukrainian armed resistance supporting the regular army’s counter-offensive wanted by Zelenskyy to retake Kherson and force the Russians to scale back attacks in Donbass has come back into vogue with the emergence of a possible role in Blitz four days ago against the large Russian air base at Saki in Crimea. If confirmed, it would mean that the guerrillas have now established a network of solid links with the Ukrainian special forces. It seems that they managed to blow up some military trains and helped provide the GPS data of targets sensitive to Ukrainian artillery. The guerrillas arrive where the Himars are fighting, putting their slogans on the walls and referring to the American rocket launchers, which with force and precision are bringing down Russian supply lines and destroying the bridges over the Dnieper.
Its activists in particular have been doing their best for weeks to boycott the referendum wanted by Putin to sanction the annexation, along the lines of what took place in 2014 after the Crimea invasion and was never recognized by the UN and the world democratic World. We know little about this referendum, confused signals are coming from Moscow. But it looks like it should happen on 9/11 and all of us will join Russia, say the displaced. Three days ago, a massive explosion devastated the Election Committee building in Melitopol. There are often leaflets in the morning asking the population to abstain.
There has been no shortage of targeted assassinations of collaborators working for the vote. A few days ago, Yevgeny Soblev, head of the central prison in Kherson, where thousands of opposition figures are being held, was targeted. The premises of the old glass industry, known as Steklotari, were used to detain protesters from the anti-virus riots in March. The few that come out tell of widespread torture and hundreds of opponents vanished into thin air. You can be stopped on the street even if you only speak Ukrainian, in offices and at checkpoints you have to speak Russian if you don’t want trouble. He exonerated a hated man since he decided to work with the invader and worked to help Moscow’s secret services capture the old leaders who had been working with him until the previous day. The explosives had been hung from a tree next to his car, but he was only slightly injured. Even the highest regional manager, Vladimir Saldo, was attacked several times and miraculously escaped alive. His assistants were much less fortunate. Pavel Slobodchikov was killed by a sniper while driving his car and Dmytry Savluchenko was burned to death in his small car, which was remotely detonated.
Refugees from Zaporizhzhia say resistance finds new militants as Ukrainian units approach Kherson. civilians who can walk. Soon the children will be forced to enroll in the new Russian schools and the families will not be allowed to leave the country. Then they will take our IDs To us as voters for the referendum, explains Oxana, 52, who fled yesterday with her 16-year-old daughter Sofia.
August 12, 2022 (change August 12, 2022 | 23:47)
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