In the city bulwark for Odessa, from where tomorrow the journalist will present the first live program from Ukraine at war
“I can feel the acrid smell of death on me,” Massimo Giletti sighs in front of the helmets, shoes, camouflage suits and backpacks scattered among the rubble. What remains of the barracks in Mykolayiv, a strategic Black Sea city, hit by Russian missiles on Friday: «They continue to extract bodies. Many are very young,” says the conductor in a low voice in front of the crater dug by rockets. The city has so far managed to build a dam against the Russian advance on Odessa thanks to the resistance of local soldiers trained in this barracks. The death toll is increasing hourly. Finally, the count stops at 80. A massacre.
“I was very upset by the insistence of some surviving female soldiers: “Film these bodies, you have to show them to the world, do you understand why it needs a no-fly zone?” they asked ».
Giletti spent a few days away from the television studios on the front lines. And from the southern front he will present the new episode of “Non è l’Arena” tomorrow evening on La7, the first live broadcast from Ukraine during the war. “I came here because I’m an abnormal conductor,” he explains to Corriere. “I think if you want to tell about the war, you have to see it. When you see with your eyes, you collect elements of reflection that escape those who are in the studio, nice and comfortable,” he says with the air of a former correspondent. “Meeting people is fundamental: I don’t see Putin on the screen, I see him in the eyes of the people here.”
It turns out, for example, that being Russian-speaking in no way means being pro-Russian. And it is understandable that an agreement that provides for a surrender is not acceptable to them: “The more the rockets shoot at us, the more they kill us and the more they belittle us, we will fight back,” assured me a young man people involved in the recovery of corpses. They are young people who have breathed freedom and do not want to give it up anymore».
After beating back the Russian troops, Mykolaiv finds himself under the missiles and prepares to resist indefinitely. “People are going to the supermarkets to look for groceries, some semblance of normalcy but fear is in their eyes. Molotov cocktails and old Soviet Army armored cars can be seen on the street corners. They have entrenched posts in the countryside outside the city. You are determined to see it through to the end. You understand as they tell you ».
If Mykolayiv falls, Odessa will be in danger. And from Odessa Giletti will conduct his program via a satellite connection.
“I wanted to do an episode away from the blah blah parlors,” he says. The pearl port city on the Black Sea, so far spared the horrors of war in the north and east of the country, lives with bated breath. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, three Russian ships approached the coast and dropped the first missiles. The port city, increasingly targeted by the Russian offensive, prepares for the siege. “They also covered the statue of Richelieu with sandbags. Even the architecture here reminds you that this is Europe and the boys are doing everything to defend it ».
March 19, 2022 (change March 19, 2022 | 18:03)
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