This eastern Ukrainian city has been emptied of its residents, many of whom are fleeing the arrival of Russian troops. franceinfo met volunteers who decided to stay there despite everything.
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Posted on 4/24/2022 4:31 PM Updated on 4/24/2022 4:32 PM
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Moscow makes no secret of its goals: two months after the start of the war, to take total control of southern Ukraine and the Donbass region in the coming weeks. The Russian armed forces are primarily targeting the city of Sloviansk, which had a population of 100,000 before the conflict and fewer than 30,000 today. And among them civilians who have taken up arms but are not afraid of the threat, like Pavel who is wandering through the barricaded city.
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This civilian, who has joined the army reserve, is confident and doesn’t want to hear the Kremlin’s call to lay down arms. “No one will surrender, he assures us. We will fight to victory. Our country needs offensive weapons and heavy artillery, tanks and planes.”
At his side, his friend Dmytro is happy about the setbacks of the Russian army, which has been fighting to break through the Ukrainian lines for days. “They don’t have the resources to surround us or launch a major offensive,” he says. They have moved troops in the Donbass, but it will be useless!” And when asked what he thinks of the Russian army presented as infallible, he replies: “That sucks! We saw them fight! Compared to us, the Russian army is worthless. The Soviet army consisted of many Ukrainian soldiers. That’s why she was powerful. Today the Ukrainians are fighting for their country.”
For this soldier from Sloviansk, the Russian army has already paid a high price in this war, even higher than in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
“It’s a hundred times worse! Afghanistan was nothing! Death awaits the Russians here.”
“They lost more than 10,000 people in 10 years in Afghanistan, while here 20,000 people were killed in 52 days, that’s the truth,” he concludes. A humiliation that Vladimir Putin tries to hide from his people.