by Martha Serafini
Checkpoints, requisitions and threats: this is how Moscow wants to prove that the city belongs to Crimea. And the residents can no longer flee: all armored
FROM OUR MAIL
Osokorivka and Zaporizhzhia – soon Kherson will be part of Crimea. That’s what he’d been saying for the past few weeks. Then, on Friday, the city’s new Russian-appointed mayor, Volodymyr Saldo, returned to office.
Kherson Oblast. Of the one million inhabitants, 500,000 stayed, exactly half. Who could have escaped? For five days, said Ukrainian governor Hennadii Lahuta, Moscow prevented any kind of evacuation. The Russians fired on a car convoy in Davydiv Brid on Tuesday, killing three people. Nova Kakhovka residents denounce how the Russians opened the dam and are flooding the region. And since last week we need a permit from the Russians. First they have to undress you to see if you have tattoos, then they confiscate your mobile phone, says Anton, 65. He has just arrived at the square in Zelenodolsk with two plastic bags hanging from the bike’s handlebars. To get from the Russian to the Ukrainian zone, he passed 63 checkpoints. I counted them, they are a mile apart.
A vice that is now difficult to resist. The Russians plundered groceries and pharmacies. Ukrainian goods are being exported to Crimea and Russia, while distributing products from 5 years ago and outdated medicines as humanitarian aid, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament Lyudmila Denisova condemned in recent days. A serious humanitarian crisis, according to Deputy Head of the Regional Council Yurii Sobolevskyi. Words, however, are not enough for Anton. Not only is there no more food, it’s getting hot. The price of bread has tripled, they no longer pay wages. Will you tell me how we eat? she gets excited. Life under the new masters. But fighting to win hearts and minds. They organize a press trip for a group of Russian journalists from Rostov. They want to show that Kherson is part of Crimea, warns someone in chats on Telegram. Communication is becoming increasingly difficult as the Internet connects to Crimea. On TikTok, the journalist Konstantin Ryzhenko, who was kidnapped by the Moscow military for a few days in April and then freed, tells the life story of Kherson in a Russian version. Disguised as a mustache and fake glasses, he shows up at a store. He pays with hryvnia, Ukrainian paper money, and gets a few kopeks as change, made of metal. He will no longer be able to exchange them for rubles, he explains. A little further east, in the Zaporizhia region, Moscow is also trying – with difficulty – to enforce its own currency with threats and blackmail. The occupiers began handing out 10,000 rubles in exchange for residents’ personal information, Telegram says. In Vasylivka, a previous interview was announced to entrepreneurs and traders who refuse to pay in rubles. In Melitopol, the collaborationist mayor Balytsky ordered both hryvnia and rubles to be used, but only for card transactions. For digital go with the currency of Moscow. The exchange rate: 2 rubles for one hryvnia.
On the Dnipro, opposite Nikopol, a plant appears in the fog. Do you see it over there on the other side of the river? the largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine. More powerful than Chernobyl, it produced more than 20 percent of the country’s electricity last year. The Russians captured it early in the invasion and are now trying to use it as a weapon of extortion. If Ukraine does not pay for the energy supplies, Russia is ready to use the plant for its own purposes, Moscow’s Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on Friday. Alexander Sayuk, the mayor of Nikopol, has a tired face in his office. Since the beginning of the war he has struggled with the fear of radioactive leaks. I can’t put a precise figure on the radioactivity, but I dare not imagine what a plant explosion would mean, he explains as the anti-aircraft siren begins to wail.
On the same bank of the Dnipro, Sasha, the captain of the Ukrainian army’s infantry brigade stationed under Kryvyi Rih, bares his teeth with a smile. Behind them, three kilometers away, are the Russians, here you have to run fast if you want to cross the street. Ukrainian front line under Novovorontoska. as if time had stood still in Osokorivka. The Russians are no longer advancing. The village was revived in early May. But all in ruins. Including the school used as barracks. Happy New Year, Happy 2022 says a billboard hanging in front of the pharmacy. The children’s chalk drawings can be seen on the asphalt. Further north, near the dam, Anton sighs. I’m not resigned, I’m Ukrainian. Then he turns around one last time. But who will come to set us free? Rumor has it that they want to recognize Crimea in exchange for peace. But that would be treason, he says as he climbs back into the saddle.
The sun begins to set. Sasha and his men retreat to the trenches. There will soon be a major counter-offensive to liberate Kherson. But we need other weapons.
May 22, 2022 (Modification May 22, 2022 | 22:10)
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