It was the city most closely linked to Moscow, 20 km from the border. Oleg Sinegubov: «You miscalculated. They couldn’t surround us, but they will come back”
Before the bombings, Kharkiv accounted for at least 20 percent of the national GDP. It was second in elegance only to the capital. It was said to be the most Russian city in Ukraine. The border is thirty kilometers away. There were apartment complexes with modern buildings, gardens, swimming pool, sauna and condominium gym that can see Russia from the terrace. They saw it because they were the first to be targeted. Now Kharkiv is a hollowed out city, riddled with rockets and cannons.
Via Zoom, the governor Oleg Sinegubov answers the courier. Like President Zelenskyy, he dresses only in military clothes, but with his massive physique they are more frightening. Sinegubov points the phone towards the computer camera and shows a message. “As the example of Kherson shows, we can assure that councils and offices will continue as before. There will be no indictments or dismissals. Contact telegram…. ».
They wanted to buy it. how did you answer
“Read.”
“Russian military ship, fuck yourself.” Moscow expected a different reception.
«I don’t understand who deceived Putin in this way. We are Russians, that’s true. We speak Russian, good. But this is our home. Who wants to be mugged? On the first day of the war, they killed the customs guards, and then drove into the city on trucks. Our people reacted and there was a Kalashnikov fight. They didn’t even have the tanks ready. The calculations were wrong.
But then no mercy.
“The periphery is destroyed. Part of the old town damaged or burned down. Rockets fly overhead every day. 60,000 people left the city by train. At least 6/700 thousand by car. We estimate that a million people stayed in the city and another 500,000 in the surrounding area. My job is to let them survive. A rocket hit a gas pipeline many kilometers from the Black Sea on Thursday. Who knows how much this missile will have cost Putin. Anything to keep civilians from cooking. We worked for three days and the gas returned to homes. But we don’t always make it.”
Where is it worse?
«In Izyum, a fundamental strategic hub. There is hard fighting. As in Mariupol, the Russians took away water, electricity, gas and heating. 1,600 civilians are not allowed to be evacuated. And the hospitals ».
How is the situation?
“We separated the military hospital from the civilian ones, but now there is even only emergency medicine. This week there were a number of people waiting in a yard for food parcels. Then a shower of Grad rockets on the popular Saltivka neighborhood and bombs all the time ».
Why did so many people choose to stay?
“I saw a different question in the eyes of the young women trying to flee by train. There were thousands with their children. I saw the question: Why do I have to go? Where am I taking these children? What future can I give them? my home is here That is not right. Just as it’s unfair to live with the noise of antiaircraft sirens and explosions; sleep in the basement; get used to fetching water during the bombing raid. That’s inhuman. Don’t hang around defending your home. Do you know that there are also returnees? ».
For real?
“A few thousand, but they’re coming back.”
Which of so many destructions hurt you the most?
“Not the houses we can rebuild. But people’s lives. There’s not a single family in town that hasn’t had a bereavement. In Kharkiv, everyone had relatives and friends in Russia, now grudges will last for generations. The Russians will no longer be our close friends. I’m sorry to say that, but it is so ».
After a month of war, Kharkiv is not yet surrounded, you can almost certainly enter and exit.
“For now, they’ve completely given up encircling us. They withdraw certain positions in order to focus on Izyum, and therefore on the Donbass ».
Is it a win?
“We know from American and British intelligence that the enemy is reorganizing. We expect further attacks on Kharkiv. We need guns. Shoot down planes and destroy tanks. Weapons to defend ourselves against the next wave when it arrives ».
March 27, 2022 (change March 27, 2022 | 17:36)
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