Russia has stepped up attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. Half of Kiev and up to two-thirds of Kharkov have fled to other parts of Ukraine or abroad.
16.3. 06:10 • Updated March 16 07:13
In the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, the streets have remained quiet since Tuesday due to a curfew. Russian troops have struck the city’s residential buildings, an aircraft factory and a subway station since the beginning of the week. Several people have died in the attacks.
– This is no longer a war. This is terrorism. Russia is hitting everywhere, a foreign reporter Nataly Lutsenko said to over the phone on Monday.
Russia had struck a nine-story residential building in the city.
Lutsenko, 32, answered the phone from home, which is rare. Russia has stepped up its attacks on Kiev, and spending nights in the midst of constant air alarms has been safer in the workplace.
Lutsenko also had to go to safety during the interview due to the free strikes.
– The sounds of bombing are getting louder and louder, Lutsenko says.
More than half of Kiev’s residents have already fled to western Ukraine or abroad. Russia has sought to step up the siege of the capital, and in the suburbs of Kiev heavy fighting.
However, Lutsenko, who works as a foreign journalist, has wanted to continue his work on the Ukrainian channel ICTV. There are about ten colleagues left in Kiev.
– Every journalist has become a war reporter, Lutsenko says.
He writes about Western support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. He says he is disappointed that NATO does not agree to make Ukraine a no-fly zone.
– Imagine how many people, children we could be saved if NATO just closed the skies of Ukraine?
“Kiev has become an army city”
According to Lutsenko, the siege of Kiev would be challenging for Russian forces because of the scale of the city.
Lutsenko says that Kiev has become an army city. Everyone volunteers to the best of their ability.
Restaurants offer free lunches to the regional defense forces, and the hotel near Lutsenko’s workplace offers free accommodation to tired journalists.
The state of war has changed everyday life. According to Lutsenko, damaged cars have been left on the streets as a result of accidents, as it is not even worth trying to seek compensation from the insurance company to repair them. Food supply and the distribution of water, electricity and heat are still working.
Alongside the common defense, night – time looting has risen – alcohol, tobacco and food are being taken off the shelves. The windows have been broken.
Lutsenko does not want to leave the city. However, he says he carries his backpack and his most important documents with him everywhere.
– Russian forces have not strengthened, they have only become more desperate. That is partly a bad thing. But we are angry. I am no longer afraid of siege as much as two or three weeks ago.
The bombing continues in Kharkov
In Kharkov, northeast of the Russian border, it is difficult to even dream of a normal life. The city has been heavily bombed by Russia since the start of the war, and the attack immediately pushed the lives of Kharkov residents underground into bomb shelters.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, a 42-year-old English teacher Olga Juga moved with her husband, a 12-year-old daughter, a 22-year-old son, and about a hundred other people to the basement of a residential building. They spent nine days in the basement.
– There is no central infrastructure, administrative buildings or anything like that in our residential area. Still, it was and still is constantly under attack.
– In the basements, I even got some kind of feeling that I was safe. The sounds of the bombings were not so loud, Juga says.
She responds to via video call from Austria near Vienna, where she escaped with her daughter.
In Kharkov, a wartime daily routine soon developed for the Juga family. After the curfew ended at six in the morning, Juga’s spouse went to queue at the grocery store, which opened at eight. Chips, chocolate and other junk food were procured from almost empty shelves.
Meanwhile, Juga and the children quickly took a shower at home and prepared a hot meal, if at all possible.
Some people store food even before the attack. According to the Yuga, most did not consider the threat of war to be real and thought the Russian president Vladimir Putin just pursuing their goals by intimidation.
– We bought a new refrigerator the day before the war, Juga says.
– Fortunately, however, we raised cash and collected the most important documents a week before the war.
The men will remain in Ukraine
Juga fled Kharkov in early March with her daughter Viran and his son Kyrylon with. According to Juga, the communality formed in the bomb shelter changed into fear and loneliness as people fled around one by one.
Spouse Andrii remained in Kharkov and his son in Lviv in western Ukraine, as the mobilization of Ukraine prevents men from leaving the city.
According to Juga, the situation in Kharkov is so difficult that access to the train station, which is already 13 kilometers away from home, was partly due to interrupted connections and poor access to taxis. It was also a game of luck for Juga to get on the train in less than an hour among thousands of people.
– My husband couldn’t even take us to the train station, because there was no certainty of returning home due to the bombing, Juga says.
Juga says the ongoing bombings and the voices of the fighters who flew over this apartment have left a feeling of nowhere safe. However, he says he was relieved to escape.
Concerns about loved ones left in Ukraine, on the other hand, are great.
Yuga’s 86-year-old father lives in the village of Prudjanka on the Russian border. Juga has been in contact with his father for the last time before leaving. At the time, he said over the phone that shops and pharmacies were no longer open and there was no electricity to charge the phone.
– He doesn’t even know we’ve escaped. I don’t know if he’s getting his heart medication.
Juga estimates that the city’s food supply has improved thanks to aid organizations, and electricity will also be restored fairly soon after the outages.
Trains run to increasingly safer areas, but with a huge number of internally displaced people moving around, it is becoming impossible to get accommodation elsewhere, Juga says.
According to Yuga, people in Kharkov stay inside, look for food in the mornings and protect themselves. She says she asked her husband about the bombing.
– There are all the time, my husband replied. The bombing is numb.