The Russian army has been pushed out of Chernivtsi, but the fears of the residents are not being alleviated. ‘s journalist Antti Kuronen visited Chernihiv near the Belarusian border.
CHERNIHIV Chernivtsi in northern Ukraine is one of the cities that Russia failed to conquer, but which it fired and besieged for more than a month.
Residents of the city have lived in their shelters and cellars. Now they are working back to the light.
– You don’t get anything. There is bread, only. All the shops are closed, says Svetlana, who queues for milk and food among the people in the city center.
There is a van on the scene, from which the lucky ones get a food bag. Across the street is a long queue at the bank.
– We adults eat what is left over, the most important thing is that there is enough for the children. Kids need milk, meat, everything, says Tatiana.
She has five grandchildren and a pension of just under € 100.
“I got here in a nipple slipper”
Chernihiv is located near the Belarusian border on the road along which Russian troops began their invasion of Ukraine.
Near the city center, a cluster of apartment buildings has been almost completely destroyed. According to locals, Russian war machines dropped 500 kilograms of bombs into the area.
– At least 59 people died inside and outside this house. There are probably still people in the ruins, Natalija says.
He has lived in the basement for over a month along with many other locals.
Natalija looks desperately at her apartment building. There is no going back.
– The bomb fell on my house. I ran into the basement in these clothes. I got here in a nipple of slippers, he describes.
Now some residents have ventured from the basements to their homes, some have left the city of Ukraine after the Russian troops drove out.
In the basement, one does not dare to think about when Russia will end the attack
There are still people living in the basement who dare not sleep at home, even though the Russian fire is almost completely over.
The traumas of war are too superficial.
– The hardest part is fear. The fact that you are in danger when you are in your own home. I think it’s worse than these difficult living conditions, says Jelena.
One of the bombs hit Jelena’s house. He had escaped into the stairwell with his son, but the doors of the elevator and the apartments exploded from the pressure into the stairwell.
The electricity went out and they still haven’t returned. Another huge problem in apartment buildings is the lack of water. For example, toilets do not work.
– We’ve built a brick barbecue for the yard. We eat together here in the basement, Jelena says.
She presents a bomb shelter with beds for mothers and children in one corner.
– Pregnant women moved here right after the war started, even before our house hit.
The residents of the basement do not even dare to guess, because the destroyed houses and apartments can be repaired. Nor do they dare to think that Russia would stop the attack.
– If I go to visit my house, I’ll come in and take toothpaste or something with me. By no means do I dare to stay there, Jelena says.
Jelena saved fresh pictures of her on her cell phone. He can’t watch them, at least not yet.
Read Antti Kuronen’s story about Chernihiv before the war: