“Hopefully this nightmare will end soon”

MYKOLAJIV. There is no need for an alarm clock near the Russian front in Mykolaiv, as air alarms tell you when it’s time to wake up and wake up. This Monday morning, townspeople were woken up by sirens after five.

The attacks are irregular but everyday. In the industrial and shipbuilding city of Mykolaiv, rockets are part of everyday life.

Pensioner Zinaida Kobets lives sadly on the very side of the city closest to the front. It is only more than ten kilometers from the suburbs of the southeast corner of Mykolaiv to the Russian front line.

As we leave for the corners of his home, the regional defense forces guarding the roadblocks and the police urge ‘s shooting team to wear protective vests.

However, local residents who have hardened during the Russian fire do not wear any protective equipment. Whatever would be enough for all the inhabitants, good when the soldiers have their equipment.

Most often, Kobech sees Russian rockets flying low over apartment buildings. However, on Mother’s Day weekend, the trajectory of the rocket that surprised behind the forest was different.

– I shouted to my neighbor that now it hits our house, but it went over the house and hit the bank. Then there was a huge explosion, Kobech says.

According to Kobech, the rocket wobbled strangely. Apparently the Ukrainian air defense had been hit by it, and therefore the rocket fell uncontrollably into a residential area.

One person across the street died in the attack. Teacher, Kobech remembers.

The explosion was so intense that it shattered the windows on the street-side wall of the apartment building. In Kobech’s beautiful two-room apartment, only two windows on the balcony and in the bedroom that opened behind it broke.

Still, it’s not a small thing for a retiree either. Replacing the glasses costs 70 euros. That’s as much as what he earns a month as a pension.

There is a memory of the incident between the windows of the second window pane, a piece of metal – a piece of Russian rocket.

The missiles come from Russian rocket launchers, which Ukraine has failed to destroy. They have scary names – Smerch, or hurricane, and Hurricane, or hurricane. The range of the rockets is several tens of kilometers.

They are even more frightening because Russia uses cluster munitions in them. The cargo rocket opens and spits several smaller explosives from its interior. They fly wherever it hurts, and their shards kill at random – mostly civilians.

More than a hundred countries have ratified the treaty banning cluster munitions. However, Russia is not among the deniers but among the users.

Countless pieces of cluster munitions have hit the Kobech residential area number six, and their traces are clearly visible. Often, a blackened shallow pit stands out on the asphalt, emitting radially dark streaks.

The Soviet-era apartment buildings rising around are tall and worn. In the middle of them, however, a green courtyard opens up. There are small boutiques that seem to be intact and open normally.

It’s different across the street. A row of shops is a continuation of the white line of flowering horse chestnuts. Plywood panels cover all their display windows. Some of the shops are closed and the rest look closed.

One rocket has hit the canopy of a small side library on the ground floor of an apartment building in Kobech. It set the house on fire, but fortunately the fire was quickly extinguished.

The pit of the second rocket can be found in the parking lot of a nearby shopping mall. It’s narrow, but so deep that a man could almost fit in there, says a soldier standing next to the regional defense forces.

The pit is covered with a plastic basket.

I ask how many shocks the neighborhood has been hit.

Around 15, Kobech bets and spreads his hands. That way. Who would count these anymore.

The rockets this Monday morning have not yet been counted, at least officially. In Ukraine, journalists are not allowed to report rocket attacks to the public until they have been reported by the authorities.

The reason for the delay is that Russia does not receive up-to-date information on the accuracy of its missiles and missiles.

We heard several explosions in the morning and there were reports of several smoke statues in the city. So let’s say there were several rockets.

No reports have been made of any injuries. On Sunday night, authorities said ten people were injured in the rocket attacks the previous day.

We hear from some of the places of attack from the Ukrainian army. One rocket shattered the glass facade of a downtown pharmacy. The small kebab restaurant on its side also suffered.

We get to the scene before a bomb squad goes to blow up one shoemaker. Apparently the part of the cluster munition that remained jerking to the edge of the highway.

Police say the attacks were carried out with Smertch rocket launcher rockets. There are enough of them in Russia.

Police have marked the place with car tires.

Tires have also been piled up at the largest intersections. They can be used to conveniently design roadblocks if the situation tightens and movement needs to be restricted.

A block from the pharmacy, several cars were destroyed. Some just lost the rear window or tires. Torn tires will be replaced immediately. Sheet metal damage doesn’t matter that much, it’s in cars here anyway.

The destruction has come to watch Alevtina Cherepanovawho lives in the nearest stairwell.

Cherepanova shows on her cell phone how her children and grandchildren went to single-family homes in the early stages of the war. All that remains are the ruins.

Now the offspring – six people – are crammed into his townhome. However, the war seems to be following the heels of the Cherepanova family all the time.

This time, fragments of a Russian rocket were found in his own home, on the balcony wall, and in the kitchen roof. Fortunately, they didn’t hit anyone.

– We ordinary people can’t do anything about it. We have lived in peace and quiet and have done no harm to anyone, Cherepanova says desperately.

Cherepanova is waiting for help from the authorities. That this torment would end. No more fear.

With rockets, Russia is putting pressure on, intimidating and terrorizing civilians in the Mykolaiv region. And kill: since the start of the war, nearly a thousand civilians have died in Mykolaiv, but Russia has never taken over the city.

Lieutenant Commander of the Regional Defense Forces on the South Side of the City Roman Kulyk considers the Russians completely disregarded.

“Russian troops often fire at large areas to make an impression, and they don’t care how many civilians die,” Kulyk says.

The meager comfort of the people of Mykolaiv is that behind the front, in the Russian-occupied Kherson region, the situation of Ukrainian civilians is even worse.

– There, Russia is systematically terrorizing, intimidating and destroying the local population, especially those who have been loyal to Ukraine, Kulyk says.

In addition to the steady, deadly and inaccurate rocket fire, Russia has made much more systematic attacks on Mykolaiv.

The most dramatic of these was the cruise missile strike on the nine-story office building of the Mykolaiv Provincial Government on the northern edge of the city center.

The missile struck directly at the governor’s office on March 29. Governor Vitaly Kim survived the attack because he was not in his office.

Many others did not survive. 36 bodies were excavated from the ruins of the office building and more than 40 injured were taken to hospital.

The missile strike was a revival for the townspeople. After that, more volunteers flooded the regional defense forces than Ukraine was able to train and arm.

Russia has also destroyed Mykolaiv airport.

Ukraine does not have good means to prevent Russian missile and rocket attacks. Missile strikes would be reduced if Ukraine’s air defense were more effective. That is where foreign aid can help.

The townspeople will only get rid of the rocket fire if or if Ukraine manages to push Russian troops much further away from Mykolaiv.

So here if anywhere is impatiently waiting for foreign arms aid that would allow Ukraine to counterattack.

Just as we are saying goodbye to Kobech, an air alert indicates a new danger.

“I hope this nightmare will end soon,” Kobech concludes.

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