On the ground, clashes continue with fighting especially in the east and bombardments in twenty-five localities in the east, center and south, according to the Ukrainian military command. North of Kharkiv, the small town of Kozatcha Lopan, the last before the Russian border, was liberated by the Ukrainian army on 11 September.
With our special correspondents in Kozatcha Lopan,
The small town of Kozatcha Lopan was one of the first settlements to fall after the Russian invasion began in February. In the city, not everyone experienced this Russian occupation in the same way and today, people are far from calm.
Artillery fire, holes dug by shells in the road, houses with gutted roofs and a dam that filters the entrances and exits of the city. Kozatcha Lopan has not finished with the war, more than a month and a half after the departure of the Russians. A hasty departure, in the night, which remembers Ludmila, 62 years old.
” The Russians were running in all directions and shouting at us: “Leave now, because the Ukrainians will kill you, execute you, hang you.” They frightened people into going to Belgorod. Some believed them, stupidly, others left knowingly, because, obviously, they had things to reproach themselves for. “, she describes.
Residents fleeing
In the building of the town hall, the windows obstructed with sandbags, officers of the security services control people who come to obtain a pass to leave the city. The main street, which leads to the Russian border post, is almost deserted. Out of 5,000 inhabitants before the invasion, only a thousand remain. Many have gone elsewhere in Ukraine or Europe. Others fled with the Russians.
” In my street, many people left during the night of September 10 to 11, at least thirty. People were in panic, says a municipal employee. Some left with just what they had on their backs. I think there were admirers of Russia but not only. For example, my neighbor, who lives with his 87-88 year old mother, he spent all these 200 days at home, he did not collaborate with the occupants. And I see he’s packed things up and he’s about to leave. I tell him : “ Sacha, where are you going?” He replies: “The Ukrainians are arriving, they are going to bomb us, we were told that we had to evacuate”. I tell him : “But where are you training your old mother? Your two sisters are in Kharkiv”. And him : “We are scared”. And imagine that they have already returned, passing through the Baltic countries. They have seen the country! At least, towards the end of her life, the grandmother will have visited Europe! »
Work for Russians
Working for the Russians, Artiom Naoumenko, 35, did it, but reluctantly. ” I carried around water, every day between 700 and 800 liters in metal buckets, so that they could take baths, these rabid dogs! They built themselves bathhouses in the school’s bomb shelter. Impossible to cut it, otherwise they would send you back there he says.
Over there is the basement of the station. Artyom, who was mobilized on the Donbass front in 2015, was tortured there for 6 hours. ” They taped my eyes and tied my hands. They beat me first, then they put electric wires on my hands, shouting at me: “You are a Nazi.” I tasted “, he describes. Artiom was denounced by a neighbor “for two rations” according to his jailers. This one went to Russia, but others are still there, regrets the young man.
” Until today, people here actively support Russia. They say Ukraine is not a country. I have three like that on my street. I don’t even want to talk to them anymore. They disgust mehe thunders. There are still really bad people here, they should be controlled. I don’t need this Russian world, it didn’t give me anything good. A Russian world that has been pushed back to the other side of the border, only 5 km away, and whose guns continue to speak.
►Also read: Ukraine: near Kharkiv, the life of the inhabitants is punctuated by shooting