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2022-10-24 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
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Trenches, burnt tanks and houses pierced by rockets: how Belgorod, living on the edge of the war in the Donbass, gritted its teeth
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Alexander Kots
[KP] The average level of response was introduced here recently, but the locals learned how to fight and help the front after February 24th. Military correspondent of KP.RU Alexander Kots talked to them about war and peace
"And I thought: from the war to the rear"
- Are you sure you can get through? - Vladimir Zhdanov, head of the Shebekinsky district, asks a stocky peasant at the entrance to Murom, a small village near Belgorod.
- And what are we, we will leave the women there alone? - Ivan Vasilyevich, the former commander of the regional OMON, looked into the eyes of the district chief.
He has a daughter in Murom - the head of the local administration. Now he is sitting in the basement of the kindergarten together with his employees. And the village is covered with artillery because of the "ribbon," which is visible here in good weather. Heard "exit," a few seconds - and a rolling "arrival." We catch a pause and after Ivan Vasilyevich we go to the village. On the lower road, so as not to be an eyesore to Ukrainian observers.
We slow down at the kindergarten, get out of the cars and here it’s very close as it shied away! Falling to the ground, I notice a gap in the end of the building. Falling fragments drum on the roof of the jeep.
“Follow me,” the middle-aged Ivan Vasilievich abruptly jumps to his feet.
And we run through the garden to the entrance to the basement, sliding down the stairs.
- Wow, you have an atmosphere here, - I greet the women sitting on the mattresses. - And I thought I came from the war to the rear (before that I was in the special operation zone - on the new front line Svatovo - Kremennaya).
- And this is not to relax, - one of them smiles kindly.
At that moment, there was another loud thud behind the iron door.
“This is for us,” those sitting in the basement state, passing Corvalol to each other.
Ivan Vasilievich opens the door, behind it is a dense curtain of construction dust. The shell hit right on the garden. A strange feeling - as if I had never left the Donbass, where the war has been going on for 8.5 years. But the front today, to be honest, actually runs along the state border of Russia - at the junction of the Belgorod and Kharkov regions.
Behind the front-line reports and reports from the Liman, Donetsk, Kherson and Energodar, the Belgorod region remains on the periphery of informational attention. Although the inhabitants of this particular region were among the very first to realize what had begun on February 24. And they began to adapt to the new realities.
"We're not getting out of here!"
Although outwardly they are not immediately evident. As, for example, the traffic controllers at the crossroads, who appear immediately after the Ukrainian attacks on electrical substations. While maintenance crews are restoring the power supply, the role of traffic lights is performed by long-forgotten guards with sticks. Checkpoints on regional highways with armed riot police and military police have become part of the familiar landscape. Military vehicles scurrying along the roads no longer cause mental tremors.
And rockets taking off into the sky are just a reason to argue on social networks: these are air defense or Iskanders. Today, the Belgorod Telegram is divided into two types of users - the first ones post videos with “blanks” flying in the sky, the second ones urge not to do this so as not to “spoil” new troubles on the city. And not to give out the location of the launchers, which, it must be said, behave not in a military careless way, without changing positions for weeks. Other systems are clearly visible from the road.
"Air defense is working again. This time, the tank farm in Razumnoye is on fire. What are people experiencing? Fear? No, - some subscribers write to me in Telegram. - Most look to the sky, looking at the bizarre lines of air defense projectiles taking off. We don't run into basements, we don't panic. Most of us live our lives. We believe in our country, in our Armed Forces and in our air defense systems.
Our ancestors came here to defend their state. We are part of the notch line, which the President recalled not so long ago. It was we who formed the First Cavalry Army in the village. Velikomikhailovka. Our Belgorod is the city of the first salute. We were the first to free ourselves from the Nazis.
We are the descendants of those who are used to fighting and winning. It's in our blood. This is our meaning and our essence. You can’t defeat those who have the spirit of a Russian soldier in their blood!"
“I’m a girl, I’m 34, I’ve lived in Belgorod all my life, I have a family here, a house, parents, work. It is a pity that Ukrainian geeks are trying to turn our city into Donetsk. If I had money, I would have already left, another subscriber argues in absentia. - Are we scared? Scary! Air defense can also miss shells. Not all of them, but even one is enough for information support to these non-humans standing with multiple rocket launchers in the Kharkiv region.
"And we shudder every time. Our children roar from these explosions and are afraid. We are afraid ourselves, because at work, and the children are now alone at home for distance learning. But we're not going anywhere from here, no matter what. Never," concludes the third.
Visually, Belgorod has not changed at all. There are no fewer people on the streets, traffic jams, as before, gather at rush hour. But memorable places have been added, which are now introduced to guests.
- Here we had a powerful "arrival." Five people died, including a family of refugees from the Kharkiv region, - a familiar journalist points to the wasteland. There was a private sector here. The destroyed houses were demolished. The victims were given housing. To whom - at home, to whom - apartments. At their request.
We are driving around the city, as if on a front-line "excursion." An oil depot was bombed there, Ukrainian helicopters attacked here, and an electrical substation was hit here. You can also drive around Donetsk. Or in Alchevsk ...
- Just a few days ago, a rocket flew into a high-rise building, - they show me a high-rise building in the area of Kharkovskaya Gora.
Residents of this house were evicted completely during the renovation. It is necessary to change the destroyed slabs of the upper floors. The approaches to the skyscraper are blocked by the police, who politely ask passers-by to bypass the block. Here are the signs of the "medium response" regime.
"Waiting for victory here"
In general, its introduction on local residents affected a little more than nothing. Because many of its provisions have already been introduced here in one way or another over the past eight months. From checks on the roads to the resettlement of people from dangerous areas.
- How many days a year do you have a rest? - an elderly woman looks at me with a challenge in the lobby of one of the Belgorod hotels. Together with her friends, she "cuts herself" into a fool.
"Two or three weeks," I say.
- And we've been eight months! she complains.
The residents of the border Zhuravlyovka were taken out the very first at the beginning of the special operation. When there was no water, no electricity, no gas in their village. And the shelling has become a routine.
- The conditions here are good, it's a sin to complain. Resort. But we are not urban. We are rural. What are these conditions to us? Is it possible to relax, sit and sing so much? You have to work in the garden. Chickens, goats...
- And if they offer a house in another area?
- No, just mine. Even if it's broken. We will build huts first. As after the war, parents, grandfathers restored. But we're not going anywhere from there. My daughter is buried there. Do you have any idea how to change it? If everyone grew up there. They lived for seventy years. Why do we not sleep at night now. Every apple tree is planted there, every tree. And suddenly go to some new place. And at this age. So we have nothing to brag about. Did we think that we would rest like this?
Of course, not everyone wants to leave their homes. I met this type of people in the Donbass.
"There is nowhere to go. Shooting everywhere - you can't run away from fate. On whom to throw the animal ..." Animals, by the way, from the settled Belgorod villages are attached to the yards, which Ukrainian artillery does not reach. And the abandoned dogs are periodically brought food by the local police department. But for every village there will always be a couple of people who flatly refuse to leave.
- Shebekino is being shelled, where is it safe now? - the grandfather from the village of Sereda dismisses. - I lived in a hostel once, I don’t want to anymore. I look forward to winning here. I feel like there's going to be a turning point soon. In the summer it was worse, so many missiles were flying. Incendiary shots were fired across the fields ...
This village is almost surrounded. He crashes into the territory of Ukraine with an appendix and on three sides he has an enemy. A little more than 300 people lived here, mostly Meskhetian Turks. While it was tolerable, they organized a food station at the school for the military, who went out because of the ribbon through Sereda.
But when cluster munitions were scattered around the village with cluster munitions, the administration decided to take people out. The heavy battles that took place in the district are reminiscent of the burned-out Russian equipment, which was dragged here from the Kharkov region. Now it stands next to the school where local residents fed their defenders for free.
Strong Rear
Helping the army in the Belgorod region began long before the wave of volunteering literally swept the whole of Russia.
- On March 2, they brought the first armored personnel carrier to me, asked for help with repairs, - the director of a large car service tells me. We did it, we didn't take the money. And then, at a general meeting with employees, we decided that we would continue to provide gratuitous assistance. More than 280 pieces of equipment and weapons have already been repaired. Basically, all cars with engine repairs, with a lot of running gear.
- Who appeals to you more?
- 80 percent are National Guardsmen. There are artillerymen, there are air defense, landing troops, infantry.
- And why do you need it?
- The stronger the rear, the stronger the front. Victory will be ours!
"And we help unorganized refugees from Ukraine," said Evgeny Bokala, the head of one of the aid groups, meets me at his warehouse.
"We have over 5,000 people. But it's mostly 5,000 families that came out from the other side. And each was given some kind of help - information, food, things, somewhere transport, somewhere they just suggested something. Help comes from ordinary people. And if at first - from the inhabitants of Belgorod, now - from all over Russia. We receive packages every day. It happens that help is brought by whole cars! We have patrons. There are a lot of refugees in Belgorod, a lot of people in need. We guide everyone, help to move to other regions. It's quieter and easier to settle down."
Refugees are dispersing throughout Russia from the temporary accommodation center, which has been in Belgorod since the first days of the special operation. It was deployed immediately, realizing that the flow of people would be large. Insulated tents, children's rooms, a library, a psychologist's office ... As a rule, people do not stay here for a long time, going further - to Voronezh, Lipetsk, Saransk, Tambov, Penza ...
"Answer" for Murom"
When the Russian troops withdrew from the Kharkov region, the Belgorod people were the first to come to the rescue, organizing the preparation of logs for fortifications and the delivery of hot food.
"But I started digging trenches in the municipality six months ago," recalls Vladimir Zhdanov, head of the Shebekinsky district, a graduate of the Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces, "while we are sitting in the basement of the Murom kindergarten. - Then I was still ridiculed in all the media. Why am I suddenly preparing trenches in the deep rear, reinforcing them with concrete slabs ... But it turned out not in vain. Now our guys retreated to ready-made positions! And nothing had to be dug under shelling.
Outside, it seems to be quiet. We get out on the street. One of the shells flew into the roof, right above the entrance to the basement. Another one - from the end of the building, one slightly flew over and exploded next to the temple across the road. In the garden - a familiar picture: broken glass mixed with brick chips and concrete dust. It can be seen that the building was targeted, but why is a mystery.
According to preliminary data, there were no casualties as a result of the shelling. Local authorities have organized their notification system through chats in instant messengers. Through them, they announced the evacuation for those who wished, appointing a collection point in the center of the village. For the removal of people, we are giving away an armored car, which the regional administration allocated for a KP.RU journalist to travel along the border. In armor, people are taken to the outskirts of the village, where they are transferred to a bus and sent to Shebekino, where they are distributed to boarding houses and hotels.
In Telegram, meanwhile, there is indignation: why is there no “answer” for Moore. Beneath us, standing on a hill, several of our attack helicopters pass at low level along the beam. On approaching the border, they sharply turn their noses up and send missiles in the direction of the enemy with black strokes across the gray sky. A few seconds later, explosions are heard on the other side of the front, which is now along the border of the Belgorod and Kharkov regions.
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Posted by badanov 2022-10-24 00:00||
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