The testimonies of those who arrived in Zaporizhzhia: There were 5 buses, but 2 did not leave because there were few people: many did not know about the buses: the phones do not work
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ZAPORIZHZHIA – Formidable these Ukrainians who come out of 56 days of Russian siege in Mariupol! At 4.30 pm, here at the reception center in Zaporizhzhia, they get off three humped and muddy yellow buses that have become somewhat the emblem of their country flooded with refugees fleeing the bombs. They lived in the cellars, drank rainwater, ate stale bread and semi-raw rice, occasionally helped by some Russian soldier pitying the presence of children with them in the shelters. The children saved us, suggests a young mother. But many have buried children and parents killed by the war in hastily dug pits at the front door. They are dirty, exhausted, torn, they come from a journey of well over 24 hours, which every minute could be tragically interrupted by the whim of a Chechen soldier: yet they never stop repeating that the Ukrainian resistance will win. the heroes of the Azov battalion are all of us and represent the nightmare of the Russian soldiers. They are keen to emphasize this to us journalists, without even being asked: Don’t believe Putin’s lies, we will return to our homes as free men with our flag!.
Few at the start
All propaganda? Talking to them does not seem. Instead, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister, Irina Vereschuk, is promoting propaganda, who, receiving them in front of the tent where a first hot meal awaits them, never misses the opportunity to speak to the press and accuse Russia of violating international laws and blocking the escape of civilians. In fact, until a few hours ago it was about the possible departure of about 6,000 people on a hundred buses between Moscow and Kiev. But here we have only 79 in all, most of them elderly. In Mariupol there were 5 buses, but 2 are not served, there were too few people waiting for them, the refugees say.
Crematoriums
Vereschuk still accused until a few days ago Putin to send mobile cremation ovens to hide the massacre of civilians and the bodies of Russian soldiers who died fighting in the streets of Mariupol.
We have the opportunity to speak to about twenty refugees and all of them clearly deny having ever seen or heard of crematoria. I buried our 37-year-old son Aleksei with my own hands. He slowly bled out, after shrapnel from a grenade hit him in the head and back. He could have been saved, but in Mariupol there are no more rescue posts and we could not leave our cellar, he says among the many 62-year-old Alexander who tries to console his wife Vera, who cries repeating that their son could not. take away.
Cut out, isolated
Both, as well as the others, explain why the main cause of the failed humanitarian corridor is due to the lack of communication. There are no working telephone lines in Mariupol and there has been no electricity for weeks and weeks. Nobody knows anything, the news always arrives late and with enormous difficulties among the remaining population. When there are short truces in the bombings, those who still have a working cell phone go to an area of the old open-air market, where every now and then a faint signal arrives to send short messages. In truth, hardly anyone knew of the possibility of escaping by busI was aware of this from the fact that I had heard it the other morning at a rare moment when I was able to get our old home transistor to work, says Sherban Nikolaievich.
Fights in progress
Everyone categorically denies that the city is now firmly in the hands of Russian troops. It is still fighting. As we reached the bus yesterday morning we heard loud explosions coming from the Azovstal area. The impression that the Russians are unable to conquer it, not even by resorting to aerial bombardments and helicopters, explain among others the fifteen-year-old Andrey Stepanovich together with his 65-year-old father Vladimir. He strikes the fervor with which they describe the fighting spirit of the volunteer battalion, which was once the militant expression of the Ukrainian nationalist right, but has now become the symbol of the will to resist. THE Russian soldiers are afraid of the Azov partisans. They call them ghosts, because they never manage to identify them and in order to catch them they are ready to shoot zero point with tanks on the houses, only to accuse the Ukrainians of destroying the city.
Urban warfare
In truth, the techniques of urban warfare honed by those of Azov are now perfect: they strike and disappear, taking away the weapons and ammunition captured from the Russians. But the worst are the Chechens, who take their revenge on civilians every time they suffer losses, even the young recruits of the battalions west of the Urals are afraid of them, they say, not hiding their admiration. By now all fighting Ukrainians have no internal differencesthere are no more Marines or volunteers, they are all called Azov, they add.
April 21, 2022 (change April 21, 2022 | 23:26)
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