2023-08-11 23:31:00
Zaporizhia After a muggy day with heavy rain showers, people enjoy the balmy summer evening outdoors. When the air raid alarm sounds in Zaporizhia, nobody reacts. He’s routine. A few seconds later, however, there is a loud bang behind the houses. Car alarms go off, people pull out their cell phones: a Russian air raid hit the nearby city center on Thursday evening.
Two Iskander cruise missiles fell right next to the “Reikartz” hotel on the Dnipro bank, popular with foreign journalists and aid organizations. They left two deep craters, their fragments hit passers-by, punctured the hotel facade and almost a dozen cars. The cruise missiles killed A woman was injured and 16 people injured after a summer camp for children had ended on the site just an hour earlier.
Russia’s rocket terror is for the Ukrainians too almost a year and a half after the beginning of the war sad everyday life. The hope that Moscow could eventually run out of cruise missiles and rockets has not been fulfilled. On the contrary, the attacks have again been particularly intense in recent weeks; Russia also used four Kinzhal hypersonic missiles on Friday, only the one over Kiev was shot down.
What is new, however, is that the Russians are now regularly targeting those hotels relatively close to the front that are heavily frequented by foreigners. The “Reikartz” in Zaporizhia was the second within a very short time. Last weekend, a missile destroyed the Druzhba in the small town of Pokrovsk in the Donbass, along with a popular restaurant. The attack on the busy district claimed at least nine lives.
The claim by Russia’s propaganda that such missile attacks are targeting command posts of the Ukrainian armed forces and foreign “mercenaries” is absurd. Of course, soldiers sometimes spend the night in these places, but there can be no question of a military establishment.
Rather, in Pokrovsk, for example, there are simply only a few places where foreigners can find accommodation. The relatively inexpensive hotels of the “Reikartz” chain stand out from the rest due to their easy accessibility on arterial roads and their Western European comfort.
base of the UN
It is now part of the logic of the international media world that attacks like those on Thursday receive far more attention than those that are “only” aimed at Ukrainian civilians. However, Russia is aiming directly at the work of international aid organizations. These make a significant contribution to ensuring the survival of that part of the population that has been hit hardest by the war.
The UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid in Ukraine expressed outrage at “the unimaginable scale of attacks against civilian infrastructure in violation of international law,” including those in Zaporizhia. According to Denise Brown, the “Reikartz” was the base of operations for her team in the region. From here, for example, the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol was coordinated.
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However, Russia’s most recent attacks are also aimed at press freedom, as they make it significantly more difficult for foreign media to report. Many media houses already have extremely restrictive rules for their journalists, as they do not want to take responsibility for a risk that is difficult to calculate. Since February 2022 laut dem Committee to Protect Journalists 17 media workers killed, including seven from Western Europe and the United States.
A weakened Western civilian presence may well be in line with Russian propaganda, which aims to spread disinformation and fuel suspicion. This is easier to do when only Ukrainian sources are available, which are by nature partisan. In the Kremlin’s cynical logic, less humanitarian aid from abroad means more pressure on the Ukrainian government to end the war.
car wrecks and debris
It is remarkable how indifferent Ukrainians are to Russia’s terror. One day after the attack, the scene of the impact still looks devastated. But the pieces of the torn fence have already been cleared aside, the branches of the uprooted trees neatly stacked. A tow truck takes care of the wrecked cars under the supervision of the police.
Onlookers have gathered next to the cordoned-off hotel grounds. Two elderly gentlemen philosophize about different types of rockets, while four teenagers marvel at the size of the craters. Some men have climbed in and are collecting debris from the Iskander. “There are supposed to be collectors who are looking for something like that,” says one. Otherwise he sells the scrap metal for the equivalent of one franc per kilo. Then the air alarm sounds again. This time there is no bang.
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