In Zaporizhia, the battle was only a few dozen kilometers away. Photo by AFP
“For two months, we lived under work. We have suffered, suffered and suffered “. Like Igor Kydryavtsev, a dozen Ukrainians have told AFP of their lives in the southern part of the country controlled by Russian forces. Stories of abuse, theft, cooperation and resistance.
At 35 years old, this man in the family fled to Novotroyitske last week in the Kherson regionwith his wife and daughter. “If you say a word in Ukrainian and someone hears you and says it [a los rusos]They come to your house and kidnap you, “he said.” Some come back, others don’t. We can’t live like this. “
Igor Kydryavtsev stopped in Zaporizhia, an industrial city in the south still controlled by Ukraine. The battle was only a few dozen kilometers away, on this southern front where the Russians were gradually gaining ground, as was also happening in the east of the country.
Occasionally bombardments are heard from afar and last week, for the first time, a Russian rocket hit an apartment building, but Zaporizhia remains the gateway to a free Ukraine. Hundreds of people come here every day from the occupied territories: some just pass by; others stay.
Zaporizhia continues as a gateway to a free Ukraine. Photo by AFP
“The Reign of Terror”
This is the case of Natasha Borch, who, along with her two children aged two and six, left the Orijiv region, south of Zaporizhia. According to him, in Russian -controlled areas in the region, fear reigns.
“They were drunk all the time. They went through the streets smashing their flashlights in the windows and sometimes shooting,” he recalled.
Natasha Borch said hundreds of her acquaintances were suddenly imprisoned in her cellars, including “hands and feet tied” and the mother of one of his friends was “kidnapped”. “No one knows what happened to him,” he said.
The woman also describes systematic thefts. “They want money and cars. And if someone doesn’t want to give them their car, They shot him in the legs. “
Some of the interviewees asked the AFP to identify only by their names. They all refer to thefts committed by the Russians.
Some of the accusations are reminiscent of the testimonies of residents of the suburbs of kyiv, which were occupied by the Russians in March, but none of the interviewees mentioned executions like Bucha’s.
For most Ukrainians, the majority of abuses occur at checkpoints on the road. Photo by AFP
“Our life is quiet, work. And then They came and broke everything “, said Igor Kydryavtsev angrily. “They took your equipment, your cars. They took the grain from the farmers,” he said.
The land question is especially sensitive in Ukraine, an agricultural giant that exports around the world. In late April, the Zaporizhia prosecutor’s office accused Russian soldiers of stealing “61 tons of wheat” in the region.
Oleksii (pseudonym), a farmer who often came to Zaporizhia to sell his fruits and vegetables, recounted how the Russians robbed a large company in the region, which they take tons of cucumbers with the idea to resell them “in the Crimea”.
abuses
But for most Ukrainians, most abuses take place at checkpoints on the road.
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Source: Clarin
