A life spent under the bombs. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February, the city of Orikhiv, in the south-east of the country, has become the scene of relentless shelling, with the front line only a few kilometers away.
Located in the Zaporizhia Oblast, on the road that connects the nuclear power plant of the same name with the city of Mariupol and the Sea of Azov, Orikhiv has been gradually emptying of its occupants, going from 15,000 inhabitants before the conflict to only 5,000 in the present. , mostly men.
“We are afraid, but we are used to it”
In front of the BFMTV camera, one of the few women still present in Orikhiv shows what her daily life is like. As she walks down the street with her son in a stroller, several loud bangs are heard in the distance.
“Yes, we are afraid, but we are used to it. We know how to hide, how to duck. We rarely go out, it’s terrible here,” she says.
Minutes later, it was Valéry, in his fifties, who insisted on showing a shell that had landed directly on his garden. “I came yesterday [jeudi, NDLR]there were bombings, the tree fell”, he explains, interrupted by new explosions. “It’s a Russian bombing, we have to leave.”
This situation is not new in Orikhiv, where violence is daily. Last April, BFMTV had already visited the place, a few weeks after the beginning of the Russian invasion, and violent bombardments had already taken place. “It bombed so hard that there was a lot of smoke and we couldn’t tell the difference between heaven and earth anymore,” Vasyl explained.
without water or light
As in several other towns, the water and electricity are cut off, and the Ukrainian authorities have requested the total evacuation of the city. An exit made difficult by the permanent presence of the Russian army, assures our antenna the mayor of Orikhiv, Anatoliy Hvorostianov.
“While we work on the evacuation plan, we realize that we don’t even know which meeting point to choose, because there is no place free from bombing,” he laments.
However, some residents refuse to leave and adjust to this new daily life. In the main square of the town, several inhabitants wear war gear, including bulletproof vests, to simply do their shopping.
“When we are out, we put on the vest and the helmet too. We try to protect ourselves to survive”, explains one of them.
Since the start of the conflict, Ukrainian authorities estimate that two-thirds of the city’s buildings have been hit by Russian attacks. On the other hand, no communication was made about the number of victims in Orikhiv.
Source: BFM TV
