(Velyka Pyssarivka) Lost among the ruins, Svitlana Zavaly desperately searches for what can still be salvaged from the rubble of her house, razed by a Russian bomb, in northeastern Ukraine.
“We have nothing left! “, blurted out on the verge of tears, short of breath, this 67-year-old resident of the village of Velyka Pyssarivka, five kilometers from the Russian border, south of Sumy, the capital of the Ukrainian region of the same name.
For around ten days from mid-March, Russian aerial bombs, shells and rockets fell on this locality and other Ukrainian border villages, following incursions into Russian territory by allied Russian fighters. in Kyiv.
“We had everything. And in an instant, it happened. It’s good that we left here two days before,” says Svitlana Zavaly, an oversized raincoat on her back, her hair tied with a white scarf and orange gardening gloves on her hands.
She and her husband came back here for the day. They are living temporarily in Okhtyrka, a town about 40 kilometers west of Velyka Pyssarivka where they were evacuated like many other residents of the bombed areas.
On March 17, a neighbor who remained in the village called her on the phone at 4 a.m.
““Svitlana, hello…” I said: “Vania, don’t tell me anything. Everything is clear”. And he said that the bomb had hit the house precisely. This is how it happened. And we became homeless,” says the sixty-year-old, her eyes red.
200 bombs
In Velyka Pyssarivka, the buildings in the center were almost all destroyed. Houses were also bombed in neighborhoods closer to the border, according to Oleksiï Bryl, the deputy head of the local police.
For ten days, “there were constant explosions. Today, the situation has stabilized, the bombings have decreased in intensity, he explains to AFP, during a visit to the village, which had 4,000 souls before the war.
The fighting began on March 12. That day, Russia claimed to have repelled multiple attacks from Ukraine on two Russian border regions.
Near Velyka Pyssarivka, the incursions were carried out into the Russian zone of Kozinka by the “Russian Volunteer Corps” and the “Siberian Battalion”. Further north, the infiltrations were carried out by the “Freedom of Russia Legion” in the Russian village of Tiotkino.
A fighter from one of these units declared to AFP on March 12 that the attacks had been timed for the Russian presidential election (March 15-17) in order to “express with arms in hand what we think of this regime.” “.
The clashes lasted a few days, then the incursions stopped.
For two weeks, in Velyka Pyssarivka and nearby villages alone, nearly 567 strikes were recorded, including nearly 200 carried out with powerful and destructive guided aerial bombs, according to a report given Tuesday by regional authorities. Six people were killed and 12 injured.
“We left on the 14th, Thursday… from hell. We were bombed, planes were flying,” says Valentina, 67, who does not wish to give her name. She was evacuated to Okhtyrka.
For Oleksiï Moroz, 38, who also went with his family to Okhtyrka, “we understood that as soon as the battalion (Freedom of Russia Legion) entered (Kozinka on Russian territory), there would be a boomerang effect”, with d major Russian bombings.
“Stupid idea”
“On the 13th, the air attacks began. The night of the 13th to the 14th (the enemy forces) struck continuously and, on the morning of the 14th, we left by evacuation bus under intense bombardment (…). “It was no longer possible to stay there” with their two young children, confides his wife Yulia Drokina, 33 years old.
Asked about the reason, according to them, for the incursions carried out by fighters allied to Kyiv, several villagers told AFP of a rumor according to which Russian troops had been amassed at the border and were preparing to enter the territory. Ukrainian.
“We were afraid that if the (Russian anti-Kremlin) battalion did not intervene, we might be under occupation. And being busy is scarier than being under bombardment,” says Yulia Drokina.
With a cigarette in his lips, sitting in front of his house in the sun in his wheelchair, a 69-year-old resident of the village, with a leg amputated, has not left the place.
For him, the incursions were “a stupid idea”.
“We have fewer people than them (the Russians) and less equipment (…). And they detect you immediately with a drone,” says the man, who wishes to remain anonymous.
reference: www.lapresse.ca