(Berdiansk) A Russian military plane passes in the sky of Berdiansk, a city in southeastern Ukraine, but no frightened gaze rises to scrutinize it. “Don’t worry,” smiled an elderly woman sitting on a bench. “He’s one of us.”
Posted at 6:21 p.m.
Moscow forces took control of this important port city on the Sea of Azov, the largest after Mariupol, in the early days of their offensive. Almost without encountering any resistance.
AFP had rare access to Berdiansk, as well as to Melitopol, a town just over 100 km to the west and also conquered at the start of the offensive, as part of a trip organized by the Russian army.
For Russia, these two cities are of strategic importance, because, with Mariupol further east, they allow it to ensure territorial continuity towards Crimea annexed since 2014.
Pro-Moscow administrations have been set up there, tasked with bringing back some semblance of normality while waiting for their fate to be decided, which should involve subordination in one form or another to Russia.
“We are in a phase of transition between Ukraine and Russia,” explains the head of the new administration in Berdiansk, Alexander Saulenko. “We see our future with Russia.”
The new administration has already decided to pay civil servants’ salaries and pensions in rubles, the Russian currency, instead of the Ukrainian hryvnia.
“The city’s budget does not allow us to ensure all the payments”, so “we will turn to Russia for help”, indicates Mr. Saulenko.
“The city is divided”
In Melitopol, a communist banner flies above Victory Square, replacing the Ukrainian flag. The sound system of a Russian military truck spits Soviet patriotic songs.
In these two cities, AFP found no trace of combat or destruction. Mariupol and its cortege of horrors are only 70 km east of Berdyansk, but the conflict seems far away.
“All the troops left the city” before the arrival of the Russian forces, indicates to Berdiansk Svetlana Klimova, ex-employee of a service station of 38 years. “If they had stayed, then it would have been like in Mariupol.”
Like her, several residents met by AFP say they are relieved to have escaped the fate of the besieged city. But are they happy to see Moscow reign here?
“When I learned (the arrival of the Russians), I had tears in my eyes, I was so happy,” says Valéry Berdnik, a 72-year-old former longshoreman with a big gray mustache.
As armed Russian soldiers patrol the perimeter and sometimes listen in on interviews, it is difficult to voice opposition.
But, a sign that not everyone shares Mr. Berdnik’s enthusiasm, Berdiansk, which had more than 100,000 inhabitants before the arrival of the Russians, only has “between 60,000 and 70,000 an hour”. current situation”, indicates the new mayor.
In Melitopol, “the city is divided,” says cautiously Elena, a 38-year-old teacher with big sunglasses on her nose and a cross-shaped earring. “There are those who are happy and those who criticize the situation.”
Several demonstrations against the Russian presence took place last month in Melitopol, whose elected mayor was kidnapped before being exchanged for Russian prisoners, but they have ceased, said another resident.
Ice rink and weddings
Berdiansk also hosts a few thousand survivors of Mariupol, such as Olga Tchernenko, 50, housed in a former colony center for communist youth.
Still traumatized by the siege of Mariupol, which she managed to flee at the end of March, she hopes to “return home by the fall”. She would have preferred her city to “surrender without a fight” like Berdiansk, to “preserve lives”.
In the common room, the only television broadcasts a Russian news channel continuously.
If calm seems to reign, the many closed businesses and the queues in front of the banks in Berdiansk remind us that the situation is not normal.
“There is no cash, the distributors do not work”, laments Mme Klimova, who hopes that “Russia will help by paying social assistance and pensions”.
For the new authorities, the priority is therefore to restore as much normalcy as possible to win the support of the population.
In Melitopol, the pro-Russian town hall reopened an ice rink that day with great fanfare. A dozen people make circles on the ice, then vanish once the cameras are off.
In Berdiansk, at the wedding palace on which the Russian flag flies, these are unions that are celebrated, the first for more than a month.
One, then two loud bangs: firecrackers explode throwing confetti on the smiling newlyweds. Again, no panicked reaction.