In this small Ukrainian village, like there are dozens in the region of Izium, the inhabitants experienced the occupation of the Russians for five months. As soon as they arrived, the soldiers from Moscow began to hunt down anyone who had any connection with the kyiv government or the Ukrainian army.
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This was without counting the Ukrainian troops on the offensive on all fronts since the beginning of September and who have already taken over most of the Kharkiv region, in the northeast, and important logistical nodes such as Koupiansk, Lyman and Izioum. Here, the Russians were driven out of the village on September 24 and since then, tongues have been loosened.
“There were two cars driving around the city constantly, one red and one white, says Marina, who is now enjoying her newfound freedom. People were very afraid of it because it was used for arrests. And then, there were these cries that we heard in the distance…”
Cries coming from the headquarters of the Russian army, installed in the center of the village, and which tear the nights of the inhabitants. This is where Viktor, a former member of the Ukrainian army’s anti-terrorist unit, was taken one morning to one of the basement rooms with five other people.
“We were tied up and they beat us morning, noon and night. It was someone who denounced me: I was betrayed.”
Viktor spent five days and five nights in this basement before being sent to dig trenches for the Russian army, who finally released him in the middle of summer.
Dozens of men were thus arrested, beaten, sometimes even tortured, but the resistance against the occupier never weakened. Dmytro, in his fifties, is proud of what he has done. “Whenever I could, I acted, he indicates. I have my nephew in the army, so at first I called him regularly to give Russian positions. Afterwards, there was no longer any network. but I continued: for example, I put wool in the tanks of Russian vehicles to prevent them from starting.”
“I stole over 200 pairs of boots from them and got my hands on several boxes of food rations. I was a resistance network of my own!”
The village is now liberated, but the joy of its inhabitants will only be complete when the Ukrainian army has chased Russian soldiers from all the occupied territories.
Freed Ukrainians recount their acts of resistance against the Russian army. Report in the Izioum region by Omar Ouahmane and Jérémy Tuil
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