Some arrive in dribs and drabs and have traveled with fear in their stomachs from the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Andreï, in his forties, cracks: “It was terrifying! There were Russian secret services at the checkpoint. I’ve already been arrested and interrogated three times, but thank God I’m finally on free land.”
Like him, many inhabitants of the Ukrainian territories under the control of Moscow fled even before the verdict of the referendum organized in four regions of Ukraine by the pro-Russian authorities fell. Pro-Russian authorities in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk regions unsurprisingly claimed a “yes” victory in favor of Russian annexation in Moscow’s annexation “referendums” on Tuesday September 27, 2022. The next step is for the Russian Parliament, which is expected to vote in the coming days on a treaty formalizing the integration of the four regions into Russian territory.
>> REPORT. War in Ukraine: in Berdiansk, the daily life of Ukrainians under Russian occupation
For all these displaced Ukrainians, history is repeating itself, as in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. “I have family in Crimea, I’ve been through this before, shares Alexander, originally from the city of Enerhodar. Since it was annexed, we can no longer visit them”he regrets. And so many questions that arise: this time, what will happen? Will the thousands of displaced people be allowed to return home? All helplessly watch this new coup by the Kremlin, synonymous with the partition of Ukraine.
Svetlana does not hide her pessimism: “Everything will change, nothing good will come of it. They will set up a border, and I don’t want to live in territory controlled by the Russian Federation.” Oleg traveled with his brother. They are not 30 years old but managed to cross the Russian roadblocks, unlike many young people their age. “When the Ukrainian soldiers saw us, they couldn’t believe it, he says. They said to us: but how did you do it? And we answered: we don’t know! We can’t believe it either!”
“I dare not imagine what would have happened if we had stayed there. They would have probably given us Russian passports and then conscripted them to dig trenches or serve as cannon fodder.”
Oleg, displaced Ukrainianat franceinfo
There are also those women forced to travel alone with their children. This is the case with Irina, whose husband chose another option. “The Russians didn’t let him pass the first time. So we left without him. He’s trying to reach Europe via Moscow, the Baltic States and then Poland. The idea is to ending up here, in Ukraine. It’s hard, but we had no choice…”, explains the mother.
Many have taken up the cause of their homeland, like Ludmila, a resident of the occupied city of Berdiansk, and are no longer welcome in their city. She refused to collaborate with the new pro-Russian administration. “One day I received a phone call the number was unknown. The voice on the line told me that I would not see Berdyansk again, that I had left the city and that it was out of the question that I set foot there again, that Berdiansk was Russian. It’s a nightmare, because my parents stayed there”, whispers Ludmila. Like her, these displaced cling to a hope that the Ukrainian army will continue its reconquest of the occupied territories.