The imposing building was gutted by a missile strike that killed 37 people on March 29, 2022. Residents gathered in silence on Wednesday in front of its ruins, which have become a symbol of Russian aggression.
For long minutes, Svetlana Uvarova did not move. She didn’t speak either. Wrapped in her pink down jacket, the lady in her sixties stares at the headquarters of the Mykolaiv regional administration, before kneeling down to lay yellow and blue flowers in front of the metal barriers that encircle the building. “How it is possible ?”, she wonders, still stunned. To mark this painful anniversary, flags were lowered in the region on Wednesday 29 March.
Facing her, a gaping abyss caused a year earlier by a Russian strike that killed 37 people. Among them, two friends of Svetlana. “Dmytro and Petro, those were their names. They were 41 and 42 years old. Dmytro had a one-and-a-half-year-old little girl, he had already been seriously injured in 2014 in eastern Ukraine. Look, these are them, there, in photo, she says on the huge banner hung there in tribute to the victims. I don’t think I will ever get over it. I repeat myself but… How is it possible?
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In front of what remains of the huge building, all passers-by know what they were doing, where they were, on March 29, at 8:45 a.m., when a missile ripped open the building, in a chaos of debris and smoke. “I had just woken up, remembers Marianna. Our house is not far. I heard a thud that got closer and closer. How do I feel a year later? Evil. That’s it, bad. It’s a horror that has descended on our city.”
Timofeï, 12, also remembers: “That’s where we used to come to play sometimes.” A lady, shopping bag in hand, takes pictures of the 37 candles, before leaving with red eyes. She meets Elena, who came with her two children. “It’s the first time they’ve come to see the place”blows the mother of the family, black cap screwed on the eyebrows. Until then, I wasn’t sure if I should take them. But I think it’s important that they actually see what happened. Because it can start again. It’s sad, but now that’s also the story of our city.”
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At the time, rescuers tried for five days to find survivors in this city in southern Ukraine, harassed by the bombings. Employees of the administration, the regional council, the commercial court… “I ask everyone to remember those who died doing their duty”commented (in Ukrainian) Governor Vitaliy Kim. If he’s still alive, it’s thanks to a wake-up failure. The office he occupied was completely destroyed during the attack.
“The presence of civilians and the very nature of the government building (…) mean that this place could not be considered a military target”considers the NGO Truth Hounds, in an investigation report (in English) published last summer. The central part of the building is totally destroyed on ten floors. “No Trespassing”, is it written on the barriers that surround the access to the building, for security reasons. It will also be impossible to rebuild the premises, doomed to demolition.
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“It’s like telling my friends Dmytro and Petro that I haven’t forgotten them”
School, hotel, barracks, residential building… The regional administration is far from being an isolated case. Many buildings in the city are now in ruins, while others have had better luck. The whole city is traumatized by the war, thirteen months after the start of the Russian aggression. A bit everywhere in the streets, displays pay tribute to the Ukrainian fighters engaged on the front. “Mykolaiv, land of heroes”proclaim large white letters on the central boulevard.
The regional capital had 500,000 inhabitants before the war. Last year, a large part of the population preferred to flee after months of bombing. Today, no one really knows how many have returned. Around Kashtanov Park, a central point of the city, aerial alerts no longer trigger any reaction from passers-by. Svetlana Uvarova has already planned to return to the scene soon. “As if to tell my friends Dmytro and Petro that I haven’t forgotten them.” And remember that she escaped the worst: three days before the regional administration of Mykolaiv, it was her house that was bombed.