On leaving Bakhmut, in Ukraine, in the Donbass where the fighting is raging, Svieta drags a fifty-litre can of water with the help of a wheeled cart. The can must weigh as much as her. She has just traveled four kilometers to find a drinking water point.
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“In our village we have neither water nor electricity, nor gas, and have been for a month, she indicates. We are tired of it all. We have tears in our eyes every day because we are afraid. It’s dangerous to stay at home but we can’t leave either because we have a paralyzed grandmother at home.”
“Our only message: we want peace, we want to live as before, not to miss anything and find work.”
A few kilometers away, the city of Sievierodonetsk and its twin city of Lyssytchansk have been suffering the deluge of Russian fires for several days. Moscow has proposed the establishment of corridors for civilians.
In Bakhmut, peace seems a long way off and the exchanges of artillery fire are causing new victims every day among the civilians who have remained there. “The shots are getting stronger and stronger”, testifies Natalia. The Ukrainian gunners are positioned in the city and the inhabitants find it difficult to accept this. “Fighting in cities should not exist: if the Russians are shooting at us it is because the Ukrainian soldiers are positioned here, in the city”continues Natalia.
“It is above all the civilians who are affected: this is not normal, this is not how we should wage war. Here we are massacring the people. The Ukrainian army must understand that!”
“When the fighting is going on in the city, sighs, desperate, Natalia, our houses are affected, the elderly and children are killed and we cannot go anywhere… In this situation, we no longer understand who we should fear. You don’t know where the bullets come from. It’s not written on it. And that is terrible. There are Ukrainian military vehicles 200 or 300 meters away and it’s banging non-stop!”
Natalia and her husband Vladimir are angry. A repressed anger that is censored, because it is difficult to take a stand against one’s own camp. “We are even afraid to express ourselves, Natalia laments. If someone finds out about it, it could be a problem. I could say more but it’s dangerous to say one word too much.” Natalia and Vladimir had the courage to testify. Many in Bakhmut prefer to remain silent. The fear of the word too much, no doubt.
In Ukraine, the anger of the inhabitants of Bakhmut: the report by Boris Loumagne and Eric Audra
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