While the fighting rages in Bakhmout, Dombass, Ukraine, in the small town of Chassiv Yar, not far from the front, life goes on, precarious, come what may, despite the risks.
In Bakhmout, in the Donbass, the battle is bitter and the artillery fire is incessant. Few civilians remained. And yet, in the small neighboring town of Chassiv Yar, there are still rare places to rest. This is the case of Svetlana’s grocery store, which is determined to continue working despite the increasing risks every day.
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There, the television is on, the sound is at full blast, and yet the manager of the grocery store no longer watches it. “When we listen to what they say on television, everything is fine. But I can see the state of the soldiers when they come back, Svetlana sighs. It is not the same. Television embellishes things, we are not shown the whole truth.”
Customers are basically exhausted soldiers
The war is at the doors of his shop and Chassiv Yar is now a garrison town. The usual clientele has been replaced by soldiers exhausted from weeks of heavy fighting. “Here, there are only grannies left, there are not many civilians left and the soldiers returning from the front, they are hungry, they are cold…, describes Svetlana. How could I let these guys down? When the strikes are powerful, I am of course scared! A week ago, the roof of my house was hit by a bombardment. And if it escalates, I will be forced to close the grocery store and move elsewhere.”
However, there are still a few civilians: like Svetlana, Luba also learned French at school and since the start of the war, she has come every morning to buy bread. It doesn’t matter who won the Battle of Bakhmout. In any case, she does not intend to abandon her house. “I want to stay at home, she hammers. It’s nothing serious, we’ll survive. I want to sleep in my bed, keep breathing the air here, I’ve been here for 72 years. For me, the most important thing is that they don’t kill me and that there is no more fighting…”
“Nothing is going to change. We will continue to do as usual. I want us to pay my retirement, eat, work in my vegetable garden, buy a little pig, chickens and live quietly…”
Ten days ago, the Ukrainian army offered to evacuate him, for the fifth time. Again, she refused. “I want to stay at home, she lets go. For me, the most important thing is that they don’t kill me and that there is no more fighting…”
The report of Thibault Lefèvre in Tchassiv Yar
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