Bombs were raining all around. But Arif Bagirov stayed the course. While Severodonetsk was on fire and blood, the 45-year-old Ukrainian got on his bike at the end of May to pedal to Bakhmout, a city in Donbass under Ukrainian control located about sixty kilometers away. “I am one of those who stayed the longest, but it had become untenable, supports the man at the To have to. I left a dead town. »
Bombarded relentlessly by the Russian army, the city of Severodonetsk is the largest town still in the hands of the Ukrainian army in the region of Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine.
Less than 10% of the approximately 110,000 inhabitants of the city are still there, according to the authorities. “But you don’t see anyone in the streets. They are all hidden, continues Arif Bagirov. The city is not completely razed, but all the critical infrastructures — electricity, Internet connection, water — are inoperative. When houses are hit by Russian bombardments and burn, no rescuers intervene to put out the fires. »
From the beginning of the war to the end of May, Arif Bagirov worked as a volunteer helping elderly people who had remained in Severodonetsk. “The city was not militarized. We weren’t threatening anyone, he says indignantly from kyiv, where he has found refuge. This is not a “special military operation” [comme le dit Poutine] when you destroy a city like Severodonetsk, it’s an aggressive act of war. »
Russian shelling intensified further on Monday on Severodonetsk, where an artillery duel coupled with intense street fighting took place, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Sergiï Gaïdaï. Governor Gaïdaï in the same breath accused the Russians of “destroying everything with their usual scorched-earth tactics” so that “there is nothing left to defend”.
Brave the bombardments
Daryna Safryhina, who worked as a volunteer in the Donbass from Lysytchansk — the neighboring town of Severodonetsk, also targeted by intense Russian bombing — also left the Luhansk region a few weeks ago to settle temporarily in Bakhmout, in the Donetsk region.
” We continue [notre travail humanitaire] by distributing medicine, water and bread in the villages of Donbass which did not fall under the Russian yoke, says the one whom The duty interviewed a few times since the start of the war. Here in Bakhmout, it’s a bit safer. If the Russians surround the area to cut off the supply routes, it will be a little easier for us to evacuate. [que si nous étions restés à Lyssytchansk]. »
The team of six volunteers of which she is a part moved into a house left vacant by a friend who left the country with his family. “We host 17 people in the house, in addition to our team. On some days when the roads are too dangerous, the volunteer group is confined to their headquarters. “It’s never safe [d’aller de village en village]. But there are days when it’s downright impossible. »
As soon as the situation allows it, Daryna Safryhina puts on her helmet and her bulletproof vest to bring help and comfort to the Ukrainians who remained in the Donbass. “On those days, we tell ourselves that we were able to bring concrete benefits. »
But once in a while, the 28-year-old sees Ukrainians welcoming Russians with open arms. A situation that leaves her speechless. “In Severodonetsk, there are some who almost kissed the Russians saying to them: ‘The Ukrainian army is bombing us, you are our heroes, we were waiting for you!’ It makes me crazy. »
The “most powerful” Russians
In Kyiv on Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were “holding their ground” in Severodonetsk, but the Russians were “outnumbered and stronger” there. The Ukrainian president agreed that the situation was “difficult” on the eastern front. A reality that makes Daryna Safryhina fear that “Ukraine will lose part of its territory for good”.
Faced with uncertainty about the future of Donbass, Maksym Trunov, a businessman whose business was established in Lysytchansk before the war, made the decision not to return to his home in Donbass. His wife and 8-year-old daughter have already left Ukraine to settle in Canada, in Edmonton. Reassigned to kyiv since the start of the war, Maksym Trunov is only waiting for the lifting of the ban on leaving the country imposed on men to take a one-way ticket to Canada with his 18 and 20-year-old sons.
“We lived through a war [en 2014]then a second war [cette année]. I don’t want to experience a third, he said in an interview with the To have to. I want to live in a peaceful country. Even my 74-year-old father, who will not be coming to Canada with us, recommended that we leave. »
To negotiate ?
Faced with the extent of the destruction and the extremely high human cost of the war in the Donbass, shouldn’t Ukraine seek to find common ground with Russia regarding the political future of the region? Absolutely not, replies bluntly in an interview with Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko. “If Ukraine cedes this territory, the peace will not last,” she stresses. There are going to be more wars and wars, because authoritarian and terrorist rulers never stop. If we try to appease them, they take that as a sign of encouragement to continue and take even more territory. »
In 2014, during the first Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia annexed Crimea and occupied the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk. Eight years later, in 2022, the Russian army once again crossed the Ukrainian border, seeking to claim even more territory, she recalls.
“If Ukraine loses the Donbass or any other territory, the whole world will lose the chance to have lasting peace,” says MP Vasylenko. The government cannot abandon Ukrainians who want to live in an independent and democratic Ukraine and leave them in the hands of a totalitarian regime. We are currently fighting for the right of every Ukrainian to live in Ukraine. »
With Agence France-Presse