Five days after the start of the offensive, Vladimir Putin’s Russia, hit by Western economic sanctions on an unprecedented scale, is facing strong resistance from the Ukrainian army and many citizens. Manufacture of equipment for the army, citizens’ brigades, confrontations through the media: this resistance takes on different faces.
Distribution of weapons and trenches
In Kyiv, “the principal objective” Russian troops according to the Ukrainian Defense, a message in Russian now scrolls on the billboards: “Russian soldiers, fuck you!” “Do not become assassins”. “Go home !”. The inhabitants, who were able to recover weapons, bulletproof vests and ammunition in police stations, erected trenches and barricades, hoping to halt the advance of Russian tanks. Yesterday teacher, engineer, mason or even bank employee, like Viktor Rudnichenko, met by AFP, they say they are ready to “welcome the Russians” “with Molotov cocktails”. In just four days, the inhabitants of the capital have acquired war zone reflexes, testifies Stéphane Siohan, correspondent for several French media, on his Twitter account.
Solidarity
This is also the case in Okhtyrka, a town of nearly 50,000 inhabitants located about a hundred kilometers from Kharkiv (north-east), where Natalia lives. In the night from Sunday to Monday, “more than 10 houses were burned and about the same number of apartment buildings hit by missiles”, she says.
Intense fighting took place again on Monday in the country’s second city and its surroundings. “Our soldiers defended the city but we learned that the Russians had surrounded it”. Despite “artillery fire, Okhtyrka was not taken” she affirms, praising the courage of the Ukrainian soldiers but also of the civilians of the “territorial defense” made up of volunteers, “who organized themselves to protect their city and repel the Russians with anything they can get their hands on.”
“People working in public services, volunteers, doctors and all civilians: together we are a great force”, wants to believe the forties. “A force that has been resisting for five days even if, unfortunately, we deplore 68 wounded and 28 killed”.
Together we are a great force – Natalia (Okhtyrka)
This Ukrainian, who says she has not slept for three days, also describes solidarity, spontaneous: “I constantly keep in touch with the doctors, I try to organize the supply of medicines and food, to raise funds, to stock up on bread, yeast, food, clothes. Fortifications have been erected with sandbags. Those who can bring bread to hospitals and bomb shelters, for free, and at the risk of their lives.”
Legion of Foreign Fighters
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Ukrainian presidency announced that it had started to form a legion of foreign fighters to help him repel the Russian forces. “All foreigners wishing to join the resistance to the Russian occupiers and to protect world security are invited by the Ukrainian authorities to join the defense forces”Ukraine said, noting that a special unit will be formed under the name of “International Legion”. The volunteers are called upon to visit the Ukrainian embassies in their countries.
President Volodymyr Zelensky had already called on Europeans with combat experience on Friday to travel to Ukraine to fight the Russian army. A call heard by Essacq Baloutch who lives in Auxonne, in Côte-d’Or. Franco-Afghan aged 73, he claims to have recruited around thirty volunteers ready to swell the ranks of the Ukrainian resistance, while the French authorities “formally advise against” going to the field of war.
media war
War is also media. Russia’s media regulator on Saturday ordered national media to remove from their content any reference to civilians killed by the Russian military in Ukraine as well as the terms “invasion”, “offensive” or “declaration of war”. But images of bombings causing casualties among civilians and others where we see the population resisting Russian soldiers are massively relayed via social networks in particular.
While Moscow, which admitted for the first time on Sunday that it had identified “dead” and “wounded” since the beginning of its military offensive, refuses to provide figures on its losses, the Ukrainian authorities launched a website for relatives of killed Russian soldiers. Called “200rf.com”, in reference to the code used for soldiers killed in action, it displays photos of passports or military documents belonging to Russian soldiers presumed killed since the invasion. There are also videos of Russian soldiers allegedly taken prisoner, as well as their name and city of origin for some of them.
According to Kiev, the Ukrainian army killed more than 4,300 Russian soldiers and took nearly 200 prisoners. Ukraine also reported some 200 civilians, including sixteen children, and dozens of soldiers killed since Thursday. For its part, the UN said on Monday that it recorded 102 civilians killed, including 7 children, and 304 injured, but warned that the real figures “are considerably” higher. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 500,000 people have left Ukraine to take refuge in several neighboring countries.