(Kotliareve) The explosions of Ukrainian strikes flying over his head to target the Russians in their southern stronghold of Kherson, just up the road, give Oleksandre Prikhodko reason for hope.
Posted at 8:21 a.m.
The 42-year-old man of boundless energy stands in the soot-covered ruins of the family store he built with his own hands, on the edge of land that Russia has suddenly appropriated.
Russian forces shattered a life’s work in their second attempt in July to take the nearby river port of Mykolaiv (southern Ukraine).
Since the beginnings in August of a Ukrainian counter-offensive, the road between Mykolaiv and Kherson has become one of the main axes of the war which began on February 24 with the Russian invasion.
Oleksandre Prikhodko grew up along this road, in the village of Kotliareve where the local factory was bombed by the Russians.
“Our lives depend on our soldiers,” he slips as the rocket fire multiplies. “Hearing the news of our successes provides great psychological relief.”
“Even little things like seeing a military vehicle go to the front and then come back safely, it makes you feel better,” he adds.
In the more industrial north of the country, the Ukrainian counter-offensive has made it possible to reconquer since September territories conceded almost without fighting by the Russian forces.
Methodical approach
None of the belligerents – the villagers of Kotliareve either – expects the same to happen in Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city taken by the Russians at the start of their invasion.
The city and its eponymous region are a gateway to Crimea, a Ukrainian region annexed by Russia in 2014, and the Sea of Azov. His downfall would leave Russian President Vladimir Putin virtually empty-handed after a war that left him an outcast in the eyes of much of the world and returned Russia to Soviet-era isolation.
Ukraine’s battle for Kherson began with a methodical long-range missile assault that Washington agreed, after reluctance, to begin delivering in late May.
The Ukrainians successfully targeted the arms depots and supply routes used by Russia for its soldiers in Kherson. The idea was to force the Russians to be content with the weapons they had and to prevent them from obtaining more. Then they started pounding them.
Echoes of the war around Kotliareve suggest that Ukraine’s strategy is bearing fruit.
The Russians respond to the Ukrainian barrage with sporadic volleys that have little effect on the villagers, hardened by eight months of war.
“They’re shooting a lot less at us now,” observes Viktor Romanov, 44, who also worked for the local factory.
“Like a rollercoaster”
With his wife Irina, he came back like every week to inspect his home and feed the dogs and cats in the house, left to their own devices. The couple prefers to stay in Mykolaiv: they feel safer there and the gas and electricity supply should be more reliable there.
PHOTO BULENT KILIC, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Viktor Romanov and his wife Irina return weekly to Kherson to feed dogs and cats.
“We were full of hope before and then we saw the bombs falling on our heads,” remarks Irina. “You feel like you’re on a rollercoaster, with the mood going up and down,” she adds, referring to her confidence in Ukraine’s ability to push back the Russians.
A Saturday morning drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet stationed in Sevastopol Bay in annexed Crimea appears to fit Ukraine’s more determined approach on its southern front.
Born in Kherson, Oleksiï Vasselenko – a Russian-speaker who fought against pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014 – is worried.
Aged 32, he worked for the now destroyed factory in Kotliareve. He constantly kept in touch with relatives in Kherson, in complete secrecy and putting them at enormous risk.
“Everyone I know wants to come back to Ukraine. They are really suffering,” he explains.
The October 8 attack that damaged the Crimean Bridge linking Russia with the annexed peninsula, awarded by Moscow to Ukraine, also hampered supplies.
“They feel completely isolated,” he adds, nodding sadly. “In a way, I think if Ukraine had had the same Western support in 2014 that we have now, none of this would have happened.”