Regimes of terror usually have a taste for money. Russia is no exception. It discreetly allows civilians to leave the part of Ukraine it occupies, taking their share of the price of their trip to the free zone. There is nothing humanitarian in this policy. Ukrainians are leaving these territories little by little. For Moscow, it is also a way to get rid of the less docile inhabitants and to more quickly “Russify” the conquered regions.
Petro Alexandrovich is only 62 years old, but he looks fifteen years older. With a heavy body, short of breath and tired clothes, he starts all over again. Arriving in kyiv on October 8 from Luhansk, in Donbass, after a two-day trip through Belarus, he has no pension, no parents, no social protection, and lives in a shelter co-financed by the UN that welcomes students and the poor. . people.
“I’m nobody here”release this man whose day to day had become impossible in Luhansk and who says he has never hidden his pro-Ukrainian sympathies in a city run by pro-Russian separatists since 2014 and occupied by Moscow troops in February 2022. “Between 2014 and 2022, people endured this Russification. Things have changed starting in 2022, Russian control has worsened and the pressure on those who thought otherwise has grown stronger.says Petro Alexandrovitch, whose face lights up as he tells his story.
In front of the population, the Russian administration does not limit itself to wielding the stick. Petro Alexandrovich’s neighbor, 88, had been fiercely pro-Ukrainian since her building was hit by Russian shells. Then in 2023, he changed his mind. “The Russians have increased pensionsexplains. My neighbor suddenly received 350 dollars [323 euros] per month, 250 more than before, and in his eyes, the Russians have become good people. They buy people. »
“They beat me up”
In 2022, Petro Alexandrovich’s life became worse. With fragile health, he came into conflict with two families in the building, in the context of the construction of a garage that prevented him from accessing his own. “In June 2022 they beat me. The police agreed with me at first, but then let it go when my neighbors said I was pro-Ukrainian. Families filed complaints against me, even my niece and nephew turned their backs on me. »
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