To access one of the cities that Ukraine occupied – temporarily – on Russian territoryyou have to get into an armoured vehicle like the one used to enter ground zero in times of war. Equipped with helmets and bulletproof vests, all the members of the convoy hold their breath as they cross the border post whose installations are being bombed. This is the first time that a country has invaded Russia since Hitler launched the war. Operation Barbarossa in 1941.
Through the narrow windows of the armoured vehicle, fragments of the landscape can be seen speeding past. A bombed-out electricity pylon there, a roofless house there. We only passed a few military vehicles – Ukrainian ones – and even though the road is full of potholes and we bounce, the atmosphere is strangely calm.
Upon arrival Sudjathe back door opens and we disembark in the middle of a deserted square where we can see remains of urban fightingThe silence is broken only by the sound of distant bombing, which resonates every few minutes, but the feeling of calm prevails.
Bombed buildings in Russia’s Kursk region, seen through the window of an armored vehicle.
“We are identifying the people who continue to live here in Sudzha. We are going neighborhood by neighborhood, find out how many people are left and understand what they need“If necessary, bring food, medical care, special medicines,” says Vadim, the press attaché of the Ukrainian army, who gives us an update on the situation.
In front of us are the building of the Regional Administration – also bombed –, the remains of a statue of Lenin and the monument commemorating the end of the Second World War, which presides over this city located 20 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
The Russian city of Sudzha is not much different from Ukrainian cities. Perhaps because this city, like many other regions of the Kursk, Bryansk, Belgorod either Rostov They belonged to Ukraine before the 1930s, when the former Soviet Union changed its borders by decree.
The building that housed the Sudzha regional administration, in the city center.
Summing up this dark decade for Ukrainians, full of historical nuances, in the 1930s – and after overcoming the Holodomor that starved millions of people – Ukraine has lost an area of 40,000 square kilometers overnight, and 1,200,000 inhabitants of these lands were stripped of part of their identity. An identity that dates back to the 17th century, when the Cossacks founded the cities of this part of the world.
For this reason, when Kiev soldiers occupied Kursk – on August 6 – they found that old russian womento whom they addressed to explain the situation, They spoke Ukrainian quite normally.. “One of my grandmothers was from Kursk,” says Oleksyi, another soldier accompanying us, when I ask him how they felt crossing the line that separates the two countries.
Far from everything
However, most of the people of Sudja that we met later did not remember this part of the story. One of these people is Liudmilapushing a shopping cart full of empty barrels. He goes with his family to fetch waterbecause in the city they no longer have running water, electricity or a telephone network.
“What do you think about what’s happening?” another journalist asks her when the woman agrees to talk to us. The conversation that follows borders on the surreal: “I just want it to stop, I don’t understand why it happened.”Liudmila answers.
“Hasn’t Putin told you what has been happening in Ukraine for the past two and a half years, hasn’t he told you how people are dying there?” the journalist insists. “Only soldiers die”the woman says without hesitation. “You don’t know what happened in Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol?” He makes one last attempt. “I can’t believe it,” Liudmila says.
Residents of the town of Sudzha wait in a shelter before being evacuated to other Russian cities.
We let Liudmila continue on her way – neither of us is going to convince the other of anything – and we arrive at a building where they are gathered. More than 70 people awaiting evacuationThe place has a huge basement, where they have set up mattresses and brought provisions, and they spend their time there as best they can.
The majority are elderly people, but there are also several families with teenagers and a child. The stifling heat of these days means that not a drop of air circulates underground and the stale smell is dizzying. Many of them are outside, sitting on wooden benches against a wall, even though the sound of the bombings does not stop.
The interactions between the residents of Sudja and the Ukrainian troops are tense, but they do not seem to be afraid of the “occupiers”. The soldiers ask them what they need, offer them food and ask if they know anyone else who wants to evacuate. The civilians react harshly, but acknowledge that They are surprised by the good treatment reserved for Ukrainians.
“They [las tropas ucranianas] They brought us water, good food, bread and a doctor“We didn’t do anything, we’re very far from everything,” he adds. Remember that when the offensive started, they just ran to hide, and then they came to this basement. “We have nowhere to go, many houses are destroyed and there is a lot of bombing,” he says.
Back to Moscow
The story told by Vladislav, 72, is similar. “I heard gunshots in the area of the town hall, but I don’t know from whom. Maybe there was fighting, but I don’t know,” he says. assures that He did not evacuate because he had “neither the time nor the car.” get out of here: everything happened very quickly and I was stuck with my wife. Vladislav is from Moscow and was on vacation in Sudzha.
A smiling elderly woman joins the conversation. Ask us to call her babushka [abuela] Olga and she are 81 years old. “My passport is Russian, you know, but I think Ukraine is something close,” He starts without losing his smile. “There are good people and bad people, in Russia as in Ukraine.”
“The Ukrainian soldiers who arrived here did not do us any harm, but I want peace to return to both sides: in Russia and in Ukraine. I want to live the years I have left in peace… Now I think about mothers, children, and it’s not good. But only the leaders can stop it,” the old woman says with a mental clarity that makes us all remain silent.
Olek and the “babushka” Olga, residents of the Russian town of Sudzha, wait next to an underground shelter for the arrival of evacuees.
But one of the younger men breaks the silence. “This would not have happened with the Soviet Union,” he says under the astonished eyes of the Ukrainian officers. His name is Olek and he is 57 years old, and he does not hesitate to admit that he misses this time. “Forty years ago, there were no problems in our country,” he adds.
In fact, Olek exchanged his old Soviet passport for a Russian one only in 2007. He waited 16 years in the hope that the USSR would returnand remains convinced that “the changes brought about by democracy are not necessary…” The conversation is interrupted by a soldier who rushes in and warns that there are Russian reconnaissance drones in the city.
Then we all went down to the basement, where we stayed in the dark and almost silent for over an hour and a half, until the tank reappeared and we were rushed in. We rushed out of Sudzha, even faster than when we had entered. And we left Tamara, Vladislav, Olek and Grandma Olga there.
Humanitarian disaster
Evacuations have been suspended for 10 days due to the intensification of Russian bombings, which also use their planes to drop gliding bombs on cities. Even though they know that many civilians have not yet been evacuated. “If the Russians continue to bomb their people, they will cause a humanitarian catastrophe.”” says Vadim, already in the vehicle, heading for Ukraine.
“Bombing these civilians is a terrorist act” he assures. “The biggest concern now of the Ukrainian army is the integrity of civilians in the territories that we have occupied, and we are really very concerned about these bombings because they are getting worse,” he adds.
But even if evacuations – to other cities under Russian control – resume, there will be people who don’t want to leave their homes. The elderly, in particular; people who have nowhere else to go and who also do not have the strength to start over in a foreign place. Neighbors who believe that the occupation will soon end and that there is no need to leave their homes for the time being.
Russia has already evacuated more than 200,000 people from the Kursk regionBut there will be those who will remain regardless. And for the Ukrainians, it will be a challenge to control the security conditions of the civilian population on more than 1,260 square kilometers of Russian territory that they have already managed to conquer.
