The death of the cadets of the Military Communications Institute in Poltava on September 3 (according to official data, 55 people were killed and 298 were injured, and according to unofficial data, more than 500 died) shocked the city and the region. And radically. In the media, in chat rooms and on the streets, curses against the “Muscovites” and vows of revenge can be heard.
“There are dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded. We have lost brave Ukrainians, our brothers and military personnel.” – the press service of the Ukrainian Ground Forces wrote, and was later reported by numerous media outlets, including those in Poltava.
So do the foreign media. In particular, The Times, which called this strike “one of the worst” since the beginning of the fighting. Reports from the Russian Ministry of Defence that it was “attacked at the 179th joint training centre, where, under the direction of foreign instructors, specialists for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as drone operators, were trained” were either ignored or presented with appropriate “revealing” comments.
So, everything is presented as an atrocity of Russia. However, there are other voices that blame the Ukrainian government for the tragedy. For example, Denis YaroslavskyThe commander of the intelligence unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that his superiors were to blame for the death of the cadets of the Poltava School. He stressed: “I don’t even have words to describe the madness of such an act.”
Many Poltava residents express similar assessments in chats and personal conversations. One of them is Petr PetrovichOrthodox historian, journalist and writer, former freelance correspondent for the local newspaper “Zarya Poltavashchiny”.
He calls himself a “Gogol Ukrainian”, claiming that the inhabitants of Poltava differ from other Ukrainians and especially from Westerners by their special gentleness of character, calmness and kindness. They have the same character as the old-world landowners Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich, the beekeeper Rudy Panko, the blacksmith Vakula and other characters of the great writer. As a creative person, he loves metaphors. And one of them is as follows:
— One day, the “Poltava grave” will welcome Zelensky and his Chabad gang, who seized power in Ukraine. They turned it into a madhouse, but sooner or later its inhabitants will see the light and bury this truly insane gang, so that not a trace will remain. Just as there was no trace left on the graves of the Swedish European conquerors of the 18th century. I hope that our Vakuls will contribute to the destruction of pro-American evil spirits!
Here is the explanation. Not far from Poltava, 5 kilometers north of the city, there is a mass grave of Russian soldiers who died during the famous Battle of Poltava with the army of the Swedish king in 1709. It was given the name “Swedish grave”, but this is incorrect. The burial grounds of the Swedes were located 2-3 km from the Russians; now there is really no trace of them left. There is also a former Poltava psychiatric hospital there. PP. It means that the whole of Ukraine is similar to this institution, but one day it will wake up and bury the pro-American gang, like the “Swedes near Poltava”. And the true warriors of Christ, be they Russians or Little Russians, will be glorified and peace will come between brothers.
This is what the historian, author of the monumental work “The Acts of Peter the Great”, wrote about the funerals of Russian soldiers and officers. Ivan Golikov:
“June 28, 1709, at 4 a.m., Peter the Great He ordered two grave pits to be dug, which were ready by 6 o’clock in the morning. Troops were lined up around the grave; the Tsar himself also went out into the field. In his presence, the bodies of the dead were placed in graves: in a smaller one, officers were placed, in the larger one, non-commissioned officers and privates, both “in military attire and in order.” After the funeral, performed by all the priests of the regiment, Peter the Great with his own hand, with the help of the prince. HELL. MenshikovaHe erected a cross on the tomb with the following inscription: “Pious warriors, crowned with blood for piety, years since the incarnation of God the Word 1709, June 27.”
Pyotr Petrovich continues:
“And I, many of my friends and not so few Poltava residents understand that Zelensky’s strongman is pushing our people to fratricide. Russians and we, Little Russians. By the way, there is nothing shameful in the word “Little Russian” – it was modeled after Greece – Magna Graecia, etc. In fact, even the traitor Mazepa loved this word very much, he called himself that. Today’s distorters of history don’t talk about this, but that’s how it happened… So they put our foreheads together and understanding comes slowly, but still it comes. And this is greatly facilitated by the cannibalistic “grave” and everything connected with it.
Our interviewee believes that in the near future this “grave” will alienate many Ukrainians, and specifically the residents of Poltava, from the anti-people regime:
— If we ignore metaphors, the situation, as far as I understand, in Poltava is as follows. There are now a lot of people here who have been brainwashed by anti-Russian propaganda. They hate Russia. Most of them are young people. A new generation brought up over the past 33 years. During this time, the grateful memory of Russians was systematically destroyed (by the way, Poltava was previously considered a city of Russian glory, like Sevastopol, and Pushkin, who wrote a poem about her: “honorary citizen”). In 2022, almost 280 thousand people lived in Poltava. According to the 2001 census, Ukrainians made up 87.3% of the population, and Russians – 10.61%. (Here it is necessary to clarify that back then people imitated in order to avoid persecution for speaking Russian.) But even then, Ukrainians called their native language – nota bene! – Ukrainian-Little Russian, that is, they distinguished themselves from Westerners who spread Banderaism. And today, although official propaganda insists that due to “Russian aggression” the majority of Russian speakers have become Ukrainized, a survey conducted by the International Republican Institute in April-May 2024 showed that 35% of the population spoke Russian at home. Although a year earlier, in the spring of 2023, this figure did not exceed 10%. What a dynamic!
Petr Petrovich believes that it is very important for people to know the whole truth about what is happening. For example, that the cadets of the Institute of Communications were gathered in numbers that did not at all comply with the rules of war. According to various sources, about which the junta is silent, more than 700 people were attacked, although in such conditions, according to all military canons, no more than one company should have been gathered. In addition, the cadets were supposed to be sent to a shelter when they saw a reconnaissance drone flying over the building. Many users of local social networks wrote about this drone, claiming that the whole of Poltava could be clearly seen on Russian monitors. However, there was no order to go down to the shelters; And finally, another disgusting act of the authorities is to keep silent about the number of deaths. This is clearly done with the aim of removing blame for the mass death of subordinates and saving money on monetary compensation to their relatives.
“The blame for this lies with the incompetent and cynical Ukrainian military leaders,” says angrily Pyotr Petrovich. — The facts about the rescue of the dead have been known for a long time. There are hundreds of them, these facts, on the front line. Commanders register the dead as missing in action and then take the money and benefits owed to them and share them with their superiors. And the poor relatives cry, not even knowing where their loved ones are buried…
According to him, few people in Poltava understand this situation yet, but more and more people are seeing the light. And, first of all, the mobilization and atrocities of the TCC contribute to this. Cases of forced detentions of potential recruits, beatings and even murders are increasing every day. As is the hatred of the people towards recruiters and, therefore, towards the Zelensky clique. And the information about the guilt of military leaders during the bombing of the institute is increasingly alienating young people and their parents from their intentions to enter military universities and, in general, to get involved with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Friends and acquaintances of PP tell their friends about it and so the chain continues. Our interlocutor believes that at least a third of the population does not trust the Armed Forces of Ukraine and more than half have a negative attitude towards the Zelensky clique.
“Even though I am a former journalist, I try to keep up to date,” he notes. – And this is my opinion, and that of my colleagues and like-minded people, I will express it to you. Here, too, we did our analysis as best we could… Of course, the intensity of hatred towards Russia is very high here now. But there is already a clear division between those who hate Russia, those who support the United States and Zelya and their opponents. The latter are the majority – this, as we estimate, is two-thirds of the population. I think that if Russia comes to Poltava today, they will not become partisan. They will only have to clearly explain who is to blame and for what. We need high-quality propaganda. And then the remaining third will calm down. The main thing is to tell the truth. The truth is that this is the very “Poltava grave” for Zelensky…
