"Lord, will it really reach us?" As the inhabitants of the neighboring Belgorod with Ukraine reacted at the beginning of the war. Report Republic

Today, Russian troops attacked the territory of Ukraine. Republic correspondent Maria Litvinova tells how this morning began in Belgorod, which is located on the border with the Kharkov region of Ukraine.

Around six in the morning local time, Belgorod woke the roar in the sky - it was distant and stretched around the city with a rumble. Everyone explained the news in the ribbons, they were frightening and fell one after another: Russian President Vladimir Putin made an emergency appeal, Vladimir Putin announced the need for decisive actions, Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian military to immediately lay down the weapon, Putin announced the beginning of a military operation, reports on explosions in Kramatorsk, Odessa, Kharkov.

Kharkov is only 80 kilometers from Belgorod. Kharkov relatives and friends wrote in social networks that in their time the explosions began at five.

At this time, Belgorod was still dark and deserted on the streets of Belgorod, rare passers -by walked dogs. The roar in the distance repeated - the dogs on the leashes were bored, they answered barking from the windows of the apartments, a flock of small birds took off and scattered.

The roar was repeated about every 20 minutes, somewhere upstairs in the fog, planes flew loudly.

The social networks were filled with the footage of explosions in Ukrainian cities, which were shot by residents, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky made an appeal to Ukrainian citizens and introduced martial law in the country, Russia struck the military infrastructure of Ukraine. Chats began to be torn by the words "war, war."

Morning 24 February, 2022 in Belgorod

In Belgorod, it dawned quickly, the roads began to fill cars, people went to work. The shops have not yet opened, the central market was the first to wake up - women in gray jackets slowly opened their duffel tents and talked.

“Putin declared war on Ukraine, heard? - one of them turns loudly to the partner. “My Tanya calls at half a half, Vitka went somewhere, said goodbye to us.”

“Yes, we had a volley at six in the morning, I woke up, right with us was heard on our fourth floor. Of course, terribly, ”the second replies.

At this time, the third saleswoman loudly speaks with someone on the phone: “And then Biden called Zelensky, they say, we will help you. They thought we would not go for it. Why should we lose? They are already at our borders. Another year or two, and they would have climbed to us themselves! "

The loud bass of the loader joined the female voices: “Yes, military airfields need to be bombarded so that nothing arrives at us!”

Talking about the war was carried out by the shop with household chemicals, it opened the very first in the row, and several people were crowded there: “Gladkov ( Vyacheslav Gladkov - the governor of the Belgorod region. - Republic ) should be evacuated”, “Lord, will it really reach us?”

One of the market employees drew attention to the colleague that had just come and joyfully greeted her: “Ahh, who is not afraid of war with us, you are going around today!” “Where do you see the war? She is all in Ukraine, ”the woman answered.

To the question of the correspondent of Republic, how they relate to today's news, women began to wave their hands:

“So correctly, Putin did everything, because they were already brought nuclear weapons to our borders, are you watching the TV?”

“We have already said to us in Shebekino ( the district center of 30 kilometers from Belgorod towards the Ukrainian border. - Republic ) that we were evacuated to the Saratov region,” one of them said.

Official statements about some future evacuation of residents of the border region of Russia were not reported, but the governor Gladkov managed to cancel the work of schools and kindergartens in settlements near the border.

The city finally woke up at nine in the morning and seemed to have healed his usual everyday life - people are in a hurry to work, patiently wait for transport at bus stops, flee at traffic lights through the road. Everyone looks at the phones or talk about them about the war.

“Well, with the past, friend, have you heard, the war has begun? -The man of about 35 says with someone.-And in the morning he was fucked up today: I go out onto the balcony-two " dryers " fly along the sky, two aircraft. "

The unshaven man in a knitted cap, which caught up with him, listened with interest, and then began to comment: “Finally, it is high time to show who is the master.”

To the question of the correspondent of Republic, whether he was sorry for human lives, the man replied: “So we didn’t start, people die in the Donbass since the fourteenth year. And Putin was not yet there, then Medvedev was the president ”( Medvedev’s presidential term ended in 2012. - approx. Republic ).

At the bus stop near the Belgorod department store, ten people plunged into a minibus-pajik. There were more than half of their free places, they looked in the windows silently, it seemed that women were tired in the morning in woolen berets.

“Defenders are already all on gas stations, I look! - the driver of about forty grinned. -Somewhere there it bought, and they are already running away. What did they want? It is clear that there will be losses. ”

He himself said that he was not afraid of war - he served in the army and for weapons, if necessary, he would undertake. “I’m only scared for children, I have three of them,” the driver added.

“Ukrainian military personnel suffer losses ... Six people were killed in the military unit in the Odessa region ... The authorities of the self-proclaimed LPR said that two Ukrainian Su-24 were shot down in the area of ​​the settlements of Smoloy and Stepovaya .... Explosions and shelling occur in 17 regions of Ukraine ... Residents of Ukrainian cities occupy queues at gas stations, shops and ATMs, turnstiles were turned off in the Kharkov metro ... In the Belgorod Region, six episodes of destruction were recorded ... ”, reported news reports.

There were no queues in the grocery hypermarket in the center of Belgorod; a bearded man paid at the box office with a cart filled with products. “Yes, I’m preparing for the blockade,” he winked cheerfully to the saleswoman. Morning in Belgorod smoothly flowed on a regular working day. Somewhere in the distance, she continued to rumble-however, already quieter.