"We are released only from our houses"

Russia bombing Kharkov for two weeks - the second largest city in Ukraine. 600 thousand people fled from there. This is what local journalists say

On February 24, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Kharkov - the second largest city in the country - began to bomb almost immediately; According to the Ukrainian media, on the very first day of the war. According to the head of the Kharkov regional military administration Oleg Sinegubov, by March 8, 600 thousand civilians fled from Kharkov; Before the war, the population of the city amounted to almost one and a half million people. Medusa talked with the chief editors of Ukrainian publications from Kharkov and Izum (city in the Kharkov region) - about what has happened there in the last two weeks. Both editors have already left their cities, but continue to receive news from there.

Konstantin Grigorenko

"Flaps Izyumshchini" , Izum, Kharkov region

Raisins - the second city in the region after Kharkov. There are no and there were never any military units . They bomb exclusively civilians. The city is all in ruins: since March 3, raisins are actually in the siege, and from the 4th there is no electricity, gas, heat, water and the Internet. Not a single subscriber answers. A wide humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding. People hold on reserves in the cellars. My 86-year-old mother, who survived the [second world] war, says that even the Germans did not do this in the Kyiv region. They bombed and shot, but did not hold [the city] in the siege. Russian soldiers actually established a blockade of the city.

On March 3, raisins were beaten almost without stopping. Airplanes fly from Voronezh . “Grades” cover residential quarters. Destroyed police buildings, ships, children's sports school. There was a kindergarten next to my house. He is now gone now. Recently, they blew up the hospital, the lying patients had to almost get out of the rubble on their own.

Raisins are washed by the Seversky Donets river. Three bridges are broken through it. There are no messages between parts of the city. The center is cut off from the left bank. You can only move by boats. All infrastructure is broken. I myself sat in the basement for three days. I served in the army, so I distinguish them than they beat us: they shot from tanks, dumped bombs from airplanes and launched “grades”. With the family, we hid in a cellar two meters deep.

Now there are battles between the raisins between the Russian army and the territorial defense. The raids on the city occur at night. They fly very low over the houses, which also gives a certain effect. This is the worst thing that I experienced in my life. Shells fly into apartments in high -rise buildings, and only funnels remain from private houses. We left the raisins on March 5, because my wife came SMS from an unknown number with threats that they were looking for me.

At the moment [in Izum], three journalists work ["Obrai Izyumshchini"], I work remotely. I have no connection with my colleagues yet, but I know that they shoot videos and photos and, when electricity appears, they will begin to upload [materials] on our site and social networks.

As a journalist, I would like to turn to my Russian so -called “colleagues”. If you continue propaganda and play along with the authorities, then you are accomplices in the murders of civilians. In Ukraine, large -scale military operations are underway against the civilian population. They [the Russian authorities] want to intimidate the rest of Ukraine, but they will not work for them. Our spirit cannot be broken. The shock was the first few days, but then we adapted to the conditions of war.

Larisa Gnatchenko

"Slobydsk region" , Kharkov

The Kharkov region borders with Russia, so before the war, Kharkov was one of the most Russian -speaking cities in Ukraine. Most of us have Russian relatives, including me. What are the nationalists in Kharkov? No one understands why the Russian Federation decided to attack. In Kharkov there were many people who fled from the war from Donbass in 2014. They worry this horror for the second time.

The peaceful parts of the city are constantly bombing. Now the sleeping area of ​​Saltovka is especially suffering - this is a residential array where there have never been any military facilities. Hell is going on there. It seems to me that they divided the territory of the city into squares and methodically shelling them. It is not clear what caused this decision. There is no common sense here.

My house was badly damaged due to the bombing, so we had to leave four days ago, March 5. Prior to this, like half of Kharkov, my 22-year-old daughter and I spent several nights in the shelter, but decided to return home. We laid in the corridor and settled [at night] there. During the shelling, the walls began to tremble. There was a feeling that they would now turn out like a house of cards. There was a terrible whistle and roar. All the glasses flew out. I still have a light concussion: I began to hear badly in one ear. I will never forgive Putin for lying in the corridor under the shells, hugging my child and covering it with my body. I especially covered me when I told Russian relatives about this, and they answered: “Meditating. It helps. And do not invent. "

Why bombed our house? Why bombed our Square of Freedom, one of the largest in Europe? Why did you bomb the eco -park with animals? Are these military facilities? Children die in Ukraine. We do not have the war of the armies, but the destruction of the population. This is called "genocide."

In Kharkov, public utilities make the impossible. They restore infrastructure objects as quickly as possible, if possible: repairs light, return water. They are real heroes. It is more complicated in small settlements in the district. There is a real humanitarian disaster. In some huge people, people sit without light, medicines and food. Help cannot be conveyed, because Russian troops interfere with the opening of the humanitarian corridor. In Kharkov itself, the volunteer movement is very developed. It seems that there is no Kharkiv citizen who would not help others. From other parts of Ukraine and [countries] of the West, they bring help, the guys load her in their cars and transport it to those in need.

Much worse in the villages [Kharkov region]. There [Russian troops] force [the local population] to the show: Russians bring a camera with them and want residents to meet them with flowers as liberators. As far as I know, in the Kharkov region they were not able to remove something similar. People did not go to this. We are freed only from our houses.

I have a lot of information transmitted by people from the regions occupied by Russia. However, for safety reasons, I can only say in general terms: deputies and local authorities under automatic machines are brought under chambers so that they swore the Russian Federation. It seems that [Russian] soldiers need a picture. Moreover, they sometimes wander into houses and ask for “solarki” or “eat”. It seems that they were convinced that they were waiting here, hug, kiss and put on the most soft pillow. Moreover, many are engaged in looting. For example, in raisins from some office premises, they “demilitarized” the heater.

It is sometimes possible to leave Kharkov - both by train and bus. But there are no green corridors, people take [refugees] to their own peril and risk. I am sure that Kharkov will stand. We do not have people who would like to go to the side of Russia. In 2013, it was a city very loyal to the Russian Federation - now it is no longer the case. Our dream is the establishment of a useless zone [over Ukraine] . On the ground, everyone will fight, from small to great. There are queues for a territorial defense.

Since the beginning of the war, our publication worked only in social networks, because my employees were at the hottest points of the region and without access to the site - in Kharkov, Balakley, Chuguev. Our team is friends with journalists of district newspapers, and they constantly share information with me. We have many years of ties with most settlements of the region, from where residents call me as much as possible and write in messengers. Other Kharkov media is about the same position. On March 8, we finally were able to restart the site, so the editorial office works. Let it sound pathetic, but people need us.

Recorded by Boris Kemanshev