The life and mood of Crimea at the moment of history

August 16, 2022, 21.40 Moscow time.

On the Crimean bridge, 144 cars rush to leave the peninsula, and only 8 travel towards them. Anapa from Anapa makes its way parallel to the automobile canvas, and I manage to count. There are only four people in my carriage, in two neighboring ones there are three more. This morning, in the village of Maisky, Dzhankoy district, someone attacked a ware of ammunition-it exploded all day, the authorities and the military had to evacuate 3,000 local residents. Two people were injured. A few hours later, local media reported on explosions under Simferopol, but there was no official confirmation of this. And a week earlier - a dozen “cotton” thundered at a military airfield in Novofedorovka, not far from Evpatoria. Fourteen people were injured, one died. After each similar case, people run from the peninsula. Sometimes the lines to the bridge connecting the Crimea to the Kuban are stretched by five kilometers. And if by the end of July it was relatively quiet here (single incidents occurred only in the spring), now something happens weekly. Sitting in an almost empty train crossing the Crimean bridge, I still do not know that from this day it will happen several times a day.

Part I.

On the border

May - a large village in the north of Crimea, which fused Lenin Street with an even larger village of Azovskoye. 5400 people live in total.

Elena and her husband are now living in a house without windows, with riddled walls. The trouble in May began on August 16 at six in the morning. According to the official information of the Russian Ministry of Defense, saboteurs attacked the ammunition located near the village.

- No one understood what was happening. We went out with my husband and saw this whole nightmare, ”says Elena. - Smoke. Flying, arrived. At 6.08, we stood here in the yard, and we had literally minutes to take a passport and leave. I ran to the house for the documents, and when I returned, my husband looked at me and said: "Maybe we won’t go?" And in two minutes we decided - we will stay. Just ran into the house, as it began ...

Elena says that next to their house there were two “arrival”.

- The first hit the pear, the old, grown as my parents. - She points to a beaten, already lifeless tree. - The second - yes, here he is, right at the house (points to the pit near the threshold): everything fell, the doors collapsed, the window collapsed. We hid in the far room, where we have a photo of my mother, my guardian angel. They stood in the doorway, just looked at each other and somehow comforted. They took pillows so that we would not be chopped with fragments, because windows fly around. It was three hours of hell. And that was the second birthday. Thanks to these two minutes, for which we decided not to go, we survived.

The fence from the shell by explosions completely destroyed. Elena says: When it was all over, she went outside and thought: “What is it? Why do I see a neighboring house? " The entire yard was littered with fragments, glass and knocked out pieces of walls. The authorities of Crimea promised the inhabitants of the May to compensate for the damage to their homes. True, the deadlines are not clear.

- I want to say to the children to the military: let them hold on, we are for them. We want all this to stop sooner. Of course, health and patience. Thank you for thanks to them we somehow still live here. If not for them, I don’t know, Crimea would not have been, you know? But the normal mind should still proclaim ...-it is stopped. - I think there should be a truce. Just a truce and peace. Just the world, so as not to see this nightmare and shots - nothing. And on the ground so that everything is fine, on our planet.

Pensioners Maya and Alexander Mikhnya live on Shevchenko Street - near the epicenter. Almost every house is damaged here. When it began, they could not be evacuated quickly.

“I only looked out of the house - once, flew in,” Alexander points to a broken metal canopy in front of the house. - Well, I immediately back. They sat at home until the soldiers came running and did not say that they needed to leave soon.

At this time, the ceiling was poured at the houses at this time, the glass flew out, the shock waves supervised the furniture.

“I have an old mother, 81 years old,” says Maya Nikolaevna. - She is already weak, with a stool walking around the house. We could not leave her. When the military came to evacuate us, we asked to pick it up. You would have seen this: explosions, a black smoke, and a very young boy in the middle of them rolls a grandmother in a wheelchair to a car ... I feel sorry for our soldiers.

Having reached the car, pensioners, together with the mother of Maya Nikolaevna, left for friends in Azov, the document did not reach the documents. Only in the evening, when everything stopped, did they return home. They began to restore the economy on their own: they carried out broken dishes and furniture.

What to do with the walls knocked out of the walls and the ceiling, until they know: either be shifted into a heap and throw it away, or wait for compensation so that no one said that the old people always lived with the sprinkled ceiling.

- I try so hard not to delve into all this ... I myself am from Ukraine: this is [Crimea] my homeland, and there is my homeland. There are all my relatives. I only wish everyone peace. So that nothing rummaged and does not rush. - The pensioner suddenly begins to sob. - I want everything to be as before: that it is quiet and peaceful, so that relatives communicate with relatives ...

Pushkin Street separates several hundred private houses from five three -story panels. And although the high -rise buildings are more than a kilometer from the exploded warehouse, they were thoroughly chopped: the windows are knocked out in every third apartment, traces of fragments are knocked out on the walls.

- When I heard pops, at first I did not even pay attention to them - they seemed non -leaf and distant. But then the windows began to fly out, ”recalls the chairman of the local TSN Andrei Teslik. - I woke up my mother and told her to run into the basement. And when he realized that the explosions did not stop, he called her from there, took two neighbors and took them towards the North Crimean Canal (four kilometers from the epicenter of detonations. - I. J. ).

In May, according to Teslik, against the backdrop of the explosions, a turmoil began: some residents fled to the basements, others were afraid to leave the apartments, others hurriedly left the village on cars, and there were those who tried to evacuate on foot. Leaving his mother and neighbors at the North Crimean Canal, he returned to the village to pick up his grandmother and aunt.

- Teduled them too. And when I arrived again, the military did not miss me into the village. They said that they themselves would take evacuation. I called them the porches, where people were sitting in the basements, called those who stayed in apartments. Many were afraid, of course, for their property. And the attempts of looting really were. But they were immediately suppressed by the police, ”Teslik notes.

The residents began to return to May the next day. Most of them waited for explosions from acquaintances in Dzhankoy and its environs, 121 people were placed at the school and kindergarten of the neighboring May village of Tabachny.

“Now our task is to insert windows, remove traces of destruction,” says Andrey. - Gas services are already walking around the village, checking if there are leaks. Soon we will return the gas to the houses. When we complete the work, we do not know yet. All the houses of our TSN are damaged. Of course, it was lucky that this happened in the warm season - at least you can sleep without windows ...

Teslik participates in his own relative. Andrei says that on the day of explosions he first called himself to ask if everyone was alive. “Then we usually call him, but here he is ourselves.”

A relative of Andrei does not tell anything about what is happening on the other side of the border. “Yes, we don’t need to know anything,” adds TSN chairman. He himself will hardly go to the front line.

- I did not serve in the army, in 2014 I wanted to go, but they told me: "You are limitedly fit to the service, do not approach." Then he wanted to get a job in the police, but they also said “no” there. And now I’m working in such a position that it will be hard for me to leave here. But, of course, we have absolute support for the special operation. These explosions have not changed anything.

Regarding the inhabitants of apartment buildings, Andrei is not cunning. From Shevchenko Street to three -story buildings a little more than a kilometer, but they don’t talk about any “world” here.

“I can only give the guys to the front only more gratitude,” says pensioner Nikolai Verbitsky, whose apartment also suffered. - It is necessary to make sure that the people of Ukraine are not afraid, because all Ukraine [its authorities] are intimidated. It is necessary that it be there, as in the Donbass: that the national authorities are rules, not the oligarchs.

Trucks with the military periodically pass through the village. There are few of them. They are called defenders.

The military as tourists

In Dzhankoy, which is 24 kilometers from May and 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, army equipment since February is a typical participant in traffic. The locals are no longer surprised when an armored personnel carrier rises behind them.

I observe the picture from the hotel window: BMP drives up to the grocery store, swaying on the pits. It parks between the "Lada" and "Skoda", two in camouflage crawl out of the hatch and go shopping.

The unexpected effect of the military operation: no one needs, in fact, at the usual time, Dzhanka, where from a dozen industries today there was only a dairy, not coastal and therefore traditionally ignored by tourists, came to life. The hotels of the city hang out the “There are no seats” on the doors, and their administrators directly say: “Probably, it will not be the end.” Together with filling, prices are rising: the numbers that used to cost 1000-1500 rubles, now they cost as much as in resort cities - I rent a quite ordinary room for 4000 per day.

The military was replaced by tourists: they make up the lion's part of the buyers in supermarkets and almost the main thing - among visitors to local cafes.

“Thank God that the military is,” says the owner of one of the barbecue. - Everything is quiet with us, and the guys come and rest. The business is going.

“Profit has grown three times,” says the seller in a workwear store. - If earlier it came out 50,000 rubles a day, now 150,000 on average.

At the stele “I love Janka”, the letters Z and V were installed near the administration, but there are almost no advertising posters with the symbols of a special operation in the city. This, however, does not interfere with seeing it every minute: on the ambulance, on buses, on some cars of local residents and, of course, on the military and their equipment. Helicopters fly over the city all day and dark green trucks run back and forth along the streets.

Despite the fact that, in general, the junk in Ukraine is more likely to support (even opponents of special operations recognize this), people here are very nervous. In the market, the sellers ask me and the photographer whether we are not from Ukraine, ask to show the documents and only then briefly explain that the military personnel are purchased very rarely here, preferring stores. “But they always behave politely,” emphasizes a woman selling herbs.

“The week from February 24 was a very tangible outflow of residents from Dzhankoy and especially from the border villages - the ancestral, Medvedevka, Turgenevo,” says local human rights activist Lutfiy Zudieva. - Huge traffic jams stood: people tried to go to the center of Crimea, or even from the peninsula. But when the line of contact moved deep into Ukraine, some still returned. Much here depends on the environment in which a person lives: if we talk about the Crimean Tatars, then among them I do not feel any panic, because for them Crimea is a house for the right to live in which they fought for decades after the Stalinist deportation. Even when there were explosions in May, some Crimean Tatars fundamentally refused to leave. Another thing is that there were cases when people left whole families, because they, for example, have adolescents who can soon be drafted into the army. Now there are very few opportunities to avoid calling, the Crimeans have very few.

An announcement hangs at the stand before the city administration: "A contract under the armed forces is my business." Those who sign the contract promise high income - about 200,000 rubles per month. The modal salary for Dzhankoy is 15,000 rubles.

Part II.

Resort

From Feodosia to the zone of its own - 140 kilometers, and life here is fundamentally different from the border. For the city all the time, thank God, not a single shell fell. There are many tourists on the beach. And this is despite the fact that the airport of Simferopol, like the airports of other southern cities, does not work since February: you need to get to the peninsula by train from Moscow and St. Petersburg (trains, judging by the lack of tickets, are not enough), or on the crossing through Sochi, Stavropol or Volgograd. The road in any case takes more than a day.

“Well, compared to last year, the season was a little sunk,” the Theodosian hotelier Konstantin Ognev-Black admits. “But in general, he is quite successful.” Yes, spring was not the same as last year, and June is not like that. If in that year I had complete occupancy from May 30, then in this early June - about 20%, in the second half - 40-50%. But the number from July 15 we still went on one hundred percent loading. And by booking, I see that until the end of September it will remain one hundred percent.

Attacks on the peninsula on the mood of tourists in Feodosia, according to Constantine, do not affect.

- Specifically, no one expressed concern to me. There was no such thing that one of the guests gathered and leave. On the contrary: when on August 9 in Novofedorovka exploded, three people arrived on the other side.

And it was not necessary to reduce prices for attracting tourists to Ognev-Black. “It would be dishonest in relation to customers who book numbers in advance. What were the prices last year, they remained, ”he says.

Moreover, in comparison with 2020, when I myself was the last time in Feodosia, prices here even rose: rooms in hotels on the first line (by the sea), which used to cost 3000–4000 rubles a day, now cost from 4,500 to 6,000 rubles. The price tags in the cafe are also high.

“True, the cash crisis is still noticeable,” says the woman selling walks on the ship. - People come with loans - I think that says it all. On the ship, of course, they ride anyway. But there are problems ... a good season, but people still limit themselves in expenses.

Feodosia tourists do not consider dangerous rest in Crimea. Natalya and her family arrived in Crimea from Tula for three weeks.

“I, in principle, for the first time on the peninsula,” she says. - We went here because Feodosia was recommended for me to relax with children. The sea is warm, the situation is calm. Well, most importantly, probably, this is a sense of freedom, because there is no language barrier that you face overseas resorts. Of course, every day we hear that Crimea is attacking. But we have a military unit next to the hotel, every morning we wake up under the "farewell of the Slav" - the soldiers under it go to the construction - and this inspires calm.

Maxim, who came to Crimea from Vladimir, says that he was going to go on vacation to Yevpatoria, but after what happened in Novofedorovka (from which to Yevpatoria half an hour drive) he changed his mind and stopped at Theodosia.

“Because it's calm here,” he notes. The complaints of Maxim only to the Crimean prices and the service: “Let's just say, they take very good quality for not very good quality.”

Another opinion about the prices of pensioners Lyudmila and Natalia. They themselves are Crimean, live in Simferopol.

“You can buy borsch and hodgepodge in the dining room for 60 rubles, herring under a fur coat for 95,” says Lyudmila. - If you do not walk along steep bars, then you can find very cheap food.

“As for security, for example, I am sure of our troops,” adds Natalya. - Yes, we heard what is happening in Dzhankoy. But, excuse me, how many tourists in Israel? But there is constant terrorist danger. Look: the people are resting, everything is calm, everything is fine, military planes fly - we rejoice. We are protected.

It is not surprising that it was in the prosperous eastern Crimea that the largest, active support of Svo grew up. Blogger, Alexander Talipov, living in Feodosia (he has more than 50,000 subscribers) has been collecting “inhumanitarian” assistance to the front for several months-he offers people to take off their drones, sights, radio, tents, raincoats, bourgeois stoves and even microwaves for the military.

He says that he sent 43 drones to the front line, some of which are suitable only for intelligence, and some are able to carry a charge weighing up to 100 grams.

-I would immediately like to answer the question that everyone has: well, does our army really need something? Let's understand that the nomenclature that is now in the army is subject to reorganization. There are shortcomings in the management of the troops, ”he says. - Here, for example, we have a platoon. According to the norms and charters of the Armed Forces, only the platoon commander and the commander of the department have communication. But what is bad if every soldier has a walkie -talkie? The same thing with sights: these are civilian, hunting goods, which, from 500 meters to one and a half kilometers, allow you to determine live goals and thermal goals, for example, the same working machines. In the state, such sights are laid for snipers. But if they are in the department for many people, this will make it easier.

Талипов рассказывает, что деньги на оборудование жертвует более тысячи человек, при этом бизнес, признается он, не участвует в этом практически никак.

— Более того, я обращался и к администрациям районов, и к депутатам: «Купите что-нибудь от муниципального образования! Не надо мне вооружение передавать — отдайте сразу военным». В итоге только Сакская администрация откликнулась, а в остальных — тишина.

Спрашиваю у Александра, не хочет ли он отправиться на передовую сам.

— Вы знаете, я думаю, что каждый должен находиться на своем месте, — говорит он. — Я как офицер запаса в любой момент готов выполнить свой долг перед Родиной. Я нахожусь в первом резерве, и если будет происходить мобилизация, я, безусловно, в течение нескольких часов буду на пункте сбора. Но я задавал такой вопрос военным, которым помогаю. Они говорят: «Ты делаешь намного больше здесь, на своем месте».

Part III.

Море, пиво, ПВО

Новофедоровка — и курорт, и важный для военных поселок одновременно. 9 августа на расположенном здесь аэродроме прогремела серия взрывов. По официальной информации, они произошли из-за халатности. При этом виновных, по крайней мере публично, военные пока не называют.

Аэродром находится в 50 метрах от жилых домов. Ударной волной и осколками у местных выбило стекла и перекосило двери. В квартире пенсионерки Евгении Александровны дверь просто сорвало с петель.

— Меня, слава богу, в этот момент дома не было — я была в Симферополе, — рассказывает она. — Приехала — ужаснулась: остекление балкона рухнуло, двери нет. Пошла в администрацию, спрашиваю: когда ждать компенсаций? Мне говорят: а это не к нам — идите к военным. До военных пока не могу дойти. Если и они откажутся восстанавливать — не знаю, что делать, у меня денег нет. Буду жить так, видимо: хорошо хоть соседи дверь мне приладили.

— Замерщики ходят постоянно от администрации, ко мне уже три раза приходили, но когда все отремонтируют — не говорят, — включается в разговор сосед Евгении Александровны Виктор Артемов. — Так и напишите: ни хрена чиновники нам не помогают.

Он вспоминает 9 августа.

— Ох, вы бы видели, что тут творилось! Человек бежит в одну сторону, тут же тащится обратно — что-то недобрал: какие-то документы или, может быть, кошелек. Внизу полиция в касках — всех отправляют к скверу (подальше от аэродрома. — И. Ж. ). А взрывы все идут: я в гараж открытый забежал — там от осколков прятался. А осколки падали большие. Потом автобусы подъехали, и нас в Прибрежное, в пункт временного размещения, отвезли. Ночь мы там переночевали — и все, домой разрешили вернуться.

Спрашиваю, не страшно ли сейчас жить в Новофедоровке. Артемов говорит, что нет, потому что произошедшее на аэродроме — не обстрел.

— Вот в Джанкое, например, была диверсия. А тут, нам объяснили, со стороны наших порча получилась — нарушили правила пожарной безопасности, — разводит он руками.

Министерству обороны на пострадавшей от взрывов улице Марченко принадлежит одно общежитие. Его военные восстанавливают сами, хотя и здесь сроки понятны не до конца.

Останавливаю у подъезда мужчину в шортах и майке. Он категорично заявляет, что и в военном общежитии никакого ремонта не ведется.

— Я снимаю здесь. Хозяйка обращалась. Она сказала, что ничем никто не поможет, ничего никто не сделает, — говорит он. И тут же попадает в неприятности.

— То есть вы наниматель, снимаете жилье в служебном помещении Министерства обороны? — прерывает его стоящий у подъезда офицер инженерных войск. - What is your apartment?

— 59-я.

— С завтрашнего дня занимаемся вашим выселением. Еще и дезинформацию даете в СМИ! Вы даже не знаете, о чем говорите. Мы тут в ходе обследований уже пять семей таких выявили — военные нуждаются в жилье, а тут посторонние люди живут.

— Конечно-конечно, милиция и военные всегда правы, а остальные — нет, — вздыхает мужчина.

— Мы провели замеры, сейчас формируем сметы на каждую комнату. Точных сроков по восстановлению пока не назову, но восстановлено все будет обязательно. Не надо говорить, что Министерство обороны ничего не делает, — замечает офицер.

Но если собственникам жилых помещений хотя бы обещают отремонтировать их квартиры, то для владельцев дач и садовых домиков компенсаций пока не предусмотрено. 30 августа жители Новофедоровки даже записали по этому поводу видеообращение: «Хотели бы обратить внимание, что постановление [Совмина Крыма] № 597 не включает нежилую недвижимость. Однако многие люди проживают в садовых домиках, в оборудованных гаражах. У многих есть коммерческая недвижимость, являющаяся единственным источником дохода. Мы очень просим рассмотреть вопрос о восстановлении ущерба от инцидента 9 августа 2022 года, нанесенного нежилому фонду».

Ответа на обращение жителей пока не последовало.

«Туристов не было два дня»

После взрывов 9 августа Новофедоровка опустела. СМИ писали, что жители и туристы спешно покидают поселок и его окрестности. В тот же день на выезде с полуострова в районе Крымского моста образовалась рекордная пробка.

Но в конце августа в местных гостиницах снова сложно найти свободный номер, а пляж вновь полон. Люди купаются прямо под выстрелы периодически срабатывающей ПВО.

— Мы тоже думали, что сезон закончен, а потом оказалось, что нет — люди хотят отдыхать, даже несмотря на такие ситуации, — говорит мне хозяйка гостиницы. Ее слова подтверждает оператор тира на пляже.

— Да два дня туристов не было, потом все вернулось на круги своя, — говорит он. — Даже некоторые из уехавших посмотрели на погоду и вернулись. Все хорошо сейчас у нас уже.

Инна приехала в Новофедоровку уже после взрывов на аэродроме. Говорит, что бывает здесь каждый год и не намерена менять привычки. А на вопрос, не страшно ли сейчас отдыхать в Крыму, отвечает: «Я фаталистка. Что должно случиться, то случится».

Андрей, предприниматель из Москвы, был в Новофедоровке 9 августа, и взрывы его не испугали.

— Я сюда приехал отдыхать, не напрягаться. Жена, конечно, запаниковала немного. Говорит: «Поехали, наверное?» А потом вроде бы все закончилось, и мы остались. Да, взрывы были, но они были где? В паре километров отсюда. Пока на пляж не «прилетит», я останусь здесь. Спросите у любого: тут море теплое, а пиво — холодное, и огонь вообще. Все сюда за этим и приехали.

ХРОНИКА ИНЦИДЕНТОВ
За время нашего пребывания в Крыму местные власти и военные сообщали о следующих событиях:

• 16 августа — диверсия на складе боеприпасов в селе Майское Джанкойского района. Two people were injured.

• 18 августа — стрельба систем ПВО в Керчи. Предположительно — по беспилотнику.

• 18 августа — стрельба систем ПВО по беспилотникам над военным аэродром Бельбек. Губернатор Севастополя Михаил Развожаев заявил, что, по предварительным (и неуточненным по настоящий момент) данным, уничтожен дрон.

• 19 августа — стрельба систем ПВО в Евпатории.

• 19 августа — стрельба систем ПВО в Севастополе. По официальной информации, сбит беспилотник.

• 20 августа — беспилотник атаковал здание Штаба Чернорморского флота в Севастополе. В результате взрыва жертв нет.

• 20 августа — стрельба систем ПВО в Бахчисарае.

• 20 августа — стрельба систем ПВО в Севастополе.

• 22 августа — стрельба систем ПВО под Верхнесадовым.

• 22 августа — стрельба систем ПВО в Новофедоровке.

• 23 августа — ПВО сбила беспилотник в Севастополе.

Do not miss
Этот материал выйдет в следующем, четвертом, выпуске «Новой рассказ-газеты».