The Long War #10
KYIV—In the early morning of September 30, the Russian military reportedly fired several S-300 anti-air rockets at what used to be a decrepit outdoor car market on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainian-held capital of a region that Vladimir Putin declared Russian territory the same day. The strike killed at least 30 people preparing to cross the frontline into occupied territories.
I went there a month ago, on September 6. The day before, I had been to this place’s mirror opposite—the parking lot of a brand new commercial center where Ukrainians fleeing the occupied territories are first welcomed. An open area with big, white tents, Ukrainian and Western NGOs serving hot meals and dispensing advice, tears of exhaustion and relief from Ukrainians who had to endure months of Russian occupation. A couple from Enerhodar talked about their fear of being arrested by Russian soldiers, as the husband used to work at the nuclear plant. A family from Tokmak had finally decided to leave when faced with the prospect of their 13 years-old daughter having to learn using Russian programs. A fearful mother had just fled Kherson with her son to treat him for cancer in Kyiv. A place far from joyful, full of uncertainty but dominated by relief.
The place hit by Russian missiles on September 30 is a mere three kilometers away. It’s the last group of buildings before you fully exit Zaporizhzhia, a complex of rusty hangars, a dusty vacant lot, and alleys of storage units hidden from the road by thick trees. On a usual morning, you can have more than a hundred cars and vans there, tightly packed in three or four lines, waiting for the departure of the day’s convoy towards the Russian-controlled areas. No NGOs, just a lonely shawarma shop serving tea and coffee, a couple of blue chemical toilets lined up on one side and soldiers from Ukraine’s National Guard patrolling the perimeter. No relief, just resignation, sadness and stress.
It’s a place that felt, most of all, surrounded by uneasiness. The idea that some Ukrainians would voluntarily want to go into Russian-occupied territories just as thousands of terrified people are trying to leave them might be a difficult one to process. Reacting to the news of the Russian missile attack, several Ukrainian sources said the convoy was made of people who were going into occupied territories only to find and evacuate loved ones back into Ukrainian-held regions. Russian accounts of course went the opposite way, claiming that, obviously, if those people were trying to cross into Russian-controlled territory, they supported Russia. The reality is, as I saw it, somewhere between the two, the reality of a war that has separated families and friends and forced people to make impossible choices.
“Everyone has their own reasons,” one man simply said. He was trying to find his car’s number on a sheet of paper taped to the wall, where Ukrainian authorities showed the cars approved for the day’s convoy, along with their destinations—Enerhodar, Berdyansk, Melitopol, Mariupol, a few going to Kherson. In his case, he was simply going back home, to a village near Melitopol, after spending a few days in Zaporizhzhia to visit his adult sons and buy some medication that have become impossible to find in the occupied territories. He couldn’t see himself abandoning his home, but still praised the partisans operating in Melitopol. Sergey, a driver for a Ukrainian NGO who had already crossed the frontline more than 50 times to evacuate civilians, saw it as a duty.
Then there was Anna, a pensioner planning to go back to the devastated and Russian-occupied city of Severodonetsk after fleeing the city in April and staying in Ukraine-controlled territory since. “I just want to go home” she said, again and again, clutching a cat in her arms. With all her warm clothes back in Severedonetsk, she felt it better to make the long journey before the cold set in. She had little money left, felt like a “bum” hopping from place to place. She was extremely lucid about the situation in Severodonetsk, knew her flat was intact but almost everything else had been destroyed. Called herself “apolitical” and would only mention Russia as “the new power”. “I have no idea how things are going to be under the new power,” she said, “I just want to go home”.
Something to read
(Meduza) ‘Blame the West and scapegoat the commissars’ The Kremlin’s latest propaganda guide
(Associated Press) 10 torture sites in 1 town: Russia sowed pain, fear in Izium
(German Economic Team) Seven months of war economy: all eyes on the budget (the state of Ukraine’s economy is not simply playing a huge role in deciding the war’s outcome. It will also decide Ukraine’s postwar future, making the lack of attention the issue is getting problematic, to say the least. This is an excellent, English-language recap of Ukraine’s wartime economy: “the positive news is that Ukraine’s economy has survived the massive war shock. The strong decline in GDP seems to have brought to a stop during 2022, and the budget planning foresees a small growth during the coming year. However, these estimates and forecasts are surrounded with a huge degree of uncertainty, as the war continues to rage on with no end in sight”)
Some Twitter threads to check out