edited by: nitya thirumalai
Last Update: February 20, 2023, 12:58 IST
A Ukrainian military priest stands on the edge of a destroyed bridge in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kiev. (AP Photo/File)
Whenever the siren sounds, most people keep doing more or less what they were doing before. But calmness on the surface, in practice on the road, is deceptive
There comes a time when people are too tired to be afraid. Ukraine appears to have reached that point only a few months after the Russian invasion. A year is a long time to live in panic, or to wallow in panic every time the air raid alert sounds. Or even to step into the shelter.
And so whenever the siren sounds, most people do more or less what they were doing before. More or less, but not quite. It’s alert enough to remind itself of the nearest air raid shelter and be ready to go into it when you hear an explosion. That’s the real alarm, when a bomb actually goes off.
For the first it falls on those who did not take shelter earlier, this is what the survivors now calmly call fate. Or to use an expression one would hesitate to play a game of Russian roulette in Ukraine today.
Cheat
But calmness on the surface, in practice on the road, is deceiving. Stop to talk to people and the anxiety usually comes to the surface fairly quickly. Not least because most people know someone who is in the armed forces. Ukraine is recruiting, and if some young men aren’t already deployed, they may soon be. Families know that, they know the dangers involved.
Yulia stops for a word near a metro station. “My husband is in the army, he is in the East. I pray day and night that he is safe for him, me and our little girl.
When missiles rained down on Kiev on October 10 last year, she says, the youngest child was the hardest to handle. “How do you explain anything to kids? It’s such a struggle.
At a university professor’s home, an eight-year-old points out his whereabouts – it’s the laundry attached to the house. “It’s not good enough, it could be better,” he says. “Because it’s not underground, it’s not a bunker.”
He points to a vent in the ceiling. “I dread it,” he says. “If there is a nuclear attack, radiation will come from there.”
Brave
The men bravely held the front. “It’s not a problem,” says a young bank manager. “Look how we beat the Russians last time. And we weren’t well prepared even then. Now we are better trained, we have better weapons. We’ll beat the Russians back, and we’ll regain all our territory. this is easy.”
But clearly, it’s not that simple. A meeting at the battalion center was canceled a little early. “We’re sorry, but there’s a situation we’re dealing with,” a spokesman for the commander said. The meeting was not rescheduled. The battalion commander was not expected to be free for such a meeting for several days.
Given the spring offensive which is already underway, it could be several days before military commanders are free to meet near normal times. Gung-ho words come easy. Fighting and surviving is one thing, winning is another.
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