A refugee from the East in Nikopol under fire: "Local residents help as much as they can"

Author's article. We at NikopolToday visited the city and were horrified by the changes that Nikopol is experiencing due to shelling. Neither the media nor photos can convey what the people of Nikopol feel because of the daily shelling. Like many other Nikopol residents, we from NT experienced great "sorrow" due to the shelling of the Muscovites, seeing our houses/apartments in the city, as well as our neighbors who experienced and continue to experience real hell.

And indeed, as Yevhen Yevtushenko pointed out, people in Nikopol began to attack each other, finding out about relationships at bus stops or in other crowded places, looking for traitors and making scandals. Women and children have shrunk in the city, and men are "hustling" among themselves to pass a drink, with the eyes that volunteers know when they see a person who has survived shelling. These eyes cannot be confused with anything else - they are the eyes of war and it is difficult to explain to Western Ukrainians what they are. There is no such word to describe the eyes of a person who has survived the war.

The Russians are shelling Nikopol from the occupied nuclear power plant in Energodar

In fact, the city of Nikopol is alive. Despite the fact that a significant number of residents fled. People heroically continue to live, "to the detriment" of Muscovites, who are stuck on the territory of the NPP and roam around the city every night. The northern district of the city seemed especially "alive" - ​​the most distant from the coastal zone, which is bombarded most often.

But, even when we saw the streets near the Kakhovsky "sea" - we were surprised. All the houses that were destroyed by shelling have already been repaired. Roofs, walls, windows. The city government, together with battalions of volunteers and the police, not only records the war crimes of the Rashists, but also extremely quickly corrects all the consequences. All Nikopol citizens participate in this: business, volunteers, activists, neighbors, city council. Indomitable people of Nikopol, despite the shelling, believe in victory 100% and help each other to survive this war and overcome the consequences of "arrivals". Nikopol is a city where it is not: "my house from the edge - I don't know anything", but on the contrary "my house from the edge - I meet the enemy first". Of course, many people can't stand it either psychologically or morally and leave the city "for the world."

Racists terrorize the surrounding cities, hiding behind the walls of the nuclear power plant

In one of the city's public squares, which was built only a year ago, we spoke with a refugee on the condition of anonymity about the situation in the city and the general feelings that she, other refugees from the east and the south are experiencing in Nikopol. Name and some details have been changed for anonymity.

- Where are you from?

• We ran away with my mother and dog from Sloviansk. We have been living in Nikopol for more than one month.

- How are refugees treated in Nikopol?

• - They help us with everything they can. They allocated a place for living, all the necessary things. We arrived here "barefoot" but the locals gave us everything we needed and also equipped rooms and premises for our life.

- Why do you stay despite the shelling?

• Where should we go? My mother barely walks to the park for an hour, she is very old. I don't know how she can endure the difficult journey to the same Poland. And the dog is... old.

- How do you survive the shelling?

• The city authorities and activists allocated places for us to hide in storage facilities. They even made us beds in bomb shelters designed for the exact number of refugees. During the first days of shelling, we hid, although there are beds - we cannot sleep because of this horror. We "sleep in" during the day for a few hours to get away from nighttime explosions. And then... then the locals started coming, and it turns out that we were given sleeping places in bunkers, but they had nowhere to hide. They all sit on chairs all night to survive the shelling. We put children and the sick to bed, take turns so that people can sleep at least a few hours a night.

- How do the locals treat refugees and where are the vast majority of you from?

• Here are refugees from five regions. A lot of them are from Kherson. They got through the orcs on foot through the forest plantations. They were sheltered here, precisely in Nikopol and the area. People lost everything. Russian scum came to Kherson region and demanded "tribute". But every day it got worse. If at first they threatened, now they beat. They kill men just like that, even if they were just sitting on the street. That is why the refugees who came to Nikopol on foot "with nothing". There is simply horror in Kherson, in the East: they do what they want and every day it gets worse.

- Do you plan to stay in Nikopol and live here?

• No, I want to go home, to Slovyansk, of course... if there is housing left. And all of us here are refugees, who are - we just want to return home.

- Do you believe in the victory of Ukraine?

• Yes, almost everyone believes that. We had everything where we lived, our farm, housing, work.

- Were there conflicts with the people of Nikopol? For example, in a bomb shelter during shelling?

• No, not at all. We are treated well.

- And through language?

• The same. There is no such thing in Nikopol, maybe only in Western Ukraine. Everyone is at odds with each other.

- Is it not scary to be in Nikopol, although there is a nuclear power plant nearby?

• No, after what we all (refugees - ed.) have experienced, we have nowhere to go.

- OK, what if there's an accident? If the station is broken because of the Russians?

• You know... we have already gone through something there (in the East, - ed.) that no one dreamed of. All living things are "erased" there... that's it, too. Nikopol had no idea what the Russians were doing there. This is genocide, this is... hell. Scary, yes. But you don't feel anything anymore, because everything was and still is so terrible there. Yes, if there is an official evacuation, we will go. But here, in Nikopol, we are grateful to the people for everything. For every crumb, clothes, everything, everything that people gave us. And it is scary that they will take us somewhere, and we will not be needed by anyone there. This is scary.

A house in Nikopol after shelling

After the conversation, the refugee left, followed by the old dog, which she did not abandon there, in Slovyansk. And I sat for a long time in this new park, where about two years ago, I liked to sit with the husky dog ​​after a walk. Just rest in silence. What will be? No one knows, but Nikopol is holding on. And proudly defends its title of the city-victory.

Somewhere in Western Ukraine, because of the language, they do not give a humanitarian aid from the UN for refugees from the East, but you should understand that you will never understand these people until you yourself become a "front" that experiences this war not in restaurants in Lviv, not in the shops of Uzhhorod , not in the bars of Chernivtsi or Ternopil, but here – in Nikopol and other cities suffering from Russian terror. Where language loses meaning, where people in tears go down for the night with their children to survive the night and share food, water and sleeping places with others without asking what language they speak or what religion they practice. And simply because they are people.

Nikopol is shelled every night from the side of the ZNPP

There was a people on Earth who were in the same situation - and these are the Jews, who were scattered in different countries and spoke different languages. This did not stop the Germans and other Nazis from killing and mocking them. But the greatest tragedy is when the enemy's actions are justified through language. "They are to blame." And it is even worse, to some extent, than the enemies of our state.

Note that Nikopol sheltered about 15,000 refugees from 5 partially or fully occupied regions, and these are only official data. According to some sources, 3 to 5 thousand refugees came to Nikopol from Mariupol alone. They hoped that they would survive the war in this city and be able to return home after the victory, but the events regarding the nuclear power plant on the other side of the Kakhov Sea can change not only these hopes but also the well-being of the entire country. From East to West.

We remind you that on August 16, Russian soldiers shelled not only Nikopol, but also the outskirts of the city.

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