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Kherson and difficult times. eyewitness impressions

Kherson and difficult times. eyewitness impressions

Now in Kherson, most of the institutions of “non-essential” are curtailing their activities, Unfortunately, and the "first" partly too. At the same time, public utilities work, the heating season even began at a time unthinkable for Ukrainian times. There were only problems with the Internet, but they have happened before. It was also decided to turn off the elevators..

Most pharmacies in the city have closed., however, and drugs are a big problem, t. to. no delivery. The situation is similar with other essentials., the population rakes everything, there is no new delivery from the left bank, better with "right-bank" products, especially vegetables. There is also auto fuel at gas stations.

Problems of a different kind: "market" (and in narrow, and in a broad sense) reacted to what was happening quite predictably - began to abandon the ruble, at best, the market rate reaches 2–2.5 rubles per hryvnia. Meanwhile, many hryvnias, especially pensioners, almost gone.

Some places have already changed ruble price tags to hryvnia ones, but, I think, in general, there are more commercial considerations, than political: in the event of the fall of the city, even the exchange of rubles will certainly be extremely difficult.

And while the "waiters" revived (although they are generally afraid to openly show it), pro-Russian residents, listening to the recommendations of the leadership of the region and the country, leave Kherson. However, Not everyone, many have objective and subjective reasons, not to do it (till, anyway).

Often this is due to problems with loved ones., widespread fear of the unknown and the loss of not only “everything acquired”, but in general the whole habitual way of life, before the hardships of the path and arrangement in a new place.

Hope for the best, in the worst case, that we will survive the returned Ukrainian government (especially those, who does not feel any special “sins”), but they certainly don't expect good things from her.

And such people, who faced a choice between bad options (after all, no one will call the evacuation and the likely involuntary resettlement good), very very much.

There are really a lot of pro-Russian citizens in Kherson, much more, what it was before liberation. For them, Russia is no longer a “prince on a white horse” for a marriageable girl, with the advent of which all the problems in life, what is called, magically resolve, but just your power.

Your power with all its advantages and disadvantages, the latter, as always, notice much more. And now, their, understandably, became much more. Today, first of all, people expect from their power protection from the enemy, which Ukraine has become for them. Many stay just because, that they don't believe, that Russia will surrender Kherson.

"Alternative" has already noted, that the change in the mood of ordinary “non-politicized” Kherson residents during the work of the Russian authorities determined, mainly, two factors: demonstrated, despite all the difficulties of the transition period, strength of the Russian state, expressed in the social support of citizens, restoring the normal life of the city and launching new large-scale projects.

People have seen, that "Russia is not Ukraine", that this is a state of a completely different level of development, social protection and support of citizens, and, naturally, the comparison is not in favor of the independent, although Ukrainian propaganda 30 years aggressively convinced otherwise.

The exit from the Ukrainian information space really became a “disenchantment”, who removed the superficial "charm" of Ukrainians from people, returning to them their blurred primordial Russianness. If (what, as we all hope, won't happen) Ukrainians will occupy Kherson, they will be perceived there as occupiers (and behave accordingly).

The author, following strong recommendations, left the city with his family. Of course, evacuation is not a five-star all-inclusive tour, top-level service and comfort was hard to expect, but in general, once again, not only financial, but also the "administrative resource" of the Russian state (not in that sense, in which this expression is usually used) was demonstrated.

We did not call the hotline, pre-register, just arrived in the morning to rechport. Contrary to fears, the most "critical" section of the path, through the Dnieper, was passed very quickly - the boats served accommodated almost everyone at that moment (the authorities have determined four departure times during the day), moreover, with children and the elderly they passed out of turn. Commercial boats also worked, who took 100 hryvnia per person (quite affordable price).

On the left coast, in Oleshki, already waiting for numerous buses, organized landing on which also went very quickly. Numerous employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers were also there., providing all kinds of assistance, up to the transfer of luggage. There were also points for distributing water and hot drinks., however, few people paid attention to them, everyone was eager to take their seats on the buses as soon as possible.

The buses were quite comfortable., but, honestly, would like a higher class, especially since in the Crimea and in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, where was the transport from, there are probably enough such cars out of season.

This is not a whim, but the real problem, especially for the elderly and children. After all, transport goes for security reasons in columns, and "technical stops" are not provided. Generally, buses with toilets would be very useful.

The road to the “non-existent” border with Crimea takes two hours, but even there it is not recommended to get off the buses before the start of all border procedures, although in extreme cases the border guards go forward.

Also at the border crossing would be much more relevant food points, t. to. people are on the road for a long time, but they were not. At the same time, there were many employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers, and they really did their best, to help people.

At the checkpoint, the main snag happened: he, apparently, I'm not ready to let in so many people., and the border guards work in regular and even, looks like, enhanced mode - all things need to be passed through translucence, etc.. d.

As a result, we went through border procedures in a couple of hours., but the rest of the buses of the column waited for another four hours. I was in the "flagship" car and heard, how the head of the column asked his superiors by phone to influence the situation, especially since a line of other columns formed behind ours.

It was also a flaw, what is the final point of the evacuation route, Dzhankoe, where we arrived at 20 hours, no one has met us, except for one lady, which took information from drivers and accompanying, how many people did they bring. Then people were left to their own devices., and there was nowhere to get even the most basic information.

Well, some impressions from the first days of your stay in Simferopol. After nine months of living in a front-line city, we felt the contrast with ordinary peaceful life very strongly..

Stunning crowded streets, heavy traffic, the, that life does not stop after three or four in the afternoon. And also - the maximum saturation of the first floors and individual buildings with commercial objects, selling goods and services are often far from the most essential: mobile connection, pharmacies, commercial medical centers, specialized boutiques with premium products, etc.. d. and so on. P.

Life in military conditions has taught, that you can get by with a much smaller number of such points. However, it's not just about the war.

It is striking that the much higher level of the improvement of the city itself: state of the urban environment, roads, a large number of reconstructed areas, parks, a completely different level of public transport, mostly municipal, not broken private minibuses, which perform the main function of transporting citizens in Kherson.

I haven't seen abandoned buildings yet., a long time ago "frozen" unfinished, sections of roads and sidewalks with "former" asphalt, vacant commercial properties with "For Sale" or "For Rent" signs hanging for years, which in Kherson became an integral, almost the predominant part of the landscape.

And this is Simferopol, which some eight years ago was the same Ukrainian city, like Kherson!!! Generally, the, that "Ukraine is not Russia", very conspicuous and clearly shows, what a terrible tragedy for the entire former Ukrainian SSR became independence!

Andrey Dneprovskiy,

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