ReportThe army in Moscow has stopped advancing for ten days and the frequency of strikes remains low compared to neighboring regions. But rarely does a day go by without a Russian missile falling on the vast region of the industrial city.
For the umpteenth time today, the sirens are sounding in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth largest city and a crucial logistical node in the resistance to the Russian invasion. It is 10:15 p.m. and the streets have been deserted for more than an hour, due to the curfew. In this 50and day of war, no one has gone down to the shelters for a long time. The sirens mainly have the effect of upsetting the Dnipropetrovians who have already dozed off. And to awaken the anguish of the tens of thousands of displaced people fleeing the regions ravaged by the fighting.
Russian strikes, Dnipro wiped a handful, with mixed results. On April 10, the airport was hit by two Russian cruise missiles, which reportedly severely damaged the aging terminal. Six rescuers who came to the scene were injured by the second missile, but the damage did not impress the vice-mayor in charge of urban development and infrastructure, Mykhailo Lysenko. “The Russians very often miss their targets. Anyway, I made the airport unusable by parking across all the runways dozens of municipal vehicles, to prevent any attempt to land their assault troops “he says.
The eccentric 45-year-old high-ranking civil servant with a hyperactive temperament mocks the Russian Iskander ballistic missile targeting a metallurgical factory which crashed on March 11 into the nearby wasteland shoe factory. On his desk, busts of Ronald Reagan, John Paul II and António de Oliveira Salazar, “a gentle dictator” – according to him. A veterinarian by training passionate about animals, he organized the evacuation of survivors from the Kharkiv zoo. “In times of peace, a parrot flies into his office and his cat Biden lounges there wherever he wants,” specifies with the greatest seriousness his comedian friend Evgeni Gendir. The vast lair of the vice-mayor has a collection of African masks, a manhole cover, a huge playful railway model and many sometimes unusual objects.
“Dnipro has seen waves of displaced people passing through from all over the east of the country, sometimes at the rate of 15,000 a day. They come from Kharkiv, Donbass, Mariupol and Kherson regioncontinues Mr. Lysenko, uncorking a beer. The railways and ourselves have been able to manage this flow, while in the other direction all the needs of the army are routed to the front. Our logistical capabilities are fully functioning despite enemy attempts. »
Two hundred buses are ready to evacuate the inhabitants of Donbass which remains under Ukrainian control. “We encourage all civilians to leave to protect themselves from Russian bombardments and abuses, but there are still around 40% of recalcitrants who cannot be convinced. Like my mother ! No argument has any hold on her.”, he complains. The vice-mayor also rails against the hundreds of bodies of Russian soldiers remaining on his arms. The world was able to note the presence of approximately 200 body bags piled up in a refrigerated container, presented to the morgue as the remains of Russian soldiers.
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