In besieged Kiev, a Ukrainian deputy from the Voix party answered questions from Paris Match.
The black 4 x 4 moves slowly then stops in the middle of the street. The doors open and a woman gets out surrounded by bodyguards. Since her name appears on the Russian army’s “kill list” – she says – Kira Rudik no longer gives appointments in fixed places. The congresswoman for Voice, a pro-American party, asked us to wait for her in a commercial area near the Kiev train station, in front of the gleaming windows of closed shops. As soon as she arrived, the MP explained to us in English that she learned in five days to handle the weapon with which she patrols day and night. From the start of the Russian offensive, Kira Rudik, 36, joined the city’s popular defense committees, which are recruiting with a vengeance.
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She tells us that she lives in a house with her “resistance team” made up of about fifteen people, including former parliamentary collaborators. All have chosen like her to take up arms. To face the Russian bear, Ukrainians have little choice but to remain united. “Our strength, explains Rudik, is that we know why we are fighting: for our country, for our families. They don’t know it. »
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The argument, repeated loudly, is even displayed on billboards in the city. The Russian soldiers who attempted an incursion on the night of February 27 on Peremohy Avenue, in the west of Kiev, were greeted by slogans scrolling on a giant panel such as: “Think of your family” or “You fights for the killer Putin”. All perished in an ambush a few hundred meters further. In the morning, two carcasses of armored vehicles were still on this huge avenue amid the debris of wood, Kalashnikov casings and RPG-7 cartridges. The Ukrainian army thus managed to repel several assaults at the gates of the capital. “They didn’t have the quick and overwhelming victory they wanted,” rejoiced Kira Rudik.
This unexpected resistance, coupled with the sanctions imposed on Russia, prompted the master of the Kremlin to send a massive force to Kiev. Kira Rudik understands that it would take him “seven days to prepare an assault. Nobody is going to say: “Come, come, we capitulate!” “She is convinced, like MP Maria Mezentseva, also a volunteer on the humanitarian side, that” no one is going to give up. We will never surrender to this despot! »
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Everyone wants guns, but we don’t give them to anyone, because we don’t want it to be a circus here
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Monday, February 28, in a residential area in the west of the city, a long queue formed in front of one of the headquarters of these popular resistance committees. A guard busy filtering the entry of candidates proudly announced to us that he had received 2,000 requests since the start of the day. “Some bring medicine, others offer their services, they ask us what they can do. Everyone wants guns, but we don’t give them to anyone, because we don’t want it to be a circus here. »
He says that many Molotov cocktails were distributed to the inhabitants. Easier to handle than weapons, these small homemade bombs can be used to set fire to armored vehicles or slow down convoys. Monday morning, in a village west of Kiev, a blinded Russian driver hit a bus stop with his armored vehicle. This is what a resident of northern Kiev oblast told us over the phone, which had come under Russian control. “Everyone took up arms in this vehicle,” he says, adding that sixteen other armored vehicles were able to continue on their way and join others posted in a large perimeter around Kiev.
The rumors relayed about the arrival of an armored column were confirmed the same day that the first negotiations were held between the two parties on the Belarusian border. “It has no value, analyzes Kira Rudik. It’s to save time. When Putin says he wants to withdraw his troops, it’s to bring them together and then attack us better! The MP pleads for the establishment of a no-fly zone. A desperate request relayed by Maria Mezentseva, who also considers that the assault is inevitable. “We just hope we never have to say, ‘We warned you.’ »
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