WAR

• Mykolaiv has been under continuous Russian bombardment since February. Residents estimate that they have only experienced 20 peaceful nights since conflict began.
• The Russian bombardment, which has included a number of daytime attacks, has intensified over the past week. Sometimes there is a definite target, but most of the time it’s a game of chance.
• Since February, Russian missiles have been responsible for the deaths of 130 civilians and the injuries of 589 more in Mykolaiv.

In Mykolaiv, the first night is always the most difficult. In a Ukrainian city that has been under virtually continual Russian bombardment since the war’s start in February, sleeping is practically impossible.

Your thoughts are either racing, trying desperately to determine how close the most recent explosion was, whether it was a missile or a rocket, a single explosion or a salvo, or you’re wondering when the windows will start to tremble once more and the air raid siren will start to scream.

But if outsiders like me, who have visited the city three times since the conflict started, find the long evenings difficult, how can residents, who estimate that they have only experienced 20 or so peaceful nights since the war started, possibly cope?

“Sleep? Not a lot, “stated our hotel’s manager one morning last week. When she hurried past the boarded-up windows in March to show visitors the makeshift bomb shelter in the cellar, she appeared inexhaustibly vivacious.

Her expression today, however, revealed the weariness that seems to be consuming most of Mykolaiv.

“I don’t have a cellar of my own at home. It is submerged. We have nowhere to hide, therefore. Just lying there in the pitch black. The blasts were a few blocks away last night, which was the closest yet “She spoke.

As people ready themselves immediately, unconsciously, and permanently to react to anything that may sound like a missile or a plane, once commonplace sounds like a slammed door or a growling truck are now filled with horror.

“Me? I’ve been making an effort to get to bed early. at 7 or 8 o’clock. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a few hours before the booms start this way “said Gela Chavchavadze, 60, the proprietor of a café that provides free prepared meals to neighbourhoods that were attacked the previous evening.

Usually, the explosions begin shortly after midnight. In addition to jet-launched bombs and destructive cruise missiles, there was artillery bombardment from Russian forces to the south as well as rocket fire from behind the frontlines farther east.

Sometimes there is a definite target, but most of the time, whether on purpose or by accident, the explosives happen in residential areas at random, turning every night into a terrifying game of chance.

The Russian bombardment, which has included a number of daytime attacks, has intensified over the past week.

Mykolaiv military spokesman Capt. Dmitro Pletenchuk offered some hypothetical statistical solace to visiting journalists standing close to the rubble of the city’s administrative headquarters by saying, “It’s a huge city. However, he advised us to always wear body armour and emailed me later to clarify that since February, Russian missiles had been responsible for the deaths of 130 civilians and the injuries of 589 more.

Two hours after cluster bombs detonated on the street outside, dentist Alexander Yakovenko, 58, swept glass fragments off the remains of his kitchen table and questioned why he was still alive.

“I’m at a loss for words. I shouldn’t be here [living]. Every single night, the siren sounds. But last night I made the decision to relocate out of my bedroom and into the other side of the flat for whatever reason “He pointed at the wall’s shrapnel marks, which undoubtedly would have killed him.

Olga, a neighbour who had stopped by to assist with cleanup, started crying.

“What should I tell my grandson? He cried when he woke up one night and told me, “Granny, I want to live,” “Before going back to clear more glass from the floor, she said.

“Everything is in God’s hands. What will occur will occur, “Four hours after a missile created a large crater in her yard, 67-year-old Svetlana Kharlanova stood on the doorstep of her nearly miraculously intact cottage, nursing a slight shrapnel cut to her head.

Others are turning to something that was once forbidden in Mykolaiv during the first several months of the war in order to find comfort.

“Even in the early morning hours, I now notice a large number of individuals drinking. I disagree that the alcohol ban should have been lifted. It is inappropriate during a period of conflict, “said Gela Chavhavadze, proprietor of the café.

Residents in Mykolaiv said that they are holding on.
In many regions of Ukraine, heavy drinking is a problem and a fact of life. I once witnessed a loud, slurred quarrel between two older men at a café and a drunken soldier stumble up some steps in a hotel.

But Mykolaiv-based craft brewer Dmitro Voloshchenko argued that “I don’t think we have any more issues now than we did before the prohibition was lifted. If you can control your consumption, alcohol can be quite beneficial.”

Nobody doubts the physical and psychological harm that the nightly bombardments inflict on the approximately 250,000 residents of the city who remain today, out of a pre-war population of 500,000.

“It ruins our dreams and our sleep. It impairs people’s nervous systems and results in anxiety. It’s challenging. Every night I’m awakened by both explosions and phone calls. I have nightmares of the conflict and the devastation “Oleksandr Demianov, a trauma physician who has cared for many of the victims in the city, stated.

However, there are some individuals learning to enjoy the sound of explosions at night, though not in Mykolaiv itself.

Kherson, a neighbouring city 50 kilometres (30 miles) to the southeast, is occupied by Russia. However, employing brand-new Western artillery and missiles, Ukrainian forces have started targeting Russian positions close to the city in recent weeks.

“We rejoice if we hear an explosion because we know it indicates our forces are approaching us. We are awaiting our release “said Konstantin Ryzhenko, a free-lance journalist from Ukraine who has taken refuge in Kherson.

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• Russia accuses US of direct involvement in Ukraine conflict.
• Moscow says US approving targets for American-made Himars artillery used by Ukrainian forces.
• Russia has previously accused the US of conducting a “proxy war” in Ukraine. The BBC was unable to independently confirm this allegation.

For the first time, Russia has accused the United States of direct involvement in the Ukrainian conflict.

According to a spokesperson for Moscow’s defence ministry, the US is approving targets for American-made Himars artillery used by Ukrainian forces.

Intercepted calls between Ukrainian officials, according to Lt Gen Igor Konashenkov, revealed the link. The BBC was unable to independently confirm this.

US officials made no immediate comment on the allegation.

Russia previously accused the US of conducting a “proxy war” in Ukraine.

“The Biden administration is directly responsible for all rocket attacks authorised by Kyiv on residential areas and civilian infrastructure facilities in Donbass and other regions that resulted in mass civilian deaths,” Mr Konashenkov said.

Himars is a multiple rocket system that can launch precision-guided missiles at targets up to 70 kilometres (45 miles) away – far beyond the range of Ukraine’s previous artillery.

They are also thought to be more accurate than their Russian counterparts.

In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that US President Joe Biden’s decision to arm Ukraine with billions of dollars meant that “NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy.”

“War means war,” said the 72-year-old.

Russia has been accused of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout the Ukrainian conflict. Ukraine accused Moscow last week of bombing a prison in separatist-held Donetsk in order to cover up allegations of torture.

Furthermore, the BBC has documented allegations of torture and beatings of Ukrainian detainees by Russian military and security forces.

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• As Ukraine searches for traitors, fears of Russian infiltration spread eastward. Sense of paranoia is strongest in eastern Ukraine, where suspicions of treason divide formerly occupied villages. In Kutuzivka, a 55-year-old farm owner was arrested and accused of collaborating with Russian soldiers.
• Antonova’s case has sparked interest in Russia. According to the interior ministry, the National Police have detained over 1,000 people suspected of sabotage and reconnaissance on behalf of Russian authorities.
• Some villagers claim Antonova is being unfairly targeted, demonstrating the complexities of such cases.

KUTUZIVKA, Ukraine – On July 28, As Ukraine searches for traitors, fears of Russian infiltration spread eastward, far from the capital.

The sense of paranoia is strongest in eastern Ukraine, where suspicions of treason committed by locals divide formerly occupied villages like Kutuzivka, a once-sleepy hamlet east of Kharkiv with visible signs of a recent Russian presence.

When Reuters visited the village at the end of May, Ukrainian troops were still fighting off a near-constant barrage of artillery fire from Russian troops north of the village.

When Russian troops arrived in Kutuzivka in early March, they quickly installed a puppet government.

Nataliia Kyrychenko, a 55-year-old village farm owner, was hiding in her house with several neighbours when Russian soldiers arrived. According to villagers, a Russian commander led Kyrychenko and her neighbours out onto the street and informed them that the village would now be led by a local woman named Nadiia Antonova.

Kyrychenko claimed that Russian forces interrogated her for two days about her son-in-law, who works in Ukrainian law enforcement. According to Kyrychenko, the soldiers told her that Antonova had informed them about her son-in-law and accused her of working as a spotter for Ukrainian troops, tasked with tracking Russian soldiers’ movements.

“I honestly didn’t think I’d come back when the Russian soldiers took me away,” she said. “I couldn’t believe someone in our neighbourhood would turn me in.”

Kyrychenko was eventually granted his release. Russian Kremlin officials did not respond to Reuters’ questions about the case.

Ukraine successfully pushed back Russian troops and liberated Kutuzivka in late April. Antonova was quickly detained and charged with collaborating with Russian soldiers. If convicted, she could spend more than a decade in prison. Antonova’s lawyer did not respond to questions from Reuters.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke earlier this month about the high cost of Russian infiltration on the country. There are many more cases that fall into the grey area below the highest levels of treason he highlighted. These cases can range from those who share pro-Russian content on social media to those who assist occupying Russian troops in any way.

“Our population played a very important role in informing police and alerting us to saboteurs,” Yevhen Yenin, the first deputy minister of the interior ministry, which oversees the national police, said.

Though the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is officially tasked with investigating such cases, Yenin claims that the police have done much of the practical work of gathering information.

According to the interior ministry, the National Police have detained over 1,000 people suspected of sabotage and reconnaissance on behalf of Russian authorities.

In late May, four police officers began their night patrol in Kharkiv, about 40 kilometres from the Russian border, shortly after the city’s curfew of 10 p.m. The officers scoured the city’s darkened streets for suspicious figures, brandishing AK-47s and wearing bulletproof vests.

“Whenever we stop someone, we try to figure out where they live, who they are, and whether or not they speak Ukrainian,” said Tymur, who declined to give his last name.

As an air raid siren wailed overhead, their car accelerated. The officers went underground to seek refuge in a subway station. They reappeared fifteen minutes later to patrol the deserted streets until dawn.

Antonova’s case has sparked interest in Russia. According to Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russian state television channel RT, Antonova assisted the Russian operation and is now being unfairly punished. “We need to save those who can be saved and reward those who deserve it,” Simonyan said.

Some villagers also claim Antonova is being unfairly targeted, demonstrating the complexities of such cases. They claim Antonova provided food for the villagers and protected them from mistreatment by Russian soldiers during the occupation.

“Can you call it collaboration when the Russians are putting their guns against her back?” exclaimed one resident outside a kindergarten where a dozen villagers still live underground.

However, regional prosecutor Oleksandr Filchakov stated that investigators had evidence Antonova provided information to the enemy that resulted in the deaths of Ukrainians. While acknowledging some villagers’ sympathies, Filchakov stated that Ukrainians needed justice.

“She must be held accountable,” he stated.

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