BUTSHA, KYIV COUNTY (Dagbladet): Seven months after the withdrawal of the Russian occupation forces from Butsja, a kind of everyday life has returned to the suburb of Kiev that was scene of countless Russian abuses.
Here, over 450 people, including a dozen children, were found killed in various mass graves. Corpses were also littered on the streets, and many of those killed bore signs of being tortured.
– Commits the most abuse
The lives taken by Vladimir Putin’s brutal war machine will never be recovered by their relatives, but the city, slowly but surely, has begun to heal many of the physical wounds of the more than 30 days of occupation.
– We are now physically better than we were in April, but for many the situation only gets worse, purely mentally and psychologically, the more time passes, says the mayor of Butsja, Anatolij Fedoruk, in an interview with Dagbladet.
40 percent destroyed
Dagbladet meets Fedoruk, the mayor of Butsja since 1998, after a press conference on Monday afternoon.
There he explained how the region’s district heating centers will provide heat to the city’s residents this winter.
Many of the apartment buildings in Ukraine and Butsha are connected to such district heating plants, but the plants depend on electricity to produce heat.
This is why Russia has been aiming for the target for the past two weeks air strikes on critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Since the outbreak of the war, the air traffic alert in central and western parts of Ukraine has not gone off as often and for as long as it has done during this period.
And the attacks have paralyzed the Ukrainian electricity grid.
Dagbladet in Kiev: “Massive attack”
About 40 percent of the country’s electricity system was destroyed and / or damaged as a result of the attacks, and millions of people were without electricity over the weekend. Therefore, Ukrainian authorities are now asking all citizens of the country to use as little electricity as possible and warn of power outages across the country.
Electricity can also go on in Butsja, admits Mayor Fedoruk, but believes there is no chance that the war-torn population will have to face the winter without district heating.
– It won’t happen, Fedoruk tells Dagbladet.
– The only thing Russia wants
However, a number of Butsja residents are concerned about what winter might bring.
The indoor climate around Kiev can be very cold in winter and the Russians can use it to continue terrorizing Ukraine and Ukrainians, fears 60-year-old Anastasija.
– The only thing Russia wants is to destroy us and our country, he tells Dagbladet.
She and her daughter-in-law Jelena (31) have gone shopping and are returning home when Dagbladet meets them in the center of Butsja. Both spent more than 15 days under Russian occupation, before being able to escape from the suburb.
– Even if the winter is harsh, we are Ukrainians. We will find a solution, says the 60-year-old, that he doesn’t want to be identified by surname.
Further down in the center, along the road where the column of Russian tanks was stopped, Dagbladet meets 71-year-old Volodymyr. He is originally from Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, but fled to Kiev and finally to Butsha when the war broke out in 2014.
TO BUTSJA: Hans Arne Vedlog of Dagbladet (tv) and Jesper Nordahl Finsveen.
sea View
– I am, of course, concerned that the heating centers may be knocked out in the Russian attacks. Much of our electricity grid is already destroyed, but we just have to try to survive the winter, the 71-year-old tells Dagbladet.
Like Jelena and Anastasija, Volodymyr managed to escape from Butsha after 15 days of Russian occupation, but he still bears physical traces of the Russian invasion.
– I will not shave until this war is over and Putin dies, says the 71-year-old, stroking his long white beard, which has now grown since February 24.
– It’s all about one thing
Butsja Mayor Fedoruk has no doubt that this winter will be difficult for many of its residents.
– It will be as hard as winter and spring earlier this year. As long as the Russian invasion force is in our country, the winter will be harsh – for everyone, says the mayor.
It will likely be more difficult for those of its residents who are struggling psychologically after the occupation, he believes.
– I would like to see that we could spend money on welfare and support measures aimed primarily at these people, but whatever money our authorities have, we have to spend it on the military, says Fedoruk.
He makes fun of Putin’s kamikaze weapons
He commends the volunteers who have set up mental health services in the city, the region and the rest of the country, but says they need international support to better serve more people.
– Right now it’s all about one thing: survival, says Fedoruk.
And that is precisely why all the work done by local authorities in the city in collaboration with energy companies is so important, he says.
– We have taken all precautions and have backup solutions after backup solutions. If the power goes out, we have generators. If we can’t get more fuel, we have a shop. If we don’t have enough fuel to run all the centers, we will open centers where people can stay, the mayor says.
