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TP UKR 2022

 

Black panel

 

Since January 2022, Russia has massed more than 150,000 armed men on the borders of Ukraine.

 

On February 21, Vladimir Putin announced that he recognized the independence of the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass province and ordered the Russian army to "maintain peace.

 

On the morning of the same day, a team from Temps Présent took to the road to go to the Eastern Front, where the Ukrainian army and the Donbass separatists have been fighting for 8 years.

 

 

Synthesis:

Avdievka, Donbass, February 21, 2022

 

Comment:

We are on our way to the town of Avdievka on the front line with Donbass. We had already been there in a report three years ago, in 2019.   

 

We planned to stay a few days in an apartment in the city center in order to prepare the arrival of our film crew. The water is cut off the first night of our arrival after the bombing of the filtration plant.

 

Here, where the war has been raging since 2014, we are used to the incessant noise of bombing. But the atmosphere suddenly becomes heavier, after the announcement of Putin officially recognizing the independence of the two separatist provinces Luhansk and Donetsk.

 

During three days, we try to meet a commander whose code name is Da Vinci. He is the youngest volunteer commander in the Ukrainian army, a celebrity.

 

The appointment is postponed several times.

 

But this morning we were told that his group left Avdievka for Luhansk in the north of Donbass. Obviously, something is happening on the eastern front, something considerable...

 

Synthesis : Night shot

Avdievka, Donbass, February 22, 2022

 

 

Title

In Ukraine under the bombs

 

A report by Xavier Nicol

 

 

Synthesis:

Avdievka, Donbass, February 23, 2022

 

Comment:

For this reportage, I am accompanied by a translator, Denys. And to face the bad roads of Donbass, we are accompanied by an experienced driver Dyma, a veteran volunteer of the Ukrainian army who already guided us in 2019. We decide to go to Mariupol. In this strategic port city on the Sea of Azov, we have an appointment with a unit of marine patrol boats.

 

Mariupol card

 

Comment:

On the road to Marioupol, 300 km away, we stop in the small village of Chermalyk, on the front line, 50 km north of the city.

 

The 2,000 inhabitants of Chermalyk have also been living with the rhythm of bombings and shootings since 2014.

 

The population is Russian-speaking and rather old, the youth is at the front on both sides of the contact line.

 

Three years ago to the day, we met a retired couple of Greek and Russian origin:

 

Uncle Vanya and Aunt Valia, as they are called by the Ukrainian soldiers they receive in their house since the beginning of the war in 2014.

 

Here the group receives a sympathetic ear, a hot meal, the opportunity to shower, and to do laundry.

 

 

Synthesis:

Archive Temps Présent: Chermalyk, Donbass, February 25, 2019

 

During our first report in Chermalyk, we filmed Yulia and Arthur, a pair of volunteer snipers of the Ukrainian army.

 

Yulia, nicknamed "the squirrel", is a war widow, she lost her first husband on the front in 2014, she was then an economics student and mother of two children.

 

When her husband died, Yulia left her children with her mother and went to the front as a volunteer sniper, where she met Arthur, her combat partner.

 

What happened to Yulia and Arthur? How are they doing? We plan to meet them again during our report, a little later.

 

Synthesis:

Chermalyk, Donbass, February 24, 2022, 2:30 am

 

We decided to spend the night there. Here the shootings are daily since 2014, but this night is quite different.

 

The shooting increases in intensity, the front line is less than a kilometer away.

My companions throw themselves on their smartphones to consult the Ukrainian news sites.

Now it is clear, Putin has triggered the invasion of Ukraine.

 

Putin:

"In accordance with Article 51 paragraph 7 of the UN Statute and with the consent of the Council of the Russian Federation and in compliance with the agreements ratified by the Federal Assembly of February 22, 2022 on friendship and mutual assistance with the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics I have decided to start a special military operation".

 

Ukrainian TV presenter:

"Sirens are blaring in the city and obviously they are not training sirens"

 

Vanya: Putin the bastard attacked us! What a bastard! That bastard!

 

Synthesis : 6h47

Comment:

I ask the ambassador by messenger, I am advised to leave the Donbass as soon as possible, an option confirmed by the production of Temps présent.

Before leaving, I decide to do a short and quick interview with our hosts.

 

Itw Vania:

"My name is Vania, I am 63 years old, I have spent all these years here, I was born and raised here.

We witnessed today at 2:30 a.m. GRAD missiles were launched against Mariupol from the territory controlled by Russia, my parents, my grandparents and my great-grandparents lived in Ukraine, and I lived all my life in Ukraine, Ukraine is my native country, and when this scum Putin comes to say that he comes here to save the Russian-speaking people... I am Russian-speaking, I do not need to be saved, my country is Ukraine.

This Putinist plague is lying to everyone! .... We see, we see what is really going on...I have no words I can't express this in words, I don't know how to say and how to be.

I feel only hatred, against the Russian people not only the president, for all the Russian people.

These assholes attacked Ukraine, these assholes kill Ukrainians, these assholes threaten me, my family, my children and my grandchildren.

We must unite and fight against this Putin plague. Nobody will help us if we don't protect ourselves, neither the West nor Europe, we must defend ourselves.

It's not just the Ukraine war, if we don't stop Putin he will continue with the Baltic countries, he will continue in Poland, he will continue in Europe."

 

Itw Valia:

"I would like to know where is the Russian civil society? The organization of mothers of Russia? Where are they looking? Why don't they come forward? We don't see them anywhere on television, on the radio, on the internet, these famous women?

Why aren't they on the Red Square in front of that plague of Moscow? Why is there no action? Why do the people remain silent? Do they agree or what? That here there are only fascists and nationalists? Here we are a thousand times safer and everything is in better condition than at home! I am outraged that nothing is happening!

My name is Valentina, I am 62 years old, I was born in Ukraine, I spent all my life there, I never left here, I love Ukraine, I love Ukrainian people.

 

Vania:

Glory to Ukraine, glory to heroes!

 

Chermalyk, Donbass, February 24, 2022, 8:30 am

 

Terrace sequence - Grads shots

In order not to break the intensity of this sequence (09'36-10'10), I propose two short and light comments, to be placed delicately according to the sound, to be taken care of obviously!

 

09'36: COM:

Outside, Russian missile fire is increasing in intensity.

 

Sound of the missile, until its explosion and sub-explosions.

 

09'50 (approx) COM:

A first missile, followed by a second, ten seconds later.

 

Leave until the end, about 10'10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comment:

We had to leave the retired couple under the fire of GRAD missiles, fired from the other bank of the Kalmious river, less than a kilometer away in separatist territory.

Vania and Valia have decided to stay in their house, I don't know if I will ever see them again.

 

We also have to give up our appointment with the patrol boats of the Azov Sea, which are already under Russian fire. The news are bad, Mariupol is besieged and bombarded without respite: to this day we have no news of the Ukrainian sailors.

 

Map Chermalyk-Zaporijia

 

We are heading to Zaporijia, where we will try to find Yulia and Arthur, the two snipers we met at Vania and Valia in 2019.

 

On the road the gas stations are already full.

Thanks to our driver Dyma and his vehicle with the plates of the army, we have the right to go up the column of vehicles and especially, we can fill up with diesel, because the fuel is already rationed.

 

We take again the surprisingly deserted road.

 

We arrive in Zaporijia in the middle of the afternoon.

In front of Yulia's house this 4X4 announces an imminent departure: The squirrel, Yulia's code name, is ready to leave.

 

In front of the house it is the effervescence, the material is ready, visibly we arrive at the last moment.

 

Xavier:

What has happened in your life since 2019?

 

Yulia:

"What made us come home was the birth of the twins, I came home and Arthur continued his service, then he came home a few months later for our children."

 

Comment:

 

Despite the war, a love story was born between the two snipers, they get married in December 2019 Yulia will get pregnant in 2020 the twins will be born in March.

 

Since Arthur came back from the front, they have optimistically started breeding. They live in a small house in the suburbs of Zaporizhia with the children from Yulia's first marriage and their twins.

 

Yulia:

"My little ones, our little twins, are not even two years old yet, they haven't even learned to say mommy and daddy, but it's war, but it's either us or them, we have no choice but to defend ourselves, I'm in contact with guys at the front, with whom I fought in the war, they told me that they won't back down, they'll hold out to the last man, they won't let them pass, I'm sure of them but I'm worried about them and I can't stay at home, I can't not join them, we know how to do it, we can do it, we're not afraid.

What is hard is to leave the children...again, it is really hard but I believe that we will win, we will not have another chance, if we lose the whole world will lose, they do not realize it yet.

Of course we know that they come here to kill us, we know that they are against the existence of our country, Ukraine and Ukrainians, they do not accept the existence of all other countries on earth, they talked about it and they continue to talk about it, nobody believed them seriously, even in Ukraine there were many people who did not believe in a big war, everyone thought that it would end up like Ocetia and Abkhazia.

But unfortunately we were attacked today with ballistic missiles on peaceful cities, they attacked with bombs and tank columns from all sides, from all sides."

 

Xavier:

Will this war ever end?

 

Arthur: "Yes".

 

Yulia:

"Yes, when Russia disappears only then.

Ceasefires never work, they lie.

In spite of all the agreements they have only one goal, there he has just shown his true face: bombing peaceful cities makes him a new Hitler, there is no explanation, there is no reason to bomb a peaceful city that threatens them! I don't know what's going on in their minds.

 

Arthur:

"We defend our land and they come to us and die here for something indefinite, we defend our country and we do not intend to die only for our land, my children were born in Ukraine in a beautiful country.

 

Yulia:

"And no one here is going to send them to war in Syria."

 

Arthur:

"Our children were born free and I don't want them to be told one day: now you're going to live in Sakhalin because we decided that. It's not going to happen like that here!"

 

Yulia:

"I'm sorry but if we're done, I have to make a lot of phone calls (phone calls?)."

 

Comment:

Yulia and Arthur, do not know yet exactly where they will be assigned.

 

The last news is that they stayed in Zaporijia. Yulia told us that her group had shot down a Russian helicopter on the outskirts of the city the day after we left.

 

Card

 

We leave Zaporizhia for Kiev, more than 800 km ahead.

 

It's 8pm, the highway between the airport and Kiev is totally empty, the curfew is scheduled for 10pm.

 

In the suburbs of Kiev, we stop for a last fill up of Diesel.

 

We have just covered more than 1200 km from Chermalyk.

 

We are all exhausted by the trip and the emotions.

 

Xavier: How are you, Denys? Happy to be back home?

 

Denys: Yes, I can't believe I'm at...almost the line of

 

Xavier: in Chermalyk

 

Denys: in Chermalyk at the contact line at the front line, the shooting of all weapons what, you arrive in Kiev and nothing happens what.

 

Xavier: Have you ever seen the city like this?

 

Denys: Never, impressive to see the big city with a lot of traffic jams, especially at this hour and there it is almost deserted some cars which circulate but it is almost deserted, impressive it is phantasmagorical as image.

 

Comment:

Dyma, our driver, insists on inviting us to eat at his place, to get to know his family: "it might be the last time we see each other" he tells me.

The Russian army is at the gates of Kiev.

 

Dyma:

Tonight we will decide around the table with the family, but it is very likely that I will return to the war

 

Xavier: Are you going back to the Donbass?

 

Dyma: I don't know, today the front is not necessarily there, the front is 90 km from Kiev, there is fighting 20 km from Kiev in Hostomel, half of the country is a front now, so if Kiev holds, Ukraine holds, the head of con has made a mistake in deciding to attack Ukraine like that, this is the beginning of the end for Russia.

They say: Kiev gave birth to Moscow... it will bury it too!

 

Xavier: Will the Ukrainian people resist?

 

Dyma: Certainly! He thought that Ukraine was going to be brought to him on a silver platter, what the hell! There is a minister of the Duma who said something like this: he flipped off the camera, so here is another one for Putin from Ukraine!

He will burn in hell and die like an animal!

 

Xavier: What do you expect from Westerners? What do you expect from Europe and America?

 

Dyma: We are not waiting for the West to wage war for us, we are capable of it, but the weapons they have been supplying us with for the last three-four months already and even more, I think that this will turn the Russian ballad into hell.

 

Xavier: What kind of country would you like your children to live in?

 

 

Dyma:

We could talk about it for half the night.... Democratic, free, with freedom of the press with a real justice, not like the one we have, which is a farce, justice on appeal, in fact it would have been nice not to have Russia as a neighbor, but it is impossible unfortunately, it is our destiny.... Russia must be dismantled in a geopolitical way, there must be, I don't know...Tatarstan, Barchkirtastan, and anyway the name of Russia must not exist anymore, Muscovy is always Muscovy.

 

Xavier: Do you have anything to add?

 

Dayma: Glory to Ukraine!

 

 

Comment:

The curfew has been in effect for 15 minutes. Impossible for me to work, as for the RTS team that I join in a hotel.

 

The capital of Ukraine is already bombed, the anti-aircraft alarms are permanent and force us to spend the night in the shelter of the hotel.

 

To stay or to leave Kiev? The decision is taken the next morning to join the last convoy organized by the Swiss embassy.

 

With Dyma, we cross Kiev and its multiple checkpoints one last time.

 

The convoy to evacuate the staff and some journalists is ready to leave. Last words of the Swiss ambassador Claude Wild.

 

Speech Claude Wild :

"It's a difficult moment but it's the right decision we took with Bern you were incredibly strong you did more than what you had to do, I thank you very much for everything you did for Ukraine for the relations between Switzerland and Ukraine, for the atmosphere in the team I wish you good luck for this difficult trip good luck and see you soon, where? we'll see."

 

Comment:

The convoy heads for the Polish border.

As soon as we leave Kiev we find ourselves in huge traffic jams, caught in the flow of Ukrainians fleeing the fighting towards the west.

 

It will take us 12 hours to cover the 250 km to our first stage in Vinnytsia, then another 12 hours to Ternopil, every night woken up by multiple air alerts during which we have to take refuge in the shelters.

 

The last 10 kilometers before the Polish border, escorted by the Ukrainian police, we go up more than 3000 vehicles 72 hours of waiting to pass in Poland.

 

We leave Ukraine, the Ukrainians, with a heavy heart.