KHERSON – On the streets the white faces of children have not been seen since Friday. In the city surrounded, bombed and violated by the Russian army yesterday, no one kicks the balls anymore in the void of courtyards devastated by rubble. Dulled all excited joyfulness, stopped every idle step of those who, being small, do not know precisely how to live. These ghosts, which the love of their parents did not allow to save before, are now agitated only in the underground. In Kherson, thousands of children have not seen the light for five days, they do not breathe breathable air, they do not drink drinkable water, they do not hear a sound other than the roar of missiles and bombs, capable of obscuring the silent stars.
“Now they are our rats – says Darijna, – if we want to save them at least we have to hide them in the sewers.” This mother, being a teacher, opened a kindergarten and an elementary class in the shelter dug under her neighborhood. The example is giving life to a small network of war school catacombs in the city. The children, imprisoned underground by their families, play together, or do their homework, determined to believe they are sharing the great adventure that can wake them up when they are grown up. “Remorse remains – says Lyudmila, 82-year-old grandmother who ran away on foot from Kharkiv – for not having taken our grandchildren away before it was too late. Nobody in southern Ukraine wanted to believe that the Russians would attack us, who have always been their brothers ”.
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Now that Kherson is now encircled and largely occupied, its rat-children are preparing to stay in the tunnels, dug in the USSR era as escape routes from shipyards, until living on their land will return again. normal experience. «Until Sunday – says twelve-year-old Artem – I was able to go home a couple of hours a day, in the pause between the alarms of the sirens. Then enough: the battle broke out above and the TV was also blown. My father wants me to be here in the dark, on the ground and in silence. He promised me that as soon as the sun comes and spring arrives, let’s go to the beach together. “
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The mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhayev – estimates that the children hiding in the bunkers are “over 13 thousand” to “prevent the Russians from using them as human shields to conquer Mykolajiv and Odessa too”. It would be inconceivable for fathers who resist in the territorial defense legion to fire on their children to stop the advance of Vladimir Putin’s tanks. «To win this war – says Kolykhayev, barricaded in the town hall torn apart by missiles – you need to have a cool head. I told our children that they were born and when they are old they will die in a Ukrainian city ». The tragedy is that from today to cultivate such a hope one must also have a lot of faith. Armored vehicles and Russian tanks block the city streets. Missiles, bombs and artillery shells rain down on buildings, supermarkets and schools in the center.
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The Kremlin troops, having crossed the Dnipro River and landed on the Black Sea coast, have held Kherson in a vice. There are no more escape routes for the 290,000 inhabitants. Checkpoints and round-ups of invaders threaten to shoot anyone who tries to leave their home through swamps and countryside. The morning assault cut off the electricity. A rocket hit the aqueduct. Women, old people and children, in the cold and without water, have no choice: the exhausted people of refugees, with their lead black hearts, under the white snow set out to try to take refuge in Odessa, in Moldova, passing through from Palanca, or in Romania. Someone tries to overcome 200 kilometers, others more than 300. The last attack, while Kharkiv fell to the north, brought together the special units that had come up from Crimea with the columns advanced from Donbass and Mariupol. Once again the Ukrainian people think this way about saving children, whatever the cost.
«It’s called homeland – says Kristina – because she has children. If these die, she too disappears ». She pushes a pram into the frozen mud: inside is a four-month-old baby. She holds the hand of her eldest, five-year-old Olga, who advances with the school satchel on her shoulders and a transparent bag full of toys. Around them, for tens of kilometers, the soaked procession of displaced people from Kherson and Kharkiv, marching “towards freedom” with their lives in a broken suitcase. Thousands: crammed into yellow minibuses, clinging to tractors, in car trunks, on bicycles and on horse-drawn carriages. However, the majority walk on foot. «The Russians hit the vehicles – says Darjina, 32 and three children who follow her biting apples -: they fear they are stuffed with explosives. In Odessa or on the border we will pay someone to take us far. Maybe we will never get there: there is no choice ».
In the tide escaping from the South also a line of buses evacuating 480 Chinese and Indian students. Volunteers, along the way of the contemporary Ukrainian ordeal, distribute bread, water, blankets, shoes, sleeping bags and diapers to spend the night in the reeds. Thousands also the males who escort companions, mothers and children as far as they can, not beyond the borders of their own municipality, so as not to end up indicted for desertion. “If they find a ride they will be in Chisinau within three days – says Dmitrji, 26, a worker -: they promised me they won’t turn around to die at home.” He watches his family go away: his wife, mother, sister and two children. All he has to do is war: to curb the Russians to protect the escape of those who one day will have to resurrect the country. This is why in Kherson we fight street by street: underneath the mouse-children are playing, outside the butterfly children are running away.