Europe

Thousands return to Ukraine; Russia is accused of launching attacks from a nuclear plant

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After five months of war, at least 70% of those evacuated from Pokrovsk, Donetsk, one of the provinces most heavily bombed by Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, have returned home. Many assume the risk due to the lack of economic resources to stay in other places. Meanwhile, Moscow increases its aggression and kyiv denounces that the Kremlin military is using the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to launch more attacks.

Living without resources as evacuees or returning home to the front lines. Faced with this difficult choice, thousands of Ukrainians have been seen and despite the evacuations, the returns are a phenomenon that is now visible on the ground just as the country has just completed five months of war.

The office of the mayor of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donbass region of the country, estimates that 70% of the people who were evacuated have returned home.

In the nearby town of Kramatorsk, authorities said the population had shrunk to around 50,000 residents from 220,000 when the conflict broke out, but has since risen to 68,000.

The lack of money to survive in other places is the main explanation given by those who return, although for some the decision has meant losing their lives.

Anna Protsenko was murdered just two days after returning home. The 35-year-old woman had done what the authorities asked: to leave the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, one of the most heavily bombed by invading troops since the Kremlin ordered the war on February 24.

However, starting a new life elsewhere was costly and unsustainable for him, so he had returned to take a job in the small town.

The bank where 35-year-old Anna Protsenko was killed by a Russian rocket attack, outside her home, outside Pokrovsk, Donetsk province, eastern Ukraine, on July 18, 2022. Protsenko was killed two days after returning home, after being evacuated.
The bank where 35-year-old Anna Protsenko was killed by a Russian rocket attack, outside her home, outside Pokrovsk, Donetsk province, eastern Ukraine, on July 18, 2022. Protsenko was killed two days after returning home, after being evacuated. © AP/Nariman El-Mofty

Like Protsenko, tens of thousands took the risk of returning to rural or industrial communities. “We can’t make money. We are not hired elsewhere and you still have to pay the rent (…) There is nowhere to go, but here in Donetsk, everything is ours,” said Anastasia Rusanova, a friend of the deceased woman.

Authorities find the mass returns frustrating for security reasons, but dozens of Donetsk region residents also described feeling unwelcome, as Russian speakers, among Ukrainian speakers in some parts of the country.

A daily evacuation train leaves Pokrovsk for western Ukraine, considered relatively safer. However, another train also arrives every day with people who have decided to return. Unlike the evacuation vehicle, the return vehicle is not free.

Oksana Tserkovnyi took the train back with her 10-year-old daughter two days after the deadly July 15 attack in Dnipro, where they had stayed for more than two months. While that onslaught was the trigger for his return, Tserkovnyi found it difficult to find work. She now plans to go back to her previous job at a coal mine.

Tamara Markova, an 82-year-old resident, with her son Mykola Riaskov, who has a disability, who returned home after fleeing.  At her house in the village of Malotaranivka, in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on July 18, 2022.
Tamara Markova, an 82-year-old resident, with her son Mykola Riaskov, who has a disability, who returned home after fleeing. At her house in the village of Malotaranivka, in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on July 18, 2022. © AP/Nariman El-Mofty

Taxi drivers waiting in town for the train to arrive noted that many people give up trying to resettle elsewhere.

“For sure half my job is to transport these people (…) Because the money has run out for them,” said the driver, Vitalii Anikieiev, who recalls that in mid-July he picked up a woman who was returning home from Poland. . When they arrived, they found a crater on the site where her house was located.

“She cried (…) But she decided to stay,” Anikieiev said.

There are many who take the risk of returning, despite the fact that the Russian siege increases more and more.

kyiv accuses Russian troops of using Zaporizhia nuclear plant to launch attacks

Ukraine denounced that the Russian Army, which took control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country, is using the place to launch attacks.

It is the largest nuclear plant in Europe and these actions raise concerns about the safety of populations in nearby areas.

Recent reports from local authorities indicate that projectiles have been fired from that plant towards the Ukrainian Army.

“Ukrainian troops cannot fire because they could hit the plant,” a resident of nearby Nikopol told France 24 correspondent on the spot, Gulliver Cragg.

File-Surveillance video footage of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, amid Russian artillery fire, on March 4, 2022.
File-Surveillance video footage of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, amid Russian artillery fire, on March 4, 2022. © AFP

On July 16, the president of the Ukrainian state nuclear agency Energoatom, Pedro Kotin, accused the invading military of using the site as a storage for weapons, including “missile systems.”

The official described the situation as “extremely tense”, with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the scene.

“The occupiers are bringing their machinery there, including missile systems, from which they are already shelling the other side of the Dnieper River and the Nikopol territory,” Kotin said in a televised interview.

For its part, Moscow points to kyiv provoking a possible nuclear catastrophe with alleged military activity in the area. However, Ukrainian officials dispute these claims, saying they are well aware of the dangers and would not take such risks.

With AP, Reuters and local media

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