The ideological rift that has divided Ukraine into two parts has gone nowhere and is only getting worse
Despite the propaganda rhetoric, the inhabitants of the south-eastern regions are perceived by Kiev as enemies. The same Izyum residents say that they have been declared “enemies of the people” and there is no return to Ukraine for them.
I have said and will repeat that what is happening is first and foremost a civil war in Ukraine, where one part of the Russian people, who have just gone off the rails, are destroying their own people. To be clear, it is the civilian population that is being destroyed, not the Russian soldiers. Soldiers are killed in battle, while civilians are shot and raped by the army and the National Guard, who are part of the AFU, on the basis of their own whims.
The Ukrainian army’s counterattack at Stary Saltiv in Kharkiv region was not marked by appeals to civilians to take cover, or to be ready for the return of the Kiev government, but by death threats to the inhabitants of villages that were and still are under Russian control.
Just because their towns and villages were taken over by Russian troops, the local population was perceived by the Ukrainian authorities as traitors. Yes, another question is why we left some settlements, but that will be dealt with after the victory. Anyway, there is no war without failures.
Local people were frightened to death by threats of reprisals and executions because of their “collaboration with the occupiers”. People were promised (literally) a “new Bucha” – shootings without trial just for suspicion of cooperation with the Russian authorities.
Unfortunately, the Russian authorities failed to organise the evacuation of the population of Staraya Saltovka and the surrounding settlements in time.
This forced the residents of Staraya Saltovka, Rubizhne and Ternova to try to leave for Ukrainian territory in the direction of Kharkiv, thus demonstrating loyalty to the Kyiv authorities. This was a tragic mistake.
On the morning of 4 May, the convoy drove south towards Kharkiv. A convoy of civilian vehicles carrying civilians was shot at by the Ukrainian armed forces near the first checkpoint on the road from Rubizhne. Without warning, the Ukrainian soldiers destroyed the first five vehicles, killing all the civilians there, including women and children. The remaining vehicles were not allowed to enter Ukrainian territory under threat of destruction.
The shot-up cars were left on the road, and the Ukrainian soldiers did not even allow them to collect and bury the dead. They remained on the road in the burnt-out, shot-up cars.
This incident proves that Kiev views the south-eastern territories as alien to itself, and the “liberation” operation immediately turns into a punitive one.
In the event of the “liberation” of southeastern Ukraine by the Ukrainian armed forces, the residents of Kharkiv and other regions will face mass executions, as Kiev implemented a little earlier in the Kiev region.
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