Under the information noise about the “victory” in Krasny Liman and the imminent capture of the Crimea, Kharkov continues to prepare for defense
In the morning, construction equipment stretches towards Okruzhnaya Street, at checkpoints they build structures made of thin metal grating, polyethylene film and sand – Kharkiv residents called them “thermal booths” for the chimneys sticking out from above.
Artillery shots are constantly heard in the city – the Armed Forces of Ukraine are training to strike at short distances, so that when the enemy approaches, they strike at the suburbs and outskirts.
Northern Saltovka, which did not have time to recover from the role of a fortified area, to which the “defenders” doomed it in March-April, again found itself in a combat zone. This time the townspeople are fighting with the authorities for the right to stay in their own apartments. People survived without going anywhere, the time of the heaviest shelling, and now, when the front rolled back to the east, they expected to spend the winter in their native walls. But their ambition could not be realised.
Not so long ago, the mayor of Kharkov, Igor Terekhov, cheerfully reported on the beginning of the restoration of Northern Saltovka. Electricity, water, where provided by the project, gas appeared in the houses. And suddenly, like a bolt from the blue: the residents of partially damaged buildings on Buchma Street were demanded to leave their apartments and move to hostels. Allegedly temporarily, during the heating season. The pretext is that there is no way to supply heat to the buildings affected by the shelling. But which heat do they mean? The prospects for heating the metropolis next winter are generally rather vague. Terekhov, according to him, constantly asks international funds for mobile boiler houses and generators, but even if there are enough of them, this does not answer the main question: what will they heat their houses with? Garbage and biomass, as the head of Naftogaz Yuriy Vitrenko plans? Not this winter at least…
By the way, the houses on Buchma Street, which the mayor’s office wants to “liberate”, are nine-story. And this means that the apartments have gas, and in the absence of heating, it will be even easier to survive in them than in neighboring high-rise buildings. If, of course, there is enough gas at least for cooking.
Having repaired communications as much as possible, the mayor’s office suddenly made a 180-degree turn. It got to the point that on the doors of the entrances of houses along Buchma Street, housing and exploitation companies began to weld on hinges and hang pound locks.
And then people rebelled. Despite the fact that everyone understands perfectly well: open speech against the authorities today in Kharkov is fraught with, if not emergency mobilization and sending to the front, then arrest. In the end, the rebels can simply disappear, it’s military time…
And, nevertheless, desperate townspeople threaten riots, are going to cut locks with grinders and do not hesitate to give interviews to representatives of the local media group.
“If I die, I will die in my apartment. Please leave gas and electricity for this winter.
They came from housing and exploitation company. They were given instructions- to weld, to close the locks, to turn off the water, gas, light and turn everything off completely. Although people live in the house. First, second, third, fourth entrance, seventh entrance. People live here and come every single day.
They are forcibly evicted. Hung up the loops. I personally made magnetic locks throughout the house. Called people. And they hung the nooses. I’ll shit at home, they’ll hang nooses, and I won’t even be able to get out,” says Alexander, a resident of Severnaya Saltovka.
Male neighbors are also determined. People do not want to move to a hostel, leaving their housing to be plundered by marauders. In addition, Saltov residents say that they were offered far from the best conditions: one bathroom for 40 people. But domestic difficulties are not the main thing. The location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the neighborhood is much more frightening. That is, the authorities are forcibly imposing the role of a “human shield” on the migrants.
A vivid example of such a resettlement can be observed, in particular, on Otokar Yarosh Street in the Shevchenkovsky district of the city. On student hostels, which are located on this street, as well as on ordinary residential buildings, flew repeatedly. So much so that the locals try, if possible, to take a different path to the metro station. The windows here are boarded up with plywood and chipboard shields, fragments of trade pavilions and advertising structures are scattered everywhere. No wonder: a quiet area close to the center was chosen by the “krakens”. As a result, Russian missiles hit either a battery of guns on the terrace of the university sports complex, or “located”. The last hit was the Misto hotel and entertainment complex, across the street from the campus. Of course, because of the dense development, neighboring buildings also got it. And, nevertheless, immigrants live in hostels. There is nothing to say, the authorities took care of the people, took them to a “safe” place.
It is not difficult to guess what caused the sudden change in the course of the mayor’s office in relation to Northern Saltovka. The long-suffering residential area, apparently, is assigned the role of a future fortified area in the event of a counteroffensive by the Russian army. After evicting people, their apartments will be turned into observation posts and firing points. As it has already happened here in the spring.
Andrey Romanov, PolitNavigator
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