<
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/jul/27/that-idiot-putin-wants-to-take-it-all-russias-kamikaze-tactics-fuel-a-slow-advance-in-ukraine>
"It was last year when Valentyn Velykyi noticed Russia’s war with Ukraine was
getting closer. In early summer, it arrived on his doorstep. “You could hear
explosions day and night. Recently missiles started flying over my house.
There’s a rumbling sound. You can see a trail in the sky,” the 72-year-old
pensioner recalled.
Velykyi’s home is at No 18 Petrenko Street, in the small agricultural village
of Maliyivka. It is located on the administrative border between Dnipropetrovsk
and Donetsk provinces in central-eastern Ukraine. Once Russian troops were far
away. Latterly, they have crept nearer, besieging the city of Pokrovsk and
capturing one grassy meadow after another.
Europe’s biggest war since 1945 continues to rage. Its scale is epic: battles
are fought across a 600-mile (965km) frontline. In recent months, the Kremlin
has stepped up its bombardment of Ukraine’s cities and towns. Most nights it
sends hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles. A weary population has got
used to the wail of air raid sirens and the kettle drum boom of explosions.
In May, fighting engulfed Maliyivka. It became a Russian target. First, the
house by the old bus stop was destroyed. Then everything got hit. The village’s
300-odd residents left, with the exception of Velykyi and his equally stubborn
neighbour Mykola. For a while volunteers dropped off food and water for the
pair. Eventually, when it got too dangerous, they stopped coming.
Last week, Velykyi went to call on his friend, bringing tea and sweets as
usual, only to discover that Mykola had vanished. Dead chickens lay in the
yard. “I called Mykola’s name but he’d gone. I thought: ‘My God, is it really
true that our military is going to retreat,’” he said. He spent the next day
hiding in a dugout made by Ukrainian soldiers, venturing out in the evening to
fetch water from Mykola’s well.
While he was away a missile fell on his house. “I heard BANG. My shed was gone,
in a split second. There was nothing left. It was probably a glide bomb or
something,” he said. At dawn, he freed his animals and set off on foot across
the fields. Behind, was his flattened home; to the right a crater-pitted road;
ahead the large village of Velykomykhailivka. He walked for six hours under a
sweltering sky."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
