report
Status: 02/20/2023 10:47 a.m
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the Chernihiv region was one of the first to be attacked. However, the advance did not go according to plan there – partly because of a bridge that did not exist.
Irina Tymoshenko’s two dogs stand at attention by the wooden fence and bark nervously. The animals seem to distrust strangers. Perhaps this is due to Tymoshenko’s experience with uninvited guests. The woman in her mid-50s strides across the snow-covered lawn. She opens the door of her shed and points to a trapdoor in the floor:
We hid in this basement. Down there we have blankets, sleeping bags, bottled water. It’s all there for now.
Irina Tymoshenko tells of the hours of fear when the Russian tanks rolled in.
Image: Peter Sawaki Deutschlandfunk
“Stay at home, don’t provoke us”
Tymoshenko lives in Makoshyne, a village in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine. The area was one of the first to be rolled into by Russian tanks on February 24, 2022. With a sigh, the mother of two tells how she experienced the beginning of the invasion:
One of my daughters called me from Kiev at 5 a.m. and said: ‘They are bombing us.’ I cried. I didn’t believe it would come to this until the very end. My daughter then came to me as quickly as possible. Shortly thereafter, Russian tanks were here. It was awful.
According to Tymoshenko, she mostly hid in the basement with her two daughters. There were hours of anxiety, she says:
The soldiers’ first sentence was: ‘There are no orders to shoot. Stay home, don’t provoke us.’ My daughters and I climbed out of the basement three or four times a day when we got too cold. I was very afraid that the soldiers would come to our house.
This did not happen, after three days the Russian troops withdrew from Makoschyne.
Tanks also rolled through Mena
The hallways of Mena City Hall are dimly lit. The small town north of Makoschyne is also suffering from energy shortages as a result of Russian air raids. In the office of Mayor Gennady Primakov, this does not carry too much weight. Plenty of daylight enters through the wide windows. Primakov wears a fleece jacket in an olive drab military color. Unlike many Ukrainians, he was not surprised by the invasion:
On February 23, I was in contact with a battalion of our army stationed here. The commander called me in the evening. He showed me a photograph showing Russian military equipment. He said: ‘It starts tomorrow, that’s for sure.’
That’s how it happened. Mena is less than a hundred kilometers from the border with Russia. After a few hours, the first tanks rolled through town. Mena was de facto under Russian occupation. Primakov went into hiding and – emotionally agitated – brought his family to safety:
I felt fear and hatred, but also powerlessness. Because we couldn’t do anything at first. I also worried about my wife and child. I had heard that the Russians had already captured some mayors. I was told: ‘Evacue your family, immediately!’
False expectations of Russians
As it turned out, the Russian units wanted to move on quickly and cross the Desna River south of Mena. There the Ukrainian army then repelled the invaders. Also because they came with false expectations, as the mayor explains:
During the fight we found a map that the soldiers had with them. Every settlement, every river, every bridge was marked with animal names. Bridges that didn’t even exist were also marked. One of them was planned in 1986 during Soviet times. But it was never built.
Valeri Krawzow describes how the Russian troops had to improvise because they couldn’t find a bridge.
Image: Peter Sawaki Deutschlandfunk
Russian troops had to improvise
Valeriy Kravtsov walks across a snowy field on the outskirts of the village of Makoshyne and stops in front of the frozen Desna River. On the other bank, clearly visible and surrounded by bare trees, is a tank. Krawzow tells his story: he was destroyed trying to cross the river. “Now it’s just a pile of junk. You could put it in a museum to show what the ‘Russian world’ brought us.”
Krawzow works in the mayor’s office of Mena near Makoschyne. He too witnessed the start of the invasion at close range. Because the Russian troops didn’t find a bridge in the area – as they had hoped – they had to improvise, he says:
A pontoon bridge was built at this point. The task of the Russian units here was probably to first quickly surround Chernihiv. Kiev is also only 150 kilometers away. So they could have advanced there and besieged it as well.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Key event for Ukrainians
However, the construction of the pontoon bridge took time. In addition, local residents hiding in the forest would have passed on the position of the Russian troops. The day after the invasion, they came under fire, says Krawzow. The fighting lasted about 48 hours – with a successful outcome for Ukraine.
For Kravtsov, this is a key event: “Our air force and ‘Bayraktar’ drones went into action. They destroyed the pontoon bridge and numerous Russian tanks. Some of the troops fled to Russia.” These events were of central importance. They would have prevented a quick capture of Chernihiv and probably also of Kiev.
Topic overview
war in Ukraine