A declaration of “large-scale military operation”, bombardments, troops entering the country. Since Vladimir Putin’s speech this Thursday morning at 6 a.m. Paris time, Ukraine and Russia have been at war.
While we have received images of endless lines of cars fleeing Kiev and we are already beginning to count the dead, Ukrainians living in France are consumed with concern. Nikita rushed to her phone as soon as she learned of the invasion. “My uncle’s parents live in Kiev, on the left bank. They were awakened by the sound of explosions. Fortunately, at the moment they are fine and safe. I thought Putin was going to end up helping the separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk, but I didn’t expect him to fall into this madness. »
“Since this morning, it’s been a complete blackout”
For other of our Internet users, to the pain of the war is added the anguish of not having any news. “A reservist in the army, my brother was mobilized on Tuesday. I haven’t had any news since yesterday and I don’t even know where he is,” laments Elizaveta, who has lived in France for several years.
“Since this morning, it’s been a complete blackout, worries Yoann, who works with a Ukrainian company. My contacts are absent from all the means of communication that we had in common. “There are network cuts,” explains Marguerite, whose family lives in the Zaporozhye region, in northern Crimea. She managed to reach them all the same and the news is bad: “People don’t know where to flee, because there is no safe place in Ukraine anymore. »
For Michel’s family, who lives in Kiev, it’s the same, “there is not really a way to get to safety”.
Resistance against the Russian invasion
If the countries bordering Ukraine, such as Poland or Romania have already said they are ready to welcome refugees, some Ukrainians seem for the moment to have chosen the path of resistance against the Russian invasion. “The Ukrainian people have always fought against foreign domination,” explains Elizaveta. My parents arrived at my house on Sunday, but we had to force them to leave. They did not want to abandon their country. It’s because my brother fights that they accepted. “My contacts had all armed themselves in recent days,” adds Yoann.
Théophile has family near Lviv, in the west of the country. For the moment spared by the fighting, “they don’t intend to leave and some of them even want to fight. Overall, the feedback I have is that the Ukrainians are not losing hope of being able to repel the Russian army, even if they are aware of the difference in power,” he specifies. “There will be resistance,” says Marguerite. Until when ? For Elizaveta, “the only hope for Ukraine is a military intervention against Russia. »