A War of Independence. The Darkest Hour
A fourth article in a series dedicated to my personal memories of events that are related to Russo-Ukrainian War, its new and active phase that started 24.02.2022. Check below for the rest of the articles.
Part 3. The Darkest Hour
“Special Operation”
Having Kate in driver’s seat I was able to read news by myself, coordinate with my friends and think. I was thinking on what Putin’s game was. Thursday the 24th was bloody mental: over 30 ballistic missile strikes all over Ukraine, airstrikes using helicopters and airplanes, with aim to destroy airports, military installments, oil and petrol silos and facilities, weapon storage facilities. Ground forces from Crimea attacked southern regions of Ukraine; Russian troops from DNR/LNR started advancing on westward direction; Russian forces in Belarus were on their march south to Kyiv, Russian Army advanced through north-east regions of Ukraine. Meanwhile landing parties and paratroopers were moving deep into Kyiv.
From that data it is easy to infer the aim of such actions, provided a person at least played some military strategy games. Massive airstrikes were aimed to showcase complete Russian air superiority and lower the morale of Ukrainians while reducing our Armed Forces’ technical capability to fight.
Omnidirectional assault, on the other hand, was peculiar. In conventional warfare during the attack it is important to achieve significant superiority over the defenders on a given battleground. And it is extremely difficult to achieve significant superiority over defenders on all directions. Judging from the numbers it looks even more dumb. 190 000 Russian troops are attacking over 250 000 members of Ukrainian army. On all directions simultaneously. What could that mean?
I concluded that it was indeed designed as a special operation. Main aims of it being:
- spreading the panic among the population due to assault from all ground directions and from air
- causing a severe refugee crisis to make maneuvers difficult and taking advantage of the disorder
- severely reducing military strength of Ukrainian Armed Forces with swift and targeted strikes
- under cover of panic, eliminating Ukrainian government and specifically — our president, within several days
Bypassing Block Station
We were stuck for about 30 minutes next to block station. It was an additional swiftly-made police block to stop people from reaching border. Several cars queuing in front of us turned around and started moving somewhere. A police vehicle closely followed them so I waved at police to stop and explain what was going on. A policewoman asked me why I was queuing. I said “I want to cross the border to Moldova”. She considered something briefly and then told me to follow the vehicles that turned around and drive through one of the villages to bypass the block station. “God bless her” — I thought before turning around and following one of the cars driving away from the queue.
Following a truck and an SUV, we got lost when dirt road turned to intersection. We didn’t know where to go and the direction we took was opposite to one that was suggested by policewoman. I was confused, but the SUV driver, Oleg (aged 57) suggested that we use google maps and try to drive around the block station towards the border checkpoint. Unlike other drivers, I had network connection on my dual-sim Asus, my birthday present from Kate (such a thoughtful and timely gift, come to think of it). And so we led the entire car column of refugees into the darkness and night through the unknown country road.
The road became steeper as it led us down the hill. We were met by another car driving the opposite direction. The driver told us that we would be stopped by dead end next to railway if we proceed, however I decided to check it out for myself. Indeed, it was a dead end as I went to check out the location near the railroad down the road. Oleg suggested we try to drive in parallel to the railroad if possible. It was freezing outside (-4 Celsius) and I got back into my car.
As we descended driving around the railroad, I noticed that the angle of incline was quite steep. And from my research related to trains in Cities: Skylines (a city-building game), I remembered that 8% is about the steepest incline seen in modern railway tracks. I concluded that if the road continues like that, we might find a tunnel that would enable us to cross the railway and would bring us one step closer to the border. And in about a minute we saw it. I cannot put into words how happy I was: this tunnel has reignited our hope.
Finally, with Oleg and several other families of refugees we finished our country road adventure and ended up near Mohyliv-Podilskyy, a town that has a bridge with a border crossing on Dniester river. We talked a little and exchanged phone numbers. Oleg was fleeing with his wife (round same age, don’t recall her name) on car from Vinnytsia to reunite with his son in Romania. He told me his son works in IT as well. As we started to freeze talking outside, we went back to our vehicles and joined a long line of small cars and lorries waiting for their turn on customs. It was about 2 a.m., February the 25th.
The President’s Speech
The line was barely moving, at a pace of about 1 vehicle’s length in 10 minutes. I started reading and watching the news. I came across the news of 13 Ukrainian border guards who were attacked by Russian warship on Snake island, close to Romania in Black sea. Their last recorded conversation became internationally famous the following days:
— This is a Russian military warship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and needless casualties. Otherwise, you will be bombed.
— Russian warship, go fuck yourself.
It was defiant, heroic and sad.
I scrolled the telegram channel further. (The quickest way to obtain relevant information in war time was through pre-subscribed, reliable telegram channels. To avoid fake news, we cross-checked information across several of them and against international sources in case international news were reported. We used our critical thinking too to avoid garbage news) and I found Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech. I listened to it in full.
Among other things he said that according to military intelligence, he and his family were priority targets. Despite it, he decided to stay in Kyiv. Also, he said that Ukraine was abandoned in this war, that other countries were fearful and did not stand with us. Nobody could offer Ukraine any answer on whether it will have a place in NATO, when directly confronted by Mr. Zelenskyy. He claimed that Ukraine was not afraid, not afraid to defend from Russia, to negotiate with Russia, not afraid have the neutral status as an option, but with security guarantees from certain countries. He stated that it is necessary to negotiate the end of the invasion, the end of war, but noted that at the moment the fate of our country was entirely in hands of Ukrainian Armed Forces.
I was terrified when I heard this speech. The president looked exhausted and felt abandoned in this struggle by international community. I concluded that he was ready to negotiate with Russia, to change our constitution under pressure from Mr. Putin. Seemed like omnidirectional attack and world’s reaction to it took heavy toll on his morale. Although Zelenskyy decided to stay in Kyiv and to keep his family in Ukraine, it seemed to me he was not sure if he was going to make it through the night with the sheer amount of sabotage and reconnaissance groups which flooded our capital. Faith was dying.
The Long Cold Night
The line was moving slowly and drivers became angry and anxious. They were yelling at fellow drivers who fell asleep in their driver seats and honking. Despite the cold outside, I did not switch on the engine for long: we had less than 1/2 fuel tank and I didn’t know when I could refuel next time. Last time I waited at a gas station for 30 minutes and was able to buy only 20 litres of petrol. Many gas stations were closed or out of petrol, and queues to all of them were unprecedented.
I really wanted to visit a restroom, but there was none around. The line of cars was stretching through the town towards the border. It was still quite far to walk to border and none of the shops were working. Just the 3–5 storied multi-apartment buildings were around, garages and Dniester. In an act of desperation, I decided to quickly go around the garages at dawn and arrived at a beautiful river view. I did not appreciate it at that moment, because my thoughts were occupied. In about 5 minutes I got back to the car shivering and switched on the engine. After a while a man knocked on my window and asked to switch the engine off. He claimed it was malfunctioning and releasing bad fumes (I remembered with regret that I forgot to check engine oil before driving). He told he was trying to get 2 kids across the border and that they were breathing that shit for 15 minutes already. I switched off the engine. At least Kate was not freezing: she dressed in a long and warm down jacket. I sincerely regretted not allowing her to take a large blanket with us due to lack of space.
I didn’t sleep for 24 hours at that point, most of them spent at the driving wheel. I heard first rumors of Ukrainian men who were stopped trying to cross the border. Our friends started queuing on Hungarian border where the lines were smaller. Kate suggested that I swim across Dniester while she crosses the border legally in a car. I remembered the morning frosty wind near Dniester, thought of the Kalashnikov assault rifles that border guards should have and refused. We decided to wait till the end and see if we are allowed. 6 hours have passed since we joined the line.
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Series:
Part 0. Historical Context. The European Choice
Part 3. The Darkest Hour
