Kiev does not care about civilians in eastern Ukraine, and people have to flee their homes amid daily bombings, Ukrainian refugees told RT at a temporary camp in Russia’s Rostov. It comes amid Kiev’s “lies” about humanitarian corridors, they said.
Thousands of eastern Ukrainians are flowing into Russia amid the ongoing Kiev military operation, in which the cities occupied by anti-government activists are being shelled and bombarded with heavy artillery and incendiary bombs. Even in large regional centers like Lugansk, people no longer feel safe, as cases of Ukrainian jets launching missiles at central city buildings in broad daylight have been reported.
While many men and elderly people of eastern Ukraine are
unwilling to leave their native land, women with children are
flocking to Russia’s cities and regions to stay with relatives or
friends. Those who have neither are heading for refugee camps in
Rostov.
“According to the Federal Migration Service, more than 40,000
Ukrainian citizens have crossed into Rostov Region. As of today,
about 4,000 Ukrainians have been housed in temporary
accommodation centers,” a local Russian Emergencies Ministry
official, Aleksandr Naumov, told RT.
Reporting from the Russian-Ukrainian border, RT’s Paul Scott
interviewed several women, who said they left their husbands and
relatives behind to get the children away from shooting, bombing,
and air raids.
“We left because we are scared. The streets are empty – we
are afraid to let our children go outside. They too got scared
and nervous with the constant sound of gunfire and jets,” a
woman said.
Another female refugee, who fled the embattled city of Slavyansk
with two small children, shared the story of their desperate
escape.
“First we fled to Nikolayevka when the bombardment got
intense. They then started bombing Nikolayevka too and we fled to
Artyomovsk. In Artyomovsk, almost every night there were
shootings, explosions, we heard how Grad [multiple rocket
launchers] were fired at some places nearby...I can’t bear those
sounds anymore,” the woman said while crying.
People from other regions of eastern Ukraine “are in fact
fleeing because they know the story of Slavyansk,” another
woman, who crossed to Russia with her two sons and cats, told RT.
“The [Ukrainian] National Guard is simply bombarding the people,
killing children. We fear for our children above all, we want
them to be alive and well,” she explained.
One of her sons has been having nightmares because he heard a
shooting close by at night, the woman said.
According to the woman, her Ukrainian-speaking neighbors do not
understand her family and support Kiev’s military operation.
Moreover, the Ukrainian authorities and media are outright
“lying” about civilian corridors being organized for
refugees, she said.
“It is scary in this situation that the Ukrainian authorities,
the Ukrainian media are lying about humanitarian corridors being
organized – there is no such thing in reality. They are not
letting the people leave, and the bombardments never stop. They
don’t give a damn about us, the people of Donbas, Lugansk, they
just need the territory,” the woman said.
Watch RT’s Paul Scott talking with eastern Ukrainian refugees
OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier on Thursday visited
Rostov to meet with eastern Ukrainian refugees and hear their
accounts of Kiev’s military operation – a move which was welcomed
by Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that
talking to witnesses about the events in eastern Ukraine is
crucial for anyone wishing to get a “full, clear and
impartial picture” of what is happening there.
However, Zannier outraged the refugees after saying that newly
elected Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “wants
prosperity for Ukraine and is ready to use every effort for
that.” The witnesses of Kiev’s military operation responded
by shouting: “No! This is not our president, we did not elect
him,” RIA Novosti reported.
Meanwhile, ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Friday
recorded a video address, in which he urged Kiev to stop the
military operation.
Yanukovich, who was born in Donetsk Region, said people there are
“shocked that instead of peace and stability [they got] a
bloody massacre” right at the start of Poroshenko’s term.
“It is unbearable to see those deaths, this hatred incited in
the not-so-long-ago peaceful country,” the ousted Ukrainian
leader said. Yanukovich wondered why European leaders kept
reminding him of the “unacceptability” of the use of
force against civilians in the wake of mayhem in Kiev, but are
now supporting the use of heavy artillery and jets against the
population of eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Minister on Friday held a phone conversation
with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrey Deshchitsa, in which he
reminded Kiev of its responsibility for handling the humanitarian
situation in eastern Ukraine.
“Lavrov particularly stressed the importance of providing
humanitarian aid to the residents of southeastern Ukraine, the
creation of appropriate conditions for a safe passage of refugees
to the territory of the Russian Federation,” the Russian
Foreign Ministry said in a statement.