Zürcher Nachrichten - 'Russia, our sacred state!': school reopens under Moscow control

EUR -
AED 3.832684
AFN 72.959602
ALL 98.462959
AMD 410.45402
ANG 1.873047
AOA 957.921829
ARS 1062.031565
AUD 1.668562
AWG 1.878277
AZN 1.784801
BAM 1.956057
BBD 2.098476
BDT 124.196346
BGN 1.95543
BHD 0.392152
BIF 3072.704402
BMD 1.043487
BND 1.411486
BOB 7.181945
BRL 6.350643
BSD 1.039337
BTN 88.357629
BWP 14.364891
BYN 3.401248
BYR 20452.35176
BZD 2.089175
CAD 1.498735
CDF 2994.808319
CHF 0.931781
CLF 0.03736
CLP 1030.865674
CNY 7.613704
CNH 7.60587
COP 4549.298739
CRC 524.369013
CUC 1.043487
CUP 27.652414
CVE 110.279514
CZK 25.108428
DJF 185.074358
DKK 7.458116
DOP 63.288329
DZD 140.667513
EGP 53.089373
ERN 15.65231
ETB 129.556951
FJD 2.417812
FKP 0.826423
GBP 0.829839
GEL 2.932642
GGP 0.826423
GHS 15.278011
GIP 0.826423
GMD 75.13081
GNF 8979.181761
GTQ 8.008054
GYD 217.438617
HKD 8.11073
HNL 26.382472
HRK 7.484837
HTG 135.967895
HUF 414.03543
IDR 16874.546735
ILS 3.801242
IMP 0.826423
INR 88.646863
IQD 1361.479186
IRR 43917.772492
ISK 145.170484
JEP 0.826423
JMD 162.611401
JOD 0.739936
JPY 163.242118
KES 134.177659
KGS 90.783029
KHR 4176.549681
KMF 486.395546
KPW 939.138018
KRW 1509.320727
KWD 0.321342
KYD 0.866114
KZT 545.821836
LAK 22747.993892
LBP 93069.24896
LKR 305.14016
LRD 188.634826
LSL 19.134218
LTL 3.081147
LVL 0.631195
LYD 5.106672
MAD 10.460077
MDL 19.14352
MGA 4903.645375
MKD 61.5431
MMK 3389.206159
MNT 3545.769827
MOP 8.320295
MRU 41.33344
MUR 49.25222
MVR 16.052761
MWK 1802.137182
MXN 20.931771
MYR 4.704048
MZN 66.682732
NAD 19.134218
NGN 1616.92545
NIO 38.245033
NOK 11.810924
NPR 141.372606
NZD 1.846749
OMR 0.401533
PAB 1.039337
PEN 3.870109
PGK 4.214555
PHP 61.430102
PKR 289.288974
PLN 4.258903
PYG 8104.066586
QAR 3.788799
RON 4.979106
RSD 117.045935
RUB 107.244587
RWF 1448.790677
SAR 3.91966
SBD 8.748133
SCR 14.551486
SDG 627.662417
SEK 11.505215
SGD 1.414024
SHP 0.826423
SLE 23.787187
SLL 21881.410825
SOS 593.978174
SRD 36.65877
STD 21598.081035
SVC 9.094197
SYP 2621.793487
SZL 19.129518
THB 35.780887
TJS 11.369896
TMT 3.662641
TND 3.311736
TOP 2.44395
TRY 36.710281
TTD 7.053928
TWD 34.050018
TZS 2468.324859
UAH 43.588037
UGX 3812.501768
USD 1.043487
UYU 46.356101
UZS 13399.76356
VES 53.713772
VND 26561.970104
VUV 123.884906
WST 2.882934
XAF 656.043343
XAG 0.035154
XAU 0.000398
XCD 2.820076
XDR 0.792804
XOF 656.043343
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.263155
ZAR 19.096059
ZMK 9392.640903
ZMW 28.762786
ZWL 336.002496
  • CMSD

    0.0000

    23.56

    0%

  • BCC

    -0.2600

    122.75

    -0.21%

  • SCS

    -0.5800

    11.74

    -4.94%

  • RIO

    -0.0900

    58.64

    -0.15%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    7.27

    -0.14%

  • AZN

    0.9100

    65.35

    +1.39%

  • NGG

    0.8200

    58.5

    +1.4%

  • GSK

    0.1700

    33.6

    +0.51%

  • RBGPF

    59.9600

    59.96

    +100%

  • CMSC

    0.0200

    23.86

    +0.08%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    8.39

    +0.12%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    23.16

    +0.22%

  • RELX

    -0.3100

    45.47

    -0.68%

  • BTI

    0.1131

    36.24

    +0.31%

  • JRI

    0.1100

    12.06

    +0.91%

  • BP

    0.1900

    28.6

    +0.66%

'Russia, our sacred state!': school reopens under Moscow control
'Russia, our sacred state!': school reopens under Moscow control / Photo: Alexander NEMENOV - AFP

'Russia, our sacred state!': school reopens under Moscow control

In the playground of a school in the war-torn eastern Ukrainian town of Volnovakha, now under Moscow's control, children listen to a recording of the Russian anthem, watched by armed soldiers.

Text size:

Several dozen pupils have lined up outside for a formal "back to school" ceremony, a month after the town was taken by Russian troops and Moscow-backed separatists.

Volnovakha has no electricity or working telephone lines, AFP journalists found while taking part in a media trip organised by the Russian army.

Widespread shelling has destroyed houses, shops and cafes, evidence of the fierce fighting for a town strategically located halfway between the main regional city of Donetsk and the port of Mariupol.

Russian troops have besieged Mariupol for a month and a half and the city on the Sea of Azov seems likely to fall shortly.

As Russia puts it, Volnovakha has been "liberated" from neo-Nazi Ukrainians.

"It's time to learn. Hurry up, children!" a small rosy-cheeked girl with white bows in her hair announces, speaking into a microphone.

Behind her, the school staff are standing next to a Russian flag and that of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic (DNR).

Nearby a soldier in a cagoule and helmet -- one of the troops accompanying the journalists -- stands watching, holding a submachine gun.

As a sound system plays the DNR anthem and then the Russian anthem -- which opens "Russia, our sacred state, Russia, our beloved country!" -- staff and pupils stand silently, their faces impassive.

- 'Lived through horror' -

Russia's conquest of Volnovakha on March 11 allowed its forces to encircle Mariupol from the north, having attacked the strategic Sea of Azov port from the east and west.

This came after Volnovakha and its Ukrainian defending troops were bombarded for two weeks.

Many houses, shops and public buildings are now semi-ruined, windowless or burnt-out.

Russia argues that such destruction here, and elsewhere in Ukraine, came about because Kyiv's forces used the local population as human shields.

After a month under Moscow's control, there are still scenes of devastation all around. There is a huge hole in the facade of the hospital and trees nearby have been snapped in half.

Yellow-painted School Number 5, which is in the centre of the town, has also suffered from shelling, with gaping holes in place of several windows and shattered bricks. This is the only school to reopen so far.

"We lived through horror. There was terrible bombing," says Lyudmila Khmara, the 52-year-old school administrator.

She says that she wants to stay in Volnovakha, all the same, because: "nowhere is as good as home".

She says she hopes Volnovakha will become "part of Russia", where no one will be forced to speak Ukrainian, while this part of Ukraine is overwhelmingly Russian-speaking.

Moscow justifies its military operation in Ukraine citing the need to protect the Russian-speaking population.

- In survival mode -

The army is leaving nothing to chance. Even with no sign of resistance, tanks and military vehicles decorated with the letter Z patrol the streets as local civilians walk around and cycle.

The municipal hospital continues to function as best it can, despite lacking electricity and suffering extensive bomb damage.

In the semi-darkness, a nurse, 46-year-old Natalya Nekrasova-Mukhina, says that most patients, from children to the elderly, come to be treated for shrapnel wounds.

Local residents are still living in survival mode.

"We have no gas, no water, no electricity and no phone line. We live like we're in a hole," says Lyudmila Dryga, 72, a retired crane operator.

Another local woman, Svetlana Shcherbakova, 59, recounts how she lost everything except ID documents when her house burned down.

"We received humanitarian aid just once, that was it," says the former supermarket security manager, her voice trembling.

A 35-year-old railway mechanic, Anton Varusha, estimates that less than half of the people living on his street have returned to live in Volnovakha, which had around 20,000 inhabitants before the bombardment.

"I don't know yet whether I'll stay here. At the moment, I have my parents here, who are old and sick," he says.

He says locals are struggling to get information on what is happening, with no electricity or internet.

"We try to listen to various radio stations, so we can somehow compare (accounts of) what is going on," he says.

L.Zimmermann--NZN