Zürcher Nachrichten - 'A bad dream': Russia marches on Dnipropetrovsk

EUR -
AED 3.833114
AFN 76.567491
ALL 99.259156
AMD 416.113834
ANG 1.876383
AOA 951.75484
ARS 1102.422229
AUD 1.658046
AWG 1.878463
AZN 1.77241
BAM 1.962496
BBD 2.102103
BDT 126.4916
BGN 1.956508
BHD 0.393332
BIF 3082.557627
BMD 1.043591
BND 1.409063
BOB 7.193545
BRL 6.019742
BSD 1.041057
BTN 90.414201
BWP 14.410307
BYN 3.407074
BYR 20454.380029
BZD 2.091266
CAD 1.487999
CDF 2995.105789
CHF 0.951025
CLF 0.026012
CLP 998.192852
CNY 7.627658
CNH 7.601745
COP 4348.851656
CRC 526.943418
CUC 1.043591
CUP 27.655157
CVE 110.640926
CZK 25.050315
DJF 185.393466
DKK 7.459066
DOP 64.565872
DZD 141.659649
EGP 52.823958
ERN 15.653862
ETB 133.710299
FJD 2.411373
FKP 0.838686
GBP 0.83527
GEL 2.942647
GGP 0.838686
GHS 16.084419
GIP 0.838686
GMD 74.61865
GNF 8999.69945
GTQ 8.037308
GYD 218.027661
HKD 8.125878
HNL 26.543221
HRK 7.535612
HTG 136.371646
HUF 401.40678
IDR 17067.145132
ILS 3.733248
IMP 0.838686
INR 90.652299
IQD 1363.866694
IRR 43922.136075
ISK 146.603632
JEP 0.838686
JMD 163.936434
JOD 0.740426
JPY 160.901901
KES 134.738025
KGS 91.261942
KHR 4173.741074
KMF 495.235707
KPW 939.325723
KRW 1510.905541
KWD 0.322302
KYD 0.867569
KZT 525.076636
LAK 22636.780841
LBP 93247.90984
LKR 309.318384
LRD 207.695689
LSL 19.197463
LTL 3.081453
LVL 0.631258
LYD 5.129527
MAD 10.412429
MDL 19.609379
MGA 4846.583383
MKD 61.53006
MMK 2190.454189
MNT 3612.026342
MOP 8.352178
MRU 41.449201
MUR 48.589402
MVR 16.069533
MWK 1805.320449
MXN 21.40199
MYR 4.649176
MZN 66.696045
NAD 19.197186
NGN 1569.372692
NIO 38.314403
NOK 11.70635
NPR 144.675041
NZD 1.844208
OMR 0.401795
PAB 1.041052
PEN 3.863483
PGK 4.185623
PHP 60.68011
PKR 290.673695
PLN 4.157828
PYG 8192.069765
QAR 3.795998
RON 4.977196
RSD 117.110727
RUB 98.098587
RWF 1482.522415
SAR 3.914022
SBD 8.815174
SCR 15.242662
SDG 627.198197
SEK 11.284676
SGD 1.406588
SHP 0.859488
SLE 23.790587
SLL 21883.578854
SOS 595.056039
SRD 36.739585
STD 21600.222927
SVC 9.109169
SYP 13569.828152
SZL 19.195773
THB 35.302069
TJS 11.373745
TMT 3.652568
TND 3.31697
TOP 2.444196
TRY 37.687401
TTD 7.063168
TWD 34.204007
TZS 2709.161534
UAH 43.552422
UGX 3829.958033
USD 1.043591
UYU 45.113282
UZS 13523.142074
VES 63.940076
VND 26559.386313
VUV 129.053828
WST 2.961052
XAF 658.231323
XAG 0.032325
XAU 0.000358
XCD 2.820356
XDR 0.797128
XOF 658.206007
XPF 119.331742
YER 258.810603
ZAR 19.264217
ZMK 9393.568829
ZMW 29.124795
ZWL 336.035818
  • RIO

    0.3900

    62.04

    +0.63%

  • RBGPF

    64.0100

    64.01

    +100%

  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    23.28

    -0.77%

  • RELX

    0.1100

    51.44

    +0.21%

  • GSK

    0.0600

    36.13

    +0.17%

  • BTI

    0.2200

    42.74

    +0.51%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    7.69

    +0.26%

  • NGG

    -0.9000

    60.58

    -1.49%

  • AZN

    1.7000

    74.43

    +2.28%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    8.59

    +1.05%

  • SCS

    -0.0500

    11.93

    -0.42%

  • BP

    0.1300

    34.68

    +0.37%

  • BCC

    -4.6000

    118.72

    -3.87%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    12.85

    -0.16%

  • CMSD

    -0.1800

    23.71

    -0.76%

  • BCE

    0.3800

    23.26

    +1.63%

'A bad dream': Russia marches on Dnipropetrovsk
'A bad dream': Russia marches on Dnipropetrovsk / Photo: Genya SAVILOV - AFP

'A bad dream': Russia marches on Dnipropetrovsk

Svitlana Rudokvas once took solance in the fact that fighting between the Ukrainian army and Russian forces was raging at a safe distance in the eastern Donetsk region neighbouring her own.

Text size:

But now, the Kremlin's emboldened army has advanced and brought the fight right to the doorstep of her Dnipropetrovsk region, while raining down bombs with greater intensity.

"Some people still have this idea of a psychological border, they think that Russians won't cross," the 51-year-old shop keeper told AFP.

"We thought so too -- before gliding bombs hit us," she added in the village of Novopavlivka, one settlement in Russia's sights just over the border in the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region.

In the three years since Russia invaded, its forces have never broken through into the industrial region.

But emboldened by months of gradual gains, they are now just some four kilometres (2.5 miles) from its border and stepping up bombardments.

The restaurant right next to Rudokvas' shop in the village of Novopavlivka was levelled in one recent bombardment but one crumbling wall held with its still-ticking clock.

Suppliers have grown increasingly wary of making deliveries to her shop -- for now, fully stocked -- with Russian forces drawing nearer, she said.

"It's like a dream," she told AFP stepping over rubble and debris of the restaurant.

"I get up and think I'm dreaming. Was it a bad dream or is it my reality now? I just want it to be over, so that no one else feels this way ever again," she added.

- 'Photos with their corpses' -

Director of the New Geopolitics Research Network Mykhailo Samus argued any Russian breakthrough into Dnipropetrovsk could still take months -- depending on Ukrainian resources.

If Russia troops do cross, the gains would be more psychologically significant than strategic, he said.

"They'll try to cross this imagined border to show: 'you see, for the first time in the war, we are in the Dnipropetrovsk region'," he told AFP by telephone.

"Russia is a master at using such psychological effects," he said.

Vadym, a 35-year-old Ukrainian serviceman, was not worried about the Russian gains.

At a large sign and now a memorial with Ukrainian flags delineating the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk borders -- a popular spot for selfies -- he voiced optimism that any Russian advance would be temporary.

"Let the Russians take pictures here, sooner or later we'll just come back and take photos with their corpses under that same sign," Vadym said.

But in the nearby border town of Mezhova where around 5,000 people lived before the war, anxiety is setting in.

Residents are noticably tense said 29-year-old Polina Yakovenko, the manager of a popular cafe in the town's centre.

"It had once been so far away from us. We were afraid, but not like we are now," she added.

- 'Turn into a nightmare' -

Despite louder explosions and nearing fighting, Yakovenko plans to stay -- for now.

She said was was torn between keeping her seven-year-old daughter safe, whom she had just dropped off at music school, and her attachment to her home.

"This is where our friends are, where we built our life," she said, describing how she knows "every corner, every street" of her hometown.

She pointed at the cafe's piano, under which stood the empty container of a portable Javelin antitank system.

"This piano came from my home. It's a piece of my childhood," she said.

"It's all so dear to us," she said.

Rudkovas, the shopkeeper, said she had already packed the essentials in case she needed to make a hasty exit from Novopavlivka.

She wondered out loud what would happen if Russian forces advanced into Dnipropetrovsk and towards her hometown.

"What do they want? They'll just come to some place and turn it into a nightmare," she told AFP.

"And then they'll go to somewhere else where they'll create another nightmare, and so on," she added.

cbur-brw/jbr/cw

F.Carpenteri--NZN