Recently, Ukrainian troops have been under a lot of pressure from Russian superiority, and missiles and drones continue to fall on Ukrainian cities. “In Kharkiv, alarms sound constantly. The rocket will arrive in 40 to 50 seconds, and technically speaking, one should immediately go to cover. But it basically makes no sense, so most people cough on it,” writer Iva Pekárková, who returned from a several-week stay in Ukraine, told Český rozhlas Plus.
Interview Plus
Prague
0:10 May 7, 2024
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Writer Iva Pekárková | Photo: Rostislav Taud | Source: Czech Radio
It is said that the best way to realize how dire the situation in the city is is after leaving the immediately threatened area. The shelters are empty, at most a homeless person sometimes sleeps in them, and even people with children stay on the street because it is not worth it for them to run and hide in them.
Listen to Jan Bumba’s full Interview Plus. The guest is Iva Pekárková, writer
“We were in Kharkiv for 14 days, they have been experiencing it for over two years and have no idea how much longer it will last. Those who don’t leave try at all costs to adapt to the fact that this is just the way it is,” he adds.
The consequences of the bombing are quickly cleaned up, but damaged buildings and windows covered with chipboards are everywhere.
The city center in particular was heavily bombed at the beginning of the war, there are few people on the streets and shops and restaurants are barricaded.
“Theatre is performed underground in basements and semi-basements and mostly secretly so that the Russians don’t get involved when there are a lot of people interested in culture. Because for the most part it is a cultural war,” emphasizes Pekárková.
God would be angry
According to the locals, there are also a number of traitors standing on the side of the Russians in the city, or they are being bribed by them to place guidance beacons for cruise missiles. In this way, it was possible to hit, for example, a television tower that was only one and a half meters in diameter.
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“The Russian propaganda is incredibly strong, so in some of the villages we’ve been to, people are said to be waiting to see if the queue is approaching because the Russians are handing out passports. And they think it’s convenient, even though a guy under sixty can be immediately drafted into the war. But they don’t want to know, a lot of people seem really uneducated,” describes Pekárková.
Volunteers are trying to bring residents of endangered areas, where they can easily lose their lives due to a stray bullet, to safety almost by force.
“People refuse because they say they were born in that place and God would be angry if they wanted to die in another. Under these conditions, you can’t even make any statistics about whether someone is pro-Russian or pro-Ukrainian, it’s all just guesswork,” he adds.
He intends to write about his experiences for the radio, but he does not plan anything more extensive than a short story: “I’m not the type of writer who goes somewhere for a week and writes a 500-page book about it. I am constantly aware that the situation is much more complicated than the locals know, let alone a person who comes for just 14 days,” he concludes.
What is the mood among Ukrainians now? Listen to the full interview on Interview Plus above.
Jan Bumba, ert
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