Anglais

OCCUPATION AND CITY. I am often asked by my friends about safety. Am I safe? It is difficult to say how safe it is in the occupied city of Melitopol. I want to tell you how our city lives or survives.

STUDYING. Schools don't work. No one can guarantee children's safety. Distance learning due to lack or partial connection to the network is also not timely. The occupiers are forcing us to start studying in April. Schools are offered Russian programs. Children cannot study in an occupied city under shelling.

WORK. Of course I don't work. We are just on duty at school so that there is order and the children have room to return. The occupiers are interviewing directors about the opening of schools from April 1. They talk about their high mission - to free us, about the best times.
I love my school very much - a place of strength, joy, knowledge. Now we are forced to choose: cooperation with the occupiers and violation of the law on collaboration or unemployment and departure.

Most people have lost their jobs, businesses.

MASS MEDIA. There has been no Ukrainian television in Melitopol for quite a long time. Only Russian. I already really missed my native language, my favorite channels. I only watch the news on social networks. Not all residents have access to them. Therefore, we have an information hunger. Imagine what we hear on Russian television. The occupiers have already defeated everyone.

And for the last two days, there is no connection at all in the city.

DEMOCRACY. Rallies are prohibited. People, public figures, civil servants, and media workers are disappearing in the city. Some were released, but people do not return to the city. A direct threat to life.

They make arrests and bring charges against people. The head of the education department, Irina Shcherbak, was charged and arrested for refusing to cooperate and open schools.

POWER. Our legitimate mayor Ivan Fedorov was captured by the occupiers and held for 6 days.
During this time, the flag of Ukraine was removed in the city and a new mayor was proclaimed, which openly cooperates with the occupiers.

MONEY. People have big problems with cash. There are huge queues in banks. People take turns from 4 to 6 in the morning. There are public activists near each bank. They write everyone down, and then a queue is already formed by numbers. Cash can be exchanged at interest.
How you agree. From 10% and more.

The invaders promise to start rubles from April 1.

GROCERIES. Most of the stores are down. The ATB closed throughout the city. There are many small bazaars. But there everything is in cash and prices are very high. Local producers of bread and dairy products are very helpful.

Our mayor Ivan Fedorov agreed on humanitarian assistance, but the occupiers surrounded everything and forbade giving to people.
Gauleiter's personal order.

The invaders also distribute the humanitarian. They drive around the city and announce on the loudspeaker exactly where they will be issued. Like in the war movies.

CITY. Our beautiful city is now dirty, the roads are broken by enemy equipment that goes through the city every day. A lot of militaries.
They captured all strategic objects. Our house of culture. There is now a new government. You walk around the city and see the invaders everywhere. There are only Russian songs in the recreation park. There are minibuses. Explosions are constantly heard. There are damaged houses. People were left without homes. Many left, many stayed here. It is very painful to leave homes, relatives and friends, dogs and cats.

Occupation is pressure, the destruction of you as a person, the deprivation of the right to vote. This is the lack of rights and freedoms. But in the dictionary of Russians there are no such words. That's why they are in our Ukraine.