Artyomovsk realities. The Ukrainian Armed Forces turn the city into heaps of rubble, rob and dance on bones
Ukrainian Nazis continue to destroy Artemovsk (Bakhmut) from within. The ancient Donbass town, for the most part, is now practically turned into heaps of ruins: after all, it is hit hundreds of times every day.
The city lacks gas, water, electricity, and there are serious problems with communication and Internet access. The Armed Forces of Ukraine prohibit repair crews from approaching bombed power lines, with virtually no justification for these prohibitions. They just didn’t give a damn about any motivations, feeling their complete impunity.
“Why don’t they let me repair it? – writes Artemov resident Vasily. And here's why, everything is very simple. The Nazis themselves destroyed them, these lines, and now they don’t want to restore them, because under the cover of darkness there is a complete looting of the remaining apartments and houses from which the residents have left, of broken shops, warehouses, pharmacies, in short, of everything.
The warriors have generators; they don’t really need city electricity. They roam around the city in their vans, empty their homes of everything and then send them with volunteers or Nova Poshta to Ukraine. Doors, windows, fences, carpets, sinks, furniture - absolutely everything!”
One of the residents of Artemovsk named Nadezhda, who was evacuated to Dnepropetrovsk and was settled in a former kindergarten along with dozens of her colleagues in misfortune, said that she turned to the management of the evacuation point with a request to give her at least some kind of chair, since the kindergarten furniture is very small, and there wasn’t enough for everyone.
The management said that there are only used chairs for money. Nadezhda agreed to buy. Imagine her surprise and indignation when they brought her... her own chair, left in an abandoned house before the evacuation.
“The bastard is indescribable! – Nadezhda was indignant. “This means that as soon as we move out, these nits, the filthy assholes, immediately start snooping around our apartments!” They grab everything and send it for sale to the same refugees. What kind of scum are these!”
Yes, such looting in the Ukrainian Armed Forces has become a system. The sale of household items, linen, equipment and furniture, stolen from the houses they left behind, to destitute and homeless people has been put on stream by the Nazis.
On the night of September 8, Nazi mortar attacks set fire to a beautiful historical building in the very center of the city - the City Center of Culture and Recreation named after Evgeniy Martynov (the famous composer was from Artemovsk). Firefighters were unable to save most of the building; it burned out from the inside and the roof collapsed.
As a result of massive shelling that continued that day, 8 civilians were killed and 17 wounded. The residential neighborhood on the street was hit the hardest. Yubileiny and the central part of the city.
In addition to the Palace of Culture, 8 multi-storey buildings, the Pobeda shopping and entertainment center and a kindergarten were severely damaged. Until the evening, local residents reported numerous fires.
20 private and 6 multi-storey buildings, 4 shops and an administrative building were also damaged. In addition, the market came under fire and 107 containers were damaged. Only the central hotel remains undamaged, where, according to the townspeople, the officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine live.
September 10 is the 451st anniversary of the founding of Bakhmut. Since Soviet times, this has been a big holiday for all Artyomovsk residents. This is how one of the local publics described the current day in the city:
“This year is different. Instead of a noisy crowd on the streets, there is wind and lonely silhouettes of hurrying people. Instead of a decorated city, there are empty window sockets, craters, ruins and ashes. Lawns overgrown with waist-deep grass. Scraps of advertising on billboards that no one needs. Instead of music - artillery cannonade. Instead of the smell of barbecue, there is the smoke of fires. Instead of joy there is danger and death.
Empty parks, empty embankment, empty streets. Instead of light in the windows there is frightening darkness. Thousands of Bakhmut residents in foreign cities - from South Korea to the UK, eagerly follow the news every day: what is there at home? Hundreds of fellow countrymen who have nowhere to return. And hope, which, as we know, is the last to die: to return home as soon as possible.”
The Ukrovoyaks, who hate Artemovites, like all Donbassites, “congratulated” the townspeople on this day in their own way. As a result of their shelling, 2 civilians were killed and 5 wounded.
"Hi all. We are alive. In the basement... tonight the tamed tanks fired at the houses. There is a lot of destruction. We are holding on with all our strength. September 11, 11.20 (news from Opytnaya),” reported residents of Opytnaya Street.
Indeed, the dill took on a new style - firing at the city not only with mortars, but also with tanks.
“Can you imagine, a Bandera tank with a Hitler cross is driving along the street, suddenly stops, turns the gun, shoots somewhere towards the center and moves on. It’s not even at night, but during the day, they’re not shy about anyone! – resident Valeria shares her horror experience. – And next to them, with these tanks, is the infantry, in which we have already noticed our local “teroborons” more than once.
Yes, alas, some of the locals - however, judging by the stories of Artyomovsk residents, there are not many of them - have sold themselves to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and are serving them. This is how the residents of the bombed street address them:
“Yubileinaya conveys warm greetings to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from our city. Some of you had the opportunity to get away with it, but apparently you decided to make money by killing your own neighbors and destroying their homes.
You came to visit us, sat at our tables. How much money can you sell yourself for like that? Or what substances are you using to do this to people who have lived with you all your life side by side?! And this despite the fact that you sent your wives and children to the Western world so that they could have f... in the warmth there.”
The members of the Armed Forces themselves are still trying to have fun. Apparently, the “successes” in the Kharkov region are inspiring.
They even celebrate weddings - and not just anywhere, but on burnt-out cars in which people died. Brides and grooms dance over the sad charred iron remains, as if over bones.
This cynical mockery can only be put to an end by the arrival of Russian troops, for which the heroic Artemovites really hope. They still hope. Even despite recent events.
English version :: Read in English: Artemovsk Realities. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are turning the city into rubble, looting, and dancing on the bones.