Ukrainian Villagers Bordering Belarus: Lukashenka Is Insane

Do the residents of the Ukrainian border area believe in a new invasion from Belarus?

Since the end of September, military analysts have again begun to report the movement of Russian troops to Belarus and further across the territory of this country to the borders of Ukraine and did not rule out a new invasion of Ukraine from Belarus. It was reported that Russia sent several trains to Belarus: this coincided with Lukashenka's meetings with Vladimir Putin. In response, Ukrainian troops even began exercises on the border with Belarus, approximately in the places where Russian troops invaded Ukraine from Belarus in the spring.

Do the residents of the Ukrainian border area believe in a new invasion from Belarus? The Current Time correspondent Boris Sachalko came to the villages of the Chernihiv region: they were among the first to come under attack from the Russian army in February.

The village of Moskali (the Muscovites - Ed.) in the Chernihiv region, where about 100 people live, is located just 20 km from the border with Belarus. Local resident Yuri Dakhno, a collector of ethnics, says that the name of the village probably comes from the fact that soldiers lived here, it remained after the return of the Liubetska Volost to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1508.

Yuriy has five houses in the village with museum exhibits of local antiquity. He had hidden signboards with the name of the village in one of them on February 24. Local residents suspected that the Russian military might be offended by the name.

“At first we thought that ours were coming. And then we already saw that they had the red flags," Yuriy recalls the first days of the invasion of the Russian troops. “I went out to talk to them. I said to them in Russian, literally: "Guys, what the f**k is going on?". And they: "We don't even know ourselves." I told them: "Can't you go back?". But they: “Well, let our presidents agree on this, otherwise there is no way back for us.”

The village of Moskali was under Russian occupation for a month. Yuriy says that the Russian military tore down all Ukrainian flags in the district, and also went around the yards with overwatches. Yuri hid all the old things in chests, and closed the windows. He expected the Russians to "rob and loot," but his museums were not touched.

Yuriy adds: despite the name and the history of the village, the foreign army was met unfriendly here. Many local residents joined the partisans, laid mines, and reported to the regional centre about the movement of Russian military equipment and troops: the border service even awarded them with a medal because of this.

Even nature, Yuriy jokes, helped the locals to fight the occupiers:

“You see an ash tree? The tank crashed into it: they were driving drunk and broke off this part from the tank,” he says. “And these five ash trees were planted in honour of the partisans who died in the Great Patriotic War!”

Residents of many border villages in the area after the start of the invasion near Russian soldiers rescued abandoned Ukrainian military vehicles: they repaired them and then gave them to the Ukrainian troops.

“Of course it was scary. But it was necessary because the vehicles were expensive and new, and it was abandoned near Belarus: it could have been dragged to Belarus," Ukrainian villagers explain. “So our guys needed it.”

In early April, the Russian army left the village, retreating from the entire Chernihiv region. Local residents breathed a sigh of relief, but in recent days in the villages they began to whisper again: can they repeat it?

The family of Elena Chaus lived for a month in the occupied village of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske in the Chernihiv region. Elena tells about the looting of Russian soldiers, how for fun they fired from a machine gun over people's heads and tried to run over her in the street:

“Considering and analyzing the actions of Putin and Lukashenka, everything is possible. Because they are insane people," say residents of Ukrainian border villages. "Lukashenka has no place to run. Europe will not accept him. Well, where should he go? Only Russia remains. This Lukashenka is not a serious person. Don't expect any good from him."

The locals talk cautiously about the future, but they say they are not afraid of anything.

“There is a small river five minutes walk from here. Belarus is there on the other side of it. Let It Be as it should be. We have only one life,” a local resident says.

“Let them go, we are already used to it. Of course, it was scary at first, but now it’s not anymore,” says another resident of a border village, which is located very close to Belarus.