War is on the brink
Sunday starts very early, and we rush to breakfast in Piscank (Vinnitsa region), 400 kilometres from Kyiv, near the border with the Republic of Transnistria.
It is worrying because during one of the attacks in Vinnytsia, a missile hit a residential house, so the head of the military administration of the region (Governor) Serhiy Borzov could not meet us and sent the mayor of the district, Oleksandr Gavrilyuk. His district has as much as 55 kilometres of border with the separatist Republic of Transnistria, or, to be more precise, the Russian-occupied part of Moldova.
The mayor of Tulčynas, a district of at least 160,000 inhabitants, arrives in an old ship and, as usual for leaders at this level, wears a military uniform with all the paraphernalia and patches. For the district O. Gavriliukas has been the head of the district for five years and is very intolerant not only of corruption but also of the inaction of former leaders in attracting budget funds and investments. He tells us this later when he gets into our toyota.
The mayor speaks in a rapid-fire dialect typical of the region, which is difficult for my passenger to understand, but the cordiality of his welcome is not lost, and not because Governor Serhiy Serhijivich (they call him SS, for brevity's sake) has asked for it.
Our first stop is at a petrol station, where we are joined by Oleksandr Oleksiyivich, a local social activist, former police officer, who now provides free legal aid to the people of Pischanka. He gives us a modest breakfast, and in parallel he arranges for us to have lunch with local farmers who are very supportive of the front. A potholed road winds up to the border, and there are a lot of them. It used to be the route for buses to the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, but when the large-scale invasion began, it was dug up and fortifications began to be built.
The Transnistrian Republic is as much a part of Russia's occupation as Abkhazia and Ossetia in Saqqartveli, Crimea and the Donbass Republics. Roads were closed to the occupiers at the outbreak of the war. Nevertheless, at least 1 500 trained „tourists“ arrived in the aforementioned Moldovan region and stayed behind to reinforce the local garrison of around 5 000 people. The republic also has huge stocks of weapons, which it could not and cannot export through Ukrainian territory. It is estimated that if it were necessary to transport military equipment from there by train, one train set of 70 wagons, it would take about a year. Weapons and equipment were stored there when they were removed from the territories of the former Warsaw Pact countries.
On the way, the district leader buys food for the border guards and loads it into the boot, not forgetting to buy us some too water. Caring people - It's a value you won't learn at any university. Patriotism is also not faked when you see such misery around you. And a chorus of bobbies on the street since 9am collecting money for ZSU (For the Armed Forces of Ukraine), concert starting with a minute's silence.
More than 500 men and women in the district have already laid down their heads for Freedom. In the rich in the capital you won't see it, so the conclusion is that it is not those who have everything who defend Freedom, but those who hold it as their main value. It is not the resolution of social issues that drives people fight, because the opposite is always true - the satiated will never fight for a better life, no matter what the populists in our politics say.
The border is not far away, and soon we reach a third Defence line, then reach the second line and stop here to unload. Work in progress non-stop mode, even on Sunday, fortifications are being built, although the threat level is relatively low, but the Eastern Ukraine Lessons learnt make it necessary to hurry, because even five thousand enemies can cause serious trouble. The obstacles are the same as those at Kharkiv - concrete and wood, though only 200 kilograms can be overcome Fables, but it still stops the enemy, and its effectiveness is proven in wartime.
I ask the guys who work how much they earn, and the answer is we don't know, they haven't paid yet.
Soldiers come out of the blinds and I come to greet them. They have almost no transport here, only an old Soviet „buchanka“.
Although there is no hostilities and no diversions so far, there is no shortage of border violators, conscripts flee to Transnistria, not even realising that they are not in Moldova, but in the clutches of the enemy.
The same evening, Oleksandr goes on an operation to apprehend two more „ukonists“. He works 24/7 for a meagre salary of 25,000 hryvnias, which is 600 euros. Before the invasion it was only 15 000.
After crossing the roadblock, we follow the road towards the pillar points. There are two of them, one on a cliff, the other on the top of a more sloping hill. We drive to it. Right next to the demarcation pillars is an anti-tank ditch dug two years ago, and on the left is a new set of „dragon's teeth“, which have been strung with cables by workers. The teeth weigh only 200 kilograms and are no obstacle to the tank, but will stop lighter equipment. To stop tanks, you need tanks weighing 800 kilograms...
In the square in front of the KPP, the „dragon's teeth“ are piled up in large heaps, pictures of which are seen in Telegram feeds, and this is presented as an example of nepotism and corruption, but in reality it is spreading Russian propaganda, without telling us why this is happening.
Border guards meet us and report to the commander about the situation, and a vegetable garden is planted next to the blinds. I joke that we didn't bring meat for the barbecue. One shift is asleep, so we walk quietly in the pillbox. Like everywhere, the dog is hanging around, he likes the military community very much. We watch the enemy territory through binoculars, there is not a living spirits. We move towards the cliff and are warned to watch out for snakes, as there are many of them.
We have a fabulous view of the valley, we sit down for a while and talk about completely meaningless things, realising that the enemy is there, that the enemy is here, only here in Lithuania we are very late in building at least these sections. The cost of one kilometre of such fortifications is around 13 million hryvnias.
On the way back, the border guard asks to see the passports she had forgotten before. It's not every day that we have visitors, especially Lithuanians who speak Ukrainian.
We leave the border and head for lunch with local farmers. As it happens, we have more than one waiting for us, and it would be disrespectful to respond. The talk about the war, and not only, although we are in a hurry, we try to listen to it. One farmer adds his own oil, others add preserves and fresh strawberries. Oleksandr is so reluctant to let us go that he escorts us to the border of the district, showing us the shortest way to Chernivtsi.
We have a long and difficult road home. A place where few realise that war is on the brink, and that it will be people who are not spoiled by life, but by the over-abundance of the city, who want to defend themselves.
Wait and prepare, says almost every person we meet.
