I had driven past a building that was hit by an airstrike a few hours before. Four floors of a 25-floor residential house were destroyed. Luckily, the family whose flat was hit survived. The parents and their young daughters hid behind the wall, but neighbors were wounded.
The Ukrainian Army servicemen and the National Guard are on the front lines fighting, but the police could become involved if the Russian forces breakthrough during the battle. In the city, which has not seen war since WWII, there’s already sporadic street fighting in various areas, and a few saboteur groups attacking Ukrainian forces and infrastructure.
When it gets dark, the chance of shelling grows. So the Civil Defense unit cannot leave and stay in the office overnight. Unpacking bullets, I see Andrii Khlyvniuk — a famous Ukrainian musician, the leader of the Boombox band — sitting on the floor unpacking boxes with ammunition. At the end of the 2000s, his song was one of the top hits in Russia and the whole post-Soviet space. A tall guy in a baseball cap, he is well-equipped and carries a gun he bought himself.
I ask Khlyvnyuk whether his Russian colleagues, famous musicians and artists, have sent him messages asking for forgiveness. I myself have received a few from fellow Russians. Miro Popovych, now 32, won a green card when he was 19 and moved to the U.S. For three-and-a-half years he served in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Afghanistan for eight months. Now, his pension pays for his studies at a school where Al Pacino and Mel Gibson were among the lecturers, he tells me.
The most hated man on the planet now. Putin. Just below him, Trump.