Sumy region on fire: how border villages survive war. Report by Censor.NET

According to the regional military administration, since the beginning of the year, 38 civilians have been killed in Sumy region, and about 100 have been wounded, including 8 children. At the same time, between July last year and today, more than 12,000 residents, including 1,777 children, have been evacuated from the border of Sumy Oblast.

Here is a typical message from the Suspilne Sumy telegram channel:

"There were 112 explosions in Sumy region during the day, the RMA reported. Russian attacks were carried out in Sumy, Mykolaivka, Myropillia, Khotin, Yunakivka, Bilopillia, Krasnopillia, Velyka Pysarivka, Putivl, Shalyhyne, Esman, Seredyna-Buda and Svesa communities. For more details, please visit the website." 

A Censor.NET correspondent visited two of these communities, as well as the regional centre of the Sumy region. Here is what he saw there.

SAMOTOIVKA: A RUSSIAN STRIKE ON A PEACEFUL VILLAGE. TESTIMONY OF ONE FAMILY

The Krasnopillia community, located near the border, is regularly shelled by the enemy. In early April, Samotoivka, a village 35 km from the border, came under attack. No wonder that half of its residents have left over the past two years...

On 3 April, the Russians hit the village with a rocket in the morning and a GAB in the late afternoon. A 45-year-old IDP from another village in the Sumy region was killed.

Local resident Liudmyla Ivanivna Rohova told Censor.NET how it happened. She was still overcome with emotion, as both explosions took place not far from her home.

- First of all, yesterday, at 9 a.m., a rocket fell behind the shop. Look what happened to the club! And the only grocery store in the village was destroyed. Several cars were burnt down and people were injured. Then it calmed down, everyone left, and we started to reel from it. Of course, windows were smashed, roofs were broken in some places, but most of us survived.

And at 11 o'clock, my dear, it hit so hard that there was a full-height shell hole. And it was next to my house. The neighbouring house was on fire, and the car was burnt down. Thank God, no one from the neighbours died. Everything was on fire, the glass was broken, I was very scared, I couldn't get out! And then I heard voices: "Is anyone alive here?"

I shout: "I'm alive, but I'm afraid to leave the house, and the door is stuck on me!" Then, thank God, a man came and pulled the door open and pulled me out too. I was feeling bad, my blood pressure was rising...

- Do you have any idea where they wanted to hit?

- I wish they had hit Putin! At the beginning of the war, they came through our village with tanks. A whole division came through! And when our soldiers drove them away, they stood here for two days. So they took whatever they could...

A few minutes later, Liudmyla Ivanovna's grandson Zhenia came to visit her. He loves his grandmother very much, and while telling her about the horrors of the past day, he was worried both for himself and for her:

Well, the guy has seen enough over the past two years... He saw both Russian tanks and the occupiers when they were leaving the Sumy region:

- They littered all the houses, looking for weapons. If they found something or a military uniform, they would shoot immediately. And when they rolled past our house, they turned the guns in our direction. We sat down behind the wall, and then they went on their way... 

KHOTIN COMMUNITY: LIFE UNDER CONSTANT FIRE

The next day, a Censor.NET correspondent went to the Khotin settlement community, which is always among the "record holders" in the daily list of victims of hostile shelling in the Sumy region. Both the Khotin urban-type settlement and the 12 villages of the community are located along the state border of Ukraine with the Russian Federation. Before the full-scale war, there were almost 6,000 residents here, and now only half of them remain.

I am introduced to the situation by Volodymyr Bakai, the commander of the VTCF (volunteer territorial community formation) of the Khotin community, a former career soldier. Together with him, we go from Khotin to the village of Kindrativka, even closer to the border.

The fields behind Khotin are still covered in last year's corn; no one has harvested it to avoid exposing themselves to enemy fire. We walk through another ruin: the wreckage of a workshop and cowsheds, once important buildings for Kindrativka. The enemy repeatedly hit here with GABs and other weapons. Many cows were wounded in the cowsheds; as a result, people left the area, and the cows and pigs were either sold or moved to other places.

From here to the Russian border in a straight line is from one to three kilometres, depending on the street.

The aggressor can fire anything, and in such circumstances, there is simply no point in announcing an air raid alert. Wherever you look, you see traces of shelling, destroyed local schools and an outpatient clinic, shell craters in veggie gardens and along the roads, and ruined houses. It is very dangerous to live here, because not only rockets, shells and GABs are constantly flying in, but also mines, 120s and 80s. Sometimes a tank from the enemy side moves to an elevated position and hits our territory. 

This entire Russian death machine is coordinated by numerous drones - not necessarily reconnaissance drones, however; sometimes Russian kamikaze UAVs hunt down moving cars.

That is why Kindrativka now resembles a phantom. The only people left are pensioners who don't want to go anywhere and only occasionally crawl out of their homes - out of necessity or to bask in the spring sun.

- Are there a lot of 'awaiters' in Kindrativka and Khotin?" I ask Bakai.

- I wouldn't say that there are many. Although the territory here is such that once there were many relatives on both sides. There is, for example, a pond with a dam: Ukraine on one side and Russia on the other.

How did it all start here? The Russians came in a convoy through us. Then the community gathered in Khotin, about 200 people on the list. We got weapons ourselves, took prisoners, and took one self-propelled gun and a tank. Now they are in the possession of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

- And how did you take possession of the tank by force?

- Between Pysarivka and Khotin, they got stuck in our black soil. We drove them out of that tank, covered everything so that no one could rob it. Later, experts came, sorted it out and took both the tank and the self-propelled gun away...

- By the way, about black soil. You can't even sow anything in the fields around Kindrativka now, because of the shelling and mines...

- As far as I know, they were talking about sowing walnuts and soybeans.

- Why them?

- We need to have low-growing crops. In general, if you don't sow anything, it will become overgrown with weeds, covering the land even more than it was before...

We continue driving, and to the left of the road we see the same picturesque pond with a dam, where in peacetime there was probably good fishing, but now there is only death.

 - Do you see the shell crater?" says Bakai. - "A Sumy resident died here, who came here to his dacha (summer house - ed. note) to feed his dog...

- It is awful... What about Russian subversive groups trying to operate here?

- They are trying to. One of them came to Oleksiivka and killed a brother and sister there. They were driving in a car with blacked-out windows, and the brother was wearing a white jacket. And since it was winter, it might have looked like he was wearing a ghillie suit. The sabotage-reconnaissance groups shot at the car from all sides. A woman from the neighbouring village was walking to the bus nearby - she saw them by chance and told us. The sappers came and cleared them of mines.

-Did they mine it?

-Well, yes, the Russians mine the dead as well. Such dick moves they do this all the time... They mine fields with small parachutes. Recently, they dropped something like a magnetic bomb - specifically for a working tractor.

We drove by a crossroads with roads going in different directions.

- "This road goes straight to Russia," Volodymyr explains to me. - "There is a fork for several villages. At the beginning of the war, there was a box there, and a sniper was lying on that box. Well, as soon as our 72nd Brigade arrived there, they blew that booth to hell with the first shell. So the Russians got a good deal here...

- What units are currently based on the other side?

- There is no permanent military unit on the other side. They are always on rotation. In general, they send newcomers here to learn from us. UAV pilots, snipers, and reconnaissance teams. Their task is to enter our territory, do some damage here and return. Once they have learnt, they go to the front line or elsewhere.

We stop at one of the two remaining shops in Kindrativka. The shop assistant, Olena Ivanivna, says that whenever there are explosions, she hides in the back room using the two-wall rule.

- What products do people buy more during the war?" I ask her.

- The most important are tea, coffee, fruit, vegetables, and sweets.

- Do you see drones over the village often?

- My eyesight is not very good, but people say they can see often.

- Is your family here?

-  Yes, here.

- Do you want to leave? What do you decide at the family meeting?

- While here, and then - according to the situation...

Let's move on. Here is the site of a double tragedy that was also reported in the national media: first, on 27 February, Russians shelled a local agricultural enterprise, and the next day, when the investigative team was documenting the consequences of the shelling, the enemy struck again. A police officer and a policewoman were killed, and three other investigators and one investigator were injured.

This manner of firing twice, the second time at rescuers, firefighters, policemen, and journalists, is practised by ruscists all over Ukraine. It is said to be a favourite tactic of Hamas; well, the two allied terrorist regimes kill using the same method.

But the aggressor hit the local beautiful lyceum two days before our trip. Fortunately, there was no direct hit, only shattered glass, but two wings near the lyceum were hit. And it's a good thing that the children at the lyceum are now studying online: the entire school grounds are covered with debris. In 2-3 minutes, a Censor.NET correspondent collected several of them on the lawn.

Unlike the office buildings, the Khotin lyceum of the Khotin village council sustained minor damage; however, there was a lot of debris on the school grounds after the shelling

A local resident, Mr Mykola, shows me the consequences of the shelling.

- "Look," he said, "here, in the tree, the first shell hit. It hit hard. Here are the fragments.

- You've already learnt by heart where the SPG and Grads are

- "Well, yes. And over there, look, there was a rocket flying overhead.

-And how do you recognize them by sound?

- Not in sound, in parts. Although a little bit by sound. SPGs whistle, but missiles have a different sound... And do you see the shell crater? That was the second hit.

Returning to Khotin, we discuss with Volodymyr Bakai the problem of Russian shaheds, many of whom enter Ukraine through the Sumy region.

-  At the beginning of the war, there were no Shaheds," he says, "now there are a lot of them. Our community is at best 25 km from the border. In order to see and shoot down these drones, we need anti-drone guns. 4-5 barrels to shoot down the drones on approach.

- Well, let's ask our readers to donate as much as they can. Do you have any good shooters?

- Of course. Who has always gone to the VTCF in the first place? Hunters with guns...

What do local authorities have to do in the third year of the war? The floor is now open to Mykola Torianyk, head of the Khotin community:

Photo: Social TV Sumy region

- It's Monday, the beginning of a new week. At half past eight, I'm holding a meeting in Kindrativka. The main issue at the moment is water supply. "The pumps have broken down, the agricultural company has refused to pay for electricity, and we are deciding how to provide water to the remaining population, which is more than 170 people. The problem is that the water in these settlements is not on the municipal balance sheet; it used to be supplied by the agricultural company: both the wells and the towers belonged to them. Now we have brought a pump and are connecting it to the street lighting, and the village council will take over.

After that, I came to Khotin and met with the military of the units stationed in the community. Some need boards, some need an excavator, some need plating. We buy all this and send it to these units. In general, these days the position of a village head is at least 50% work for the local defence forces.

Then we had a short meeting in the communal services, and then we went to visitMonchenko Eva Vasylivna with the head of the communal services. This is not actually my community, but her son died, and he lived with us in Khotin. Last week we brought her firewood, this week we will repair their fallen fence.

From there, we went to Oleksiivka, where there was a shelling at night, and now everything is more or less normal, except for the lack of Internet and the damage to the tower. But we're not going to weld because it's too high, and we don't have a lift. No matter how many times I asked for a lift, it was to no avail, the military administration could not solve this problem.

Then I had a meeting with the financiers and social protection, then I went to another family where there were dead people, and there was a cellar to be dug there. We looked at it, measured it, and the tractor was already digging. 

Now I've come to Sumy, I want to meet with one of the entrepreneurs to re-register him in our community. This is one of the priority tasks now: to find entrepreneurs from different regions to register with us because we have no taxes. 6,000 hectares of land are exempt from taxes because of the 5-km zone; agricultural firms do not pay taxes, they are exempt, and this was the main revenue...

- That is, getting money, buying, delivering - household work plus helping the military and those affected by the war. But you have to do this work, even though you are being shelled all the time, and there is no flight time as such. What should the safety rules be then, in order to at least minimise the number of victims?

- We have loudspeakers everywhere, and a siren sounds if necessary.

- Mykola Ivanovich, but we understand that in your circumstances this is more for show, the enemy is too close.

- Everyone knows that the first hit is the worst. After that, it's clear: everyone hides down, don't run anywhere; hide in the cellars. That's all the rules. There's no point in running for bomb shelters. They hit mostly those who are running somewhere.

- Tell me honestly, when you come to Sumy, are you not surprised by this semi-resort atmosphere in the regional centre? When people are walking around the city at ease?

- They're not scared, you know?

- Well, how can they not be scared? It's good that there hasn't been any shelling for almost a year and a half, but in 2024 there were already missiles, GABs, and drones.

- Do you know how it is with us? "Where did it hit?" - "To Romenska." "I don't mind, I live on Desiatka." That is, people have not seen this horror enough. Here I live in Kindrativka, where everything has been destroyed... and every day a Russian tank goes a kilometre and a half away and shoots at anything with a direct hit! At the towers, at the houses... And then we know exactly what to do. We don't behave like that...

SUMY: discos during the GABs

It was not for nothing that we started talking about the regional center: after repeated hits on the city, it would seem that we should expect changes in the minds of Sumy residents. After all, in 2024 there were both dead and wounded, and after the first shocking strikes, people ran to bomb shelters.

But this wariness did not last long. Folk festivities in the main streets and discos in restaurants and taverns are a kind of amazing cheerfulness of a border town in the midst of war. Or the same feast during the plague. As Mykola Torianyk says, they were not afraid.

Yes, it's clear that a year and a half of relative silence has engrained a certain amount of carelessness in the people of Sumy. And when air raid sirens sound around the city a dozen times a day, you subconsciously stop paying attention to them.

And yet...

Perhaps the residents of Sumy will change their understanding of the seriousness of the situation - it turns out that the enemy can use them not only to scrape the tops of the trees of border villages. Moreover, it appears that the aggressor has included Sumy in its all-Ukrainian long-term plan for energy genocide: On 11 April, the GABs struck the Sumy TPP plant, which provides heat to 75% of the city's residents.

The situation will get even tougher, and those who have been helping the military since the beginning of the war understand this. For example, two dozen craftswomen and craftsmen of a volunteer brigade in Sumy: mostly retired people who have been weaving protective nets for our military since 2022.

They work in the cloakroom of an educational institution. They work in two shifts, without holidays and weekends. And do you know what they are called? "Bees"...

I looked at the list of "bee clients" across the frontline - it is impressive!

46th Air Assault Brigade. 2nd Department of the Border Guard Service of the Border Border Command Post of Rapid Response. 93rd Air Assault Brigade. 27th Jet Brigade. 155th Dobrobat Battalion (Volunteer Construction Battalion). 15th Separate Rifle Battalion. 110th Battalion of the Ukrainian Airborne Forces. 8th Dobrobat Battalion (Volunteer Construction Battalion). VFTC - 8. 152nd TDF (Territorial Defense Forces) Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The entire dressing room is covered with flags and letters of thanks from the military. They understand better than anyone that with such "bees" we have a much better chance of winning this war.

Attention: Those who wish to help the Khotin village community with the purchase of much-needed anti-drone guns can donate to the account of the Khotin VFTC:

UA838999980314161931000018480

The author would like to thank his colleagues from "Suspilne-Sumy" and the VFTC of the Khotyn settlement community for their help in organising the work.

Yevhen Kuzmenko, Censor.NET