Nikopol, the martyr “victory town”
In Ukraine‘s Dnipro region, there are thousands of destroyed and damaged houses, shops, offices, schools, hospitals and kindergartens. Most of them are in and around Nikopol. Every day and every night, sirens blare for hours. The residents of Nikopol live in constant peril, and a quiet night is a rarity. But shelling is not the only danger.
On the other side of the dried-up Kakhovka reservoir is Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, and mined by the occupiers. This is the reality Nikopol has been living in for more than a year and a half: under enemy fire, without water and under the looming threat of a nuclear disaster.
Living in the shadow of the enemy
For more than a year now, Nikopol has been in all Ukraine’s news feeds. Even when Telegram’s air-raid maps are clear for a while, Nikopol remains marked in red. The Russian army shells the city constantly, day and night. Historians say that the city was built to be a fortress in the days of the Cossacks. In the 21st century, Nikopol, with a Cossack on its coat of arms, is once again looking an enemy in the eye.
In March 2022, Russian troops occupied Enerhodar in the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region, with its nuclear power plant. The enemy deployed a large number of soldiers and equipment at the plant and in the surrounding villages. Then, hiding behind the nuclear site, the terrorists [the Russian troops] cynically and mercilessly began shelling Nikopol, across the Kakhovka reservoir.
The distance between Nikopol and the enemy positions was only 8 kilometres by water. After that, the occupiers began to terrorise civilians with constant strikes from Grad multiple rocket launchers and cannon artillery. Later, regular drone attacks began. Since July 2022, the people of Nikopol have had no peace at all.
It is impossible to live under such sustained shelling. Residents of Nikopol began to leave their homes.
Yevgeniy Yevtushenko, head of the Nikopol district military administration, outlines the situation: “According to the finance ministry, 105,160 people lived in Nikopol as of 1 January 2022. Today [September 2023], about 40 percent of the city’s residents remain in the city. Most of the people are moving deeper into the district, i.e. to places not located in direct line of fire. These include Tomakivska, Pershotravnevska, Pokrovska, and the more remote Myrivska villages. They are also travelling to the west of Ukraine and abroad.”
Olena, a Nikopol resident, recalls how it began: “Although more than a year has passed, I remember the first shelling. The siren didn’t let us time to go off because it only takes a few seconds for a shell to reach us from Enerhodar. At first, we hid in the corridor. I covered the children with a blanket to prevent them from getting hurt by shrapnel. Mentally, it was almost unbearable. We all lived in anticipation of the attacks. And they were coming more and more often.”
When it was warm, she and her family would go to remote villages to spend the night, sleeping in a tent or in the car. Olena says that whole tent cities began to grow near Nikopol. Staying there were people like her: those who were unable or unwilling to move away from their hometown.
“We would wake up around 5am, drive back to Nikopol, take a shower, have breakfast and go to work”, says Olena. “This lasted until the first cold weather. Then it became physically impossible to live in a tent or car, so I moved with my family to my mother’s village. It is far from Nikopol, about 40 kilometres away. Now it is our home. My husband and I go to work from there every day. And the kids are with their grandmother, safe and sound.”
Everyday life in the crosshairs of the enemy
Another thing that made people scared was the fact that an attack might come at any time of the day. Every day the terrorists continue to disfigure Nikopol, once a beautiful place. There are hundreds of damaged houses, pierced roofs, shattered windows and walls. The enemy has destroyed kindergartens and schools, shops, cars, farm buildings, factories and offices with its artillery. It continues to do so.
Locals say that there is no longer a neighbourhood that is not damaged. Despite this, the city tries to live as it did before the war. Pharmacies, shops and markets are open. Public transport is running, and one can even go into the town centre for a coffee.
Tetyana Sidenko – Vesti Prydniprovia (Dnipro)
Translated by Harry Bowden
