Posted on Mar 17, 2022
Far from the front lines, Ukrainians guard checkpoints and wait for the war to come
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https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/03/17/ [login to see] /ukraine-war-russia-checkpoints
On a road outside Lviv in western Ukraine, a half-dozen men, bundled up against the cold and wind, huddle around a rusted oil drum fashioned into a wood-burning stove. Smoke billows from a crooked pipe jutting from the top.
This, for now, is their war — guarding a checkpoint hundreds of miles from the battles raging to the east.
They've piled sandbags on top of concrete blocks. A blue and yellow Ukrainian flag tied to a stick flutters in the wind.
On a road outside Lviv in western Ukraine, a half-dozen men, bundled up against the cold and wind, huddle around a rusted oil drum fashioned into a wood-burning stove. Smoke billows from a crooked pipe jutting from the top.
This, for now, is their war — guarding a checkpoint hundreds of miles from the battles raging to the east.
They've piled sandbags on top of concrete blocks. A blue and yellow Ukrainian flag tied to a stick flutters in the wind.
Far from the front lines, Ukrainians guard checkpoints and wait for the war to come
Posted from npr.org
Russia
Ukraine
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."“This was our immediate response on the night of the bombing — to defend our village,” says one of the men, Oleh Pokrovetsky. “It came from an emotional need to feel defended.”
Checkpoints like this have sprung up on roads across Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three weeks ago. The villagers guard this one in six-hour shifts, 24 hours a day. They aren’t armed, but they do have a wooden crate of pre-made Molotov cocktails.
Some of the men are in their 20s; others are in their 60s. The younger ones have registered with the Ukrainian military or the territorial defense forces. If called upon to head east to fight, they say they will.
Volodymyr Kovalyshyn, 37, used to manage a cigarette factory in Lviv, but fled with his wife and their 5-month-old son to a nearby village after the war began.
Like everyone here, he’s watched videos of the destruction Russia has wrought on cities like Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, where a maternity hospital was recently bombed.
“It’s very hard when I see on TV a little child died in Melitopol, Mariupol, in Kharkiv,” he says. “It’s very hard to see the death of a child.”
For now, his wife and son are safe in the village with his sister, who just arrived from the town of Bila Tserkva, which was recently hit by Russian forces. If the war escalates and the situation in Lviv deteriorates, Kovalyshyn says he’ll take his family to Poland — though he’ll return to Ukraine and be free to travel east to fight.
“But of course, after everybody leaves, one feels pretty lonely in the country,” he says.
The men have made a home of sorts at this checkpoint. There’s a big blue tent with a table inside strewn with loaves of brown bread, a tub of lard, dirty plates and packages of cookies."...
..."“This was our immediate response on the night of the bombing — to defend our village,” says one of the men, Oleh Pokrovetsky. “It came from an emotional need to feel defended.”
Checkpoints like this have sprung up on roads across Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three weeks ago. The villagers guard this one in six-hour shifts, 24 hours a day. They aren’t armed, but they do have a wooden crate of pre-made Molotov cocktails.
Some of the men are in their 20s; others are in their 60s. The younger ones have registered with the Ukrainian military or the territorial defense forces. If called upon to head east to fight, they say they will.
Volodymyr Kovalyshyn, 37, used to manage a cigarette factory in Lviv, but fled with his wife and their 5-month-old son to a nearby village after the war began.
Like everyone here, he’s watched videos of the destruction Russia has wrought on cities like Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol, where a maternity hospital was recently bombed.
“It’s very hard when I see on TV a little child died in Melitopol, Mariupol, in Kharkiv,” he says. “It’s very hard to see the death of a child.”
For now, his wife and son are safe in the village with his sister, who just arrived from the town of Bila Tserkva, which was recently hit by Russian forces. If the war escalates and the situation in Lviv deteriorates, Kovalyshyn says he’ll take his family to Poland — though he’ll return to Ukraine and be free to travel east to fight.
“But of course, after everybody leaves, one feels pretty lonely in the country,” he says.
The men have made a home of sorts at this checkpoint. There’s a big blue tent with a table inside strewn with loaves of brown bread, a tub of lard, dirty plates and packages of cookies."...
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