FOR the brave residents trapped within Ukraine's bloodiest battlefield on its eastern frontline, one newspaper round has become a lifeline.
In battered and besieged Bakhmut, 4,000 civilians live under the constant threat of death and Vpered newspaper has become their only connection to reality.
In peacetime, the relatively minor Ukrainian city was home to more than 70,000 people.
Now, only a few thousand remain including children, who live in their half-destroyed homes reliant on a determined local press team to keep them up to speed with life outside their encircled city.
There is no internet, mobile or radio connection in the town or its surroundings – all the communications have been shattered by almost eight months of gruelling trench-style warfare.
Svitlana Ovcharenko, now editor-in-chief, has dedicated 30 years of her life to the Vpered newspaper.
read more on ukraine
NATO allies AGREE Ukraine will become member of alliance in new blow to Putin
Putin ‘accidentally’ bombs Russian city as dictator suffers ‘nervous breakdown’
With a heavy heart, she was forced to leave her hometown in March, 2022 and move to the port city of Odesa.
Soon, Bakhmut became the focus of the fiercest fighting in the Donetsk region as Ukraine held their frontline against a Russian onslaught backed by Wagner mercenaries.
"I watched my house burning down to the ground on the video from the internet," Svitlana told SAVEUAMedia.
"The newspaper was not published for eight months. All this time, people remained in Bakhmut.
Most read in The Sun
Music star faces threat of bankruptcy after £1.7m payout to band's ex drummer
Hit Netflix show announces return date for season six – and it's days away
XR leader exposed as eco-hypocrite who drives diesel car & buys imported food
Billie Faiers furious as she’s ‘forced to hold baby for 12 hours’ on flight
"They hid in basements scared, did not have the internet or any other connection with the outside world, considered themselves useless, abandoned, and refused to evacuate.
"It was necessary to tell them that they were not left to the mercy of fate, that the whole world knows about them, worries about them, and provides assistance."
Svitland knew that the newspaper had to get back up and running – the people needed printed information they could trust.
"No amount of persuasion could convince them to leave the basement and leave the zone of active hostilities.
"Even the photographs of the destroyed buildings in Bakhmut, which the volunteers showed them when they brought food to the basements, could not convince them", she said.
The last issue was printed the day Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, but the newspaper wasn't even able to be distributed because of the constant shelling.
The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine allocated funds to the cause and Svitlana was able to relaunch the newspaper.
The first issue of the restored Vpered newspaper came out on November 4 last year.
Four days later, it was delivered to Bakhmut and finally reached the hands of those sheltering in basements.
"Volunteers said that people cried when they picked up a newspaper. And one woman said: 'It smells like home.'
"The newspaper reminded her of times of peace, when the postman brought a fresh issue every week," Svitlana said.
In these circumstances of informational deficit, the newspaper provided a life line for those trapped in the warzone of Bakhmut.
"In each issue of the newspaper, we wrote to which cities the evacuation from Bakhmut is taking place.
"Who is conducting it, where to go to get humanitarian and financial assistance, where you can take shelter and hot food, where to go to get medical assistance," said Svitlana.
The newspaper is also being circulated in other cities where displaced people from Bakhmut are living.
"I didn’t cry much before the war," said Svitlana.
"Now I do. I cry when I watch a video from Bakhmut on social networks. I cry for the young guys who give their lives there.
Read More on The Sun
I don’t pay any rent thanks to my renovated Ford Transit van – here’s the best bit
80,000 families missing out on more than £1,000 in free cash – how to claim
"The Bakhmut land is washed with their blood. This is the most horrifying loss, not the destroyed houses.
"We must be strong and support each other."
Source: Read Full Article
