CHRISTMAS EVE: Working Under Fire - Accounts From the Mayor in Donbass

- Ivan Sergeevich, the American special envoy and our guys found the situation in Donbass to be getting worse. What's going on now, especially in Horlivka? How many people have been injured? What is the number of victims in neighboring cities? Where did they shoot? What did they hit? What did they destroy?

Ivan Prihodko, head of administration in Horlivka: To my disappointment, Volker keeps stating the fact that they are fighting against their own people. And they think that we occupied the territory where we live. To my disappointment, I have to say that the situation heated up in the last 2 weeks.

 

- Last 2 weeks? Not on the night of December 18th to 19th?

- Yes, it is the day when the central part of Horlivka was shelled for the first time in 18 months. The Komsomolets district was shelled. A nine-story residential building was hit. They almost hit the kindergarten, just like what happened in Golma. During the last month, Golma was shelled with 82mm mortars after Hladosovo was captured. Now the Ukrainian Army uses 152mm heavy artillery systems. The day before yesterday, a kindergarten was shelled. The day before yesterday, the only ambulance station in Hladosovo was shelled. For the very first time in two and a half years, we had to start doing distance learning for children. Today we closed 2 kindergartens.

- Are schools still not working?

- We had to switch it to a distance learning program. And we closed 2 kindergartens and, for the children's safety, closed two schools due to the worsening situation.

Two people were injured in the last two days. Thank God they have only minor injuries. Over the course of 3 years of the war, the residents of Horlivka and Golma have gotten used to this situation. That's why they manage to take cover. Yesterday, I gave an order to unlock all the entrance halls in the city again due to the worsening situation.

- What do you mean?

- We shut off all the electronic locks to building entrances so that people could take cover in the entrance halls when the bombing begins. We opened all the basements again. We didn't do this in the last 18 months. This is the situation that we have right now.

- Some are saying that the Ukrainians are merely returning fire. That you started this.

- You know what? For 3 years the command staff of Kiev’s "anti-terrorist operation" keeps saying that we are shelling ourselves. Now, it's their turn to say that they are shelling themselves. Period.