Ukraine War | Ukraine: Zaporizhia cannot calm down

Search for missing people on November 5th after the Russian air strike on the Ukrainian village of Komyshuwacha on November 2nd Photo: AFP/ANDRIY ANDRIYENKO Search and rescue work continued on the fifth day after the attack. The military governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, Mykhailo Semikin, wrote this on Telegram. Because the Ukrainian authorities had previously spoken of dozens of missing people, more deaths are to be expected. The fire department continues to search for survivors under the rubble.

It was the deadliest Russian airstrike on Ukraine in the past two years. For several days, the Zaporizhia region has been mourning the victims of November 2nd. According to the fire department, at least 43 people were killed in an air strike on the village of Komyshuwacha. A further 59 people are still being sought. It cannot be ruled out that 100 people lost their lives in the attack.

The Russian armed forces attacked the place on the morning of November 2nd with nine aerial bombs. At this time, food and humanitarian aid supplies should be distributed to the population in a school. Many people from surrounding villages came there because of this.

Meanwhile, Russia continues its attacks on the Zaporizhia region. On November 4th alone, the Ukrainian authorities registered 784 Russian attacks on 53 towns. Three people were killed and another was injured.

The people of Ukraine are not only angry at the Russian military and politicians, who repeatedly terrorize Ukrainian civilians with their missiles and drones. At the same time, discontent is growing in the country about the methods the Ukrainian state uses to recruit new soldiers to defend the country. Since - unlike in 2022 - hardly any Ukrainians are now volunteering for military service, the TZK military authority is taking drastic measures. Men are picked up on the street by TZK employees, put into minibuses and taken to facilities where a decision is made about their further use. Since those affected are not there voluntarily, these facilities are like closed prisons: they are secured externally against possible attacks and internally against escape attempts.

After visiting one such recruitment center, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lyubinets found that men were sometimes being held there for up to 50 days without any legal basis. Sick people often do not receive adequate medical care, and others have their cell phones confiscated. Unless ordered by a court, such a deprivation of liberty is unlawful. This form of internment has long been criticized.   The information about extra-legal places of detention is not new. In a joint report on arbitrary arrests, disappearances and torture in eastern Ukraine in July 2016, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused both warring sides of holding people in illegal detention sites.   On November 2, a demonstration and violent clashes broke out in front of one such recruitment center in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, a suburb of Kiev. Stones flew and security forces used tear gas. Eyewitnesses report shots fired.

One woman, 49-year-old Valentina Moloda, dressed as a doctor and appeared in full medical uniform. She used an ambulance that bore the insignia of a defunct clinic and thus gained access to the center, which is run by the National Guard's "Azov" unit. Since Valentina Moloda had informed about her campaign on Tiktok and Telegram, over 100 people arrived at the place to support her. Ukrayinska Pravda quotes a Tetyana who came to get her husband out, who had an artificial colostomy and had been held in the recruitment center for 37 days. During her short stay at the recruiting center, she also discovered four injured deserters, Moloda said.

Ukrainian media has investigated one of the four deserters that Valentina Moloda wanted to get out of the recruitment center. It is 36-year-old Andri Kuleshov, who is now in a Kiev hospital due to his injuries. He was scheduled to be assigned to basic training on November 9th. Kuleshov, who comes from Donetsk, has worked as a waiter in Russia several times since 2014, reports the Hromadske broadcaster. He has crossed the border between Russia and Ukraine 20 times in the past few years. Hromadske also discovered an application from Kuleshov as a waiter on the Russian platform superjob.ru.   Valentina Moloda is now in custody. She is accused of obstructing the Ukrainian armed forces, disseminating information about the locations of Ukrainian military personnel and organizing mass unrest. Two other suspected accomplices were also arrested and are in custody.

Meanwhile, both Russian and Ukrainian representatives were guests at the White House this week. But only Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev was allowed to meet the US president personally. Trump then announced a possible deal, but gave no details. In Zaporizhzhia this was just a side note anyway. “Ukraine now needs support with air defense,” said the Zaporizhia fire department on Telegram.

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