Bodies decomposing in the street. Bullet-marked civilian cars lining the road. Half of Lenin\u2019s face blown away from the statue on the square. Streets littered with shrapnel. Locals huddling in a bomb shelter. <\/p>\n
The smell of death, in buildings torn open. <\/p>\n
It is a scene achingly familiar to Ukraine, yet until now alien to Russia. But the border town of Sudzha was assaulted by Ukraine eleven days ago and claimed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday as under their control. When Russian President Vladimir Putin began his war of choice two years ago, Russia did not expect to get invaded back. <\/p>\n
The turnoff into Sudzha was marked with a huge Orthodox Christian cross, upon which was written \u201cGod save and protect us.\u201d Yards away lay the wreckage of two tanks and other armor from the intense fighting days earlier. <\/p>\n
The town\u2019s streets were mostly vacant, yet echoed with the storm raging around them. Small arms fire and outgoing artillery broke the silence, but at a distance. <\/p>\n
Our Ukrainian escort said the Russian attack drones that had blighted Ukraine\u2019s progress on the front lines in the past months were simply too busy at the frontline battles to harass Kyiv\u2019s forces at the border and in Sudzha. Their conspicuous absence, and that of Russian air power, suggested a possible improvement in Ukraine\u2019s capabilities for this surprise assault. The ubiquity of Western-supplied armored vehicles on the roads into Russia showed Ukraine was throwing resources it had long claimed it lacked into this fight. <\/p>\n
Sudzha was not completely deserted. At one large building, outside the basement entrance, a large cardboard hand-written sign announced, \u201cHere are peaceful people in the basement, no military.\u201d Inna, 68, sat outside. There were 60 other civilians downstairs, she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey brought a lot of boxes, their food,\u201d she said of the Ukrainian forces. <\/p>\n
In the basement was a scene we have witnessed in dozens of Ukrainian towns over the past two years, and still as saddening in Russia. <\/p>\n
At the entrance to the shelter was Stanislav, who stroked his gray beard when asked how life was. \u201cSee, this is not life. It is existing. It is not life.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the dark, subterranean dank were the infirm, isolated, and confused. One elderly woman, still in her wig and bright red summer dress, rocked slightly as she intoned: \u201cAnd now I don\u2019t know how it will end. At least a truce so we can live peacefully. We don\u2019t need anything. It\u2019s my crutch, I can\u2019t walk. It\u2019s very hard.\u201d Flies buzzed around her face, in humid gloom. <\/p>\n
In the next room, the light flickered on a family of six. The man said, \u201cA week. No news. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening around us.\u201d His son sat silent next to him, his white face stony. <\/p>\n
At the end of the corridor, talking to one of our Ukrainian escorts was Yefimov, who said he was in his 90s. His daughter, niece and grandchildren are married to Ukrainian men and live in Ukraine, yet he cannot reach them. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo Ukraine,\u201d he said, when asked where he wanted to flee. \u201cYou are the first to mention it. People talked about it but you are the first to come.\u201d The idea of evacuation would be arduous for many here in peacetime. <\/p>\n
On the street outside is Nina, 74, searching for her medication. The shops are shredded and pharmacies closed. She insists she does not want to leave, with the same passionate defense of her right to live where she always has as so many Ukrainian women of her age, in similar scarred towns. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I wanted to I would. Why would I leave where I lived 50 years? My daughter and mother are in the graveyard and my son was born (here), my grandkids\u2026 I live on my land. I don\u2019t know where I live. I don\u2019t know whose land this is, I don\u2019t understand anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
It is unclear how and where this fast, successful and surprise assault ends, or when Russian forces arrive. Yet they will be too late to reverse another dent in Russia\u2019s pride since it began an invasion meant to take only a matter of days in February 2022. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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