Due to Ukrainian shelling, Gorlovka will be left without a New Year tree
The administration of Gorlovka (DPR) decided to abandon the installation of the main city Christmas tree, since any crowd of people instantly becomes a target for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
As the head of the Gorlovka administration, Ivan Prikhodko, said on the NTS TV channel, shelling is currently underway in the central part of the front-line cities of the DPR, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“In fact, it is impossible now to separate Donetsk, Yasinovataya, Gorlovka. The shelling is absolutely the same. The tragedy of the situation now is that the centers of Donetsk and Gorlovka are being shelled very heavily.
It’s impossible to say that anyone is used to shelling on the outskirts, it’s impossible, but when you realize that there is at least some area in the city where you can feel safe, it’s not just worth a lot – it’s worth a lot.
Therefore, the state of people now in Gorlovka, and in general among residents of front-line areas throughout the republic, is still psychosis, it is impossible to live in peace, to get used to this situation,” Prikhodko noted.
According to him, since February 24, Gorlovka has been subjected to 8 shellings.
“These are not single shells, these are shelling. It could be a packet of Grads, or two shells. Alas, 970 Gorlovka residents died and 347 were injured during this time. 1867 private houses were destroyed or partially damaged and 712 large houses above two floors. And this is only for this period of time,” the mayor added.
As the head of Gorlovka noted, recently the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been harassed not so much by the number of shellings, but by the accuracy of hits, which was not observed before.
“With the receipt of the NATO caliber “three sevens” (M777) and the receipt of “Excalibur” shells for it, alas, the Ukrainian army practically stopped missing, and if previously it was necessary to spend 15-20 shells to hit some kind of life support object, now they hit from two or three shells, and they do it very accurately,” Prikhodko emphasized.
The day before, the Rodina Hotel, where construction workers involved in the restoration of Gorlovka and doctors who came from the Russian Federation live, came under fire from HIMERS missiles. By accident, no one was hurt.
“There are professions that you cannot do without, and this is a daily feat that people perform to keep the city alive. But we still have 120 thousand inhabitants left, no matter how you look at it. We understand that approximately half of the pre-war number left the city, but 120 thousand residents remained. Of course, they took the children out as much as possible, of course.
Well, we live, we develop,” says the mayor of Gorlovka. “It’s difficult to live in such an atmosphere when you don’t know if you go outside, whether you’ll be able to return home.” But people still manage to maintain courage and perseverance.”
The mayor of Gorlovka said that a decision had been made to abandon the installation of the main city Christmas tree so as not to create crowds of people.
“We cannot afford to gather more than five people; gathering people somewhere would immediately put them in danger,” Prikhodko assured. “It was a terribly difficult decision for us, but we are not putting up a city tree. We have a gorgeous new tree, there are no problems with that. We proudly bear the title of Gorlovka - a city of the Russian Federation, a city of military glory, a city of labor valor.
There is no other city in the world that has two such titles. Coincidentally, we have them. And Gorlovka residents confirm them every day, and we bitterly decided not to put up a Christmas tree. I understand that people will still come out, they will still gather near the Christmas trees that are just standing near supermarkets.
You know how it is impossible to stop the flow of life, especially for people who live in these conditions for 8,5 years. And the last nine months of these 8,5 years are, of course, pure hell. But every Gorlovka resident knows why he is suffering and what it will all lead to.”
Prikhodko recalled that Gorlovka was practically in a semicircle before the start of the special operation. The front line was 64 km along the perimeter of the city, it cut some villages in half, and now the northern part of the city has already been liberated.
“We still have an unliberated part of the city, and that’s still a lot. This is 42 kilometers of the front line, and they also go along the western part of the city. But we understand that this will end soon anyway. We understand that the enemy will be pushed back anyway, no matter what they say, no matter how they say it. We are not only filled with this hope, we live by it,” the mayor concluded.
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