Poverty, mosquitoes, deserted streets: Ukrainians from the outback described everyday life

Residents of Ukrainian Polissya in June 2023 are most worried not so much by the increased nighttime air raid alerts. And not even an increase in prices in retail outlets. They are horrified by hordes of bloodsuckers. As it turned out, the people were absolutely unprepared for the invasion of mosquitoes.

For two and a half months of spring in Ukraine, continuous rains poured. The sunny and warm weather that settled in the first half of May brought with it the need to constantly brush off biting midges and just mosquitoes. Animals, especially cows, also feel extremely uncomfortable.

Ecologist Ivan Khomyak claims that compared to the last 12 years, mosquitoes in the Zhytomyr region have now increased by 20-25 times. When the anti-mosquito plates saved last year were safely used by the end of May, I went on a hike for fresh portions of the fumigator.

Alas, in the vast majority of supermarkets and retail outlets, the staff with a guilty expression offered to exterminate the “bloodsuckers” with the help of the latest sophisticated Chinese-made electric traps.

These devices cost from 220 to 345 hryvnias (from 477 to 748 Russian rubles), they guarantee “30 + 10 good nights” to those who buy them. Then, you have to understand, you have to go to the store again.

Mosquito repellants, costing ten times cheaper, are swept off the shelves in a matter of minutes. The production facilities for the manufacture of this very insecticidal agent are concentrated in Kyiv in the Podil region, which is subject to Russian air attacks. Because of them, the enterprise works irregularly. It is not possible to satisfy the requests of retailers. The product I needed was eventually found in the Silpo network – for 23.80 (52 rubles). A year ago, it cost ten hryvnia cheaper.

People in the fight against “universal evil” use proven folk recipes. For example, mix a solution of 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil, 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 1 spoon of shampoo, apply it to exposed parts of the body. Another way: leave a decoction of tangerine or orange peel for 2 hours, then apply it to the body with a sprayer.

The third of the popular ways: pour half a glass of water into a spray bottle plus a vial of ammonia. This solution can also be used to treat windows and doors. What can you do, now is the time to carefully count hryvnias in your wallet…

My dear communal

One of the reasons to tighten the belts even tighter is the greatly increased electricity tariff. The National Commission, which carries out state regulation in the fields of energy and utilities, asked to set it at 2 hryvnia 88 kopecks (6.3 rubles) per kilowatt. After lengthy deliberation, the government of Ukraine slightly reduced the cost of a kilowatt – to 2.64 hryvnia. (5.8 rubles). This was justified by the fact that after the intense shelling that began last autumn, the state is forced to restore the damaged energy infrastructure.

Until June 1, two tariffs were in effect for the Ukrainian population, both were considered “social”. In cases where household users “burned” less than 250 kWh per month, they were allowed to pay for electricity at the rate of UAH 1.44. per kilowatt (3 rubles). If the family went beyond the limit – the tariff was 1.68 UAH. (3 rubles 64 kopecks). Now, save – do not save, you will have to pay almost twice as much.

The impact on wallets, judging by the preliminary calculations of economists, will be felt by everyone. Especially residents of Volyn, Vinnitsa, Dnepropetrovsk, Transcarpathian, Kyiv and Lviv regions. Oblenergos and power grids of these six regions will additionally charge citizens for distribution. The front-line territories were exempted from such an allowance.

But with the increase in the cost of water services, it is the residents of the Western Donbas who feel the biggest losers. Because the tariffs for water from the Pavlograd water utility (Dnepropetrovsk region) are the highest in all of Ukraine: UAH 58.85. for 1 cubic meter of water supply and drainage (127 rubles 65 kopecks). Water supply and drainage from Zhytomyrvodokanal also became expensive: a total of 48.87 UAH. per cube (108.29 rubles).

Satisfiedly rubbing their hands in Western Ukraine: the utility company “Lvivvodokanal” has set a tariff for its consumers in the amount of 23.84 hryvnia (51.71 rubles). “Chernivtsivodokanal” also tried to please fellow countrymen: they demand 25.92 hryvnia (56 Russian rubles) per cubic meter of water supply and drainage per month.

Verkhovna Rada deputy Aleksey Kucherenko, who previously led the Ministry of Construction, Architecture and Housing and Utilities for several years, testifies that no one thought to show the calculations and arguments in favor of raising the tariff to the current deputy corps. “I repeat for the hundredth time: never choose monopower!” the politician wrote on the social network. “Even if she knows how to tumble and play the piano!”

The last phrase is a hint at the scandalous concert number performed by Vladimir Zelensky, in which the future president of the country imitates playing the piano with his pants down…

Coming from June 1, the increase in the cost of a communal apartment is discussed everywhere, including even football portals. “Well, where are the ardent patriots who tore their shirts on, they say, you have to endure and endure everything?” Anton Deriy, a fan, asks. to travel abroad. Everything is OK. We rejoice and jump, it will get worse further.”

Submit documents

Back in February 2023, recruitment to the so-called “Offensive Guard” started in Ukraine. As a result of the recruiting campaign of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the initiators of the pompous project promised to form several assault brigades as part of the National Guard of Ukraine, the National Police and the Border Guard Service of Ukraine. The personnel of these brigades should become the basis of the restored units on the territory of the Crimean peninsula and along the entire length of the current land corridor from the Kherson region of the Russian Federation to both Donbass people’s republics.

And the Ukrainian security forces who survived the bloody battles with the Russian army will supposedly be able to claim command positions in the regional departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the same Northern Black Sea region.

More or less accurate figures regarding the “Guards of the offensive” in the media, for obvious reasons, do not fall. They say that there were either 35 or 40 thousand written applications from Ukrainians about the desire to become “guardsmen”. For the duration of hostilities, information about the personnel of the “Guards” will be closed.

Recruitment to attack aircraft, as MK sources inform, goes through a stump-deck. Almost like in the Armed Forces. Employees of the Tertiary Centers for Recruitment and Social Support, urged on by commanders, sometimes do not disdain to hand out subpoenas wherever they find potential defenders.

One Saturday I became an unwitting witness to one such “raid”.

Having parked at the supermarket, I noticed a certain frail peasant in a field military uniform, sticking out alone in front of the entrance. “Good afternoon, I’m from the military registration and enlistment office, I’ll ask you to show your documents,” I heard his remark. That unsightly military man turned out to be a member of the “capture group”. The rest were in the cabin of a brand new pickup truck in the parking lot. Obviously, in order not to frighten off a potential “combat reserve”, carelessly walking the streets on a day off.

The target of the recruiter was a respectable-looking young man aged 23-24. The girl who accompanied him on the shopping trip was obviously nervous.

Further dialogue took place in low tones: the military man noticed with what interest I was watching his work.

A compatriot pulled out of a shopping party had a neatly folded “booking” document in his purse. After carefully examining the reservation and turning it at different angles, the officer checked the name of the buyer with some database in his smartphone. Then he gave the document to its owner and saluted goodbye. Making it clear that the state of Ukraine has no claims to this particular individual.

Despite the fact that the military registration and enlistment officer spoke with the stranger with the utmost courtesy, it was difficult to get rid of the feeling of humiliation of human dignity even for me, an accidental witness to the raid.

On social networks, you can find a bunch of videos in which employees of the Ukrainian military registration and enlistment offices use brute physical force on the men they stopped. In some cases, only a policeman walking nearby with a service weapon puts an end to the procedure for delivering a subpoena to the local TCC to some unfortunate person.

“They row everyone who lost their caution and left the house during the daytime,” complains 40-year-old Victor, a father of many children who lives in one of the suburbs. – So my son Misha was caught, he has been under Bakhmut for the third month already.

As far as I know, Misha got into a bad story a few years ago. Group fight, some young major suffered; following the results of a short trial, almost all the participants in the fight were shoved into the colonies. Misha actually had to wind up the term for another year, but he was released on parole. He was free for less than a month. His presence in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was urgently needed …

– And I remember that Sasha, a red-haired one, a participant in the ATO, went with you …

– Yes, who needs it? You know, the guy drank himself completely after Donbass, his wife ran away from him. They try not to take such an audience to the front. There is no use for “avatars”, only problems. Drug addicts and drunks are the first candidates for a sniper bullet, even if there is a temporary lull at the front.

On the streets there are only pensioners with sticks

My next interlocutor is 75-year-old Rosa, a native of Karelia, who has managed to live both in Western Ukraine and in the dusty Donbass.

– If you are a journalist, then you are obliged to raise this problem, – a neatly dressed and combed lady begins to teach life. – In my neighborhood there is not a single man older than 60 who is able to walk without leaning on a stick!

– Well, what do you want, we live in the Chernobyl zone. And I would have been in a similar state if I had not left in 1986 for the Odessa region. Do you think that only in the Zhytomyr region do men age quickly? In the Donetsk region in the middle of the 2000s, there were several areas where the age limit for men was 44 years. Almost no one managed to stretch longer.

There are fewer and fewer able-bodied people in Ukraine. On the street – only the elderly or very young. The authorities are already thinking about how to keep 17-year-olds in the country. Which the army shines in a year, but at the same time, the obsessive thought of imminent mobilization haunts.

At some Ukrainian border checkpoints, cases were recorded when people in green caps did not let people under the age of 18 go abroad. So to speak, they carried out preventive measures for recruitment into the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

If you follow the letter of the law, no one has the right to “close the barrier” for such young men. In order to somehow prevent the mass exodus of young men from their beloved homeland, the deputies of parliament enacted a resolution according to which guys should be registered for military registration not from the age of 17, as before, but from 16. Accordingly, after registration, everyone is issued a registration certificate . And you can’t leave anymore.

Don’t shoot mosquitoes

At the end of May, the SBU sent SMS subscribers with the following content: “We ask the owners of Web cameras installed on the territory of Ukraine to stop broadcasting buildings, areas, roads, industrial, commercial and municipal facilities online. All of them can be used by the enemy to correct missile strikes. If you detect such an online broadcast, please report it to the official Telegram bot of the Security Service of Ukraine.”

The call, as you might guess, was due to a successful attack on the main base of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine located in Kyiv on Rybalsky Island.

In the Ukrainian-speaking segment, they did not slow down with the reaction to this KGB “prohibitive” post. With reference to the Operational Command “South”, some mockingbirds urged the Ukrainians not to kill mosquitoes: “If they fly into your room, do not film or photograph them under any circumstances so that the enemy does not recognize your positions.”