Russia dampens Ukraine's spirits with civilian bombings
Reporter and journalist María Senovilla, a contributor to Atalayar, analysed the massive bombings of Ukrainian cities on Onda Madrid's programme ‘De cara al mundo’. She also mentioned Trump's peace plan.
We have seen images here in the West of a Russian ballistic missile striking Kiev. It is one of the Ukrainian cities that has been under heavy attack in recent days. The same is true in Kramatorsk, where you are. How are you experiencing this situation personally? How are you, the civilians and the people you live with in these Ukrainian cities coping with the bombings?
Morale has not been this low since the beginning of the invasion, due to the increase in these types of massive bombings against cities. This increase in the double strike tactic, where they launch a bombing and then, when the rescue workers are attending to the wounded, the rescue workers, firefighters and doctors, they launch a second attack to kill them, which happened again in Kharkiv last night.
That feeling of insecurity, of feeling that nowhere in the city is safe. When the bombing took place in Kiev, which, incidentally, has been declared a day of mourning in Kiev today, for the victims of that attack, which was carried out with missiles and drones and killed 12 people, including children, and injured more than 90, who were sleeping in their homes, because this was at two o'clock in the morning, in the middle of the curfew, when you cannot go out, and Russia directly attacked residential buildings, residential buildings of civilians with missiles. This was not debris from a drone falling and killing someone, no, these were missiles targeting civilians.
At that moment, we were being attacked in Kramatorsk, there was also an attack underway against the city of Kharkiv, the second most important city in Ukraine, against cities in Dnipro, against the entire north of Donetsk. It was a massive, planned attack not only against the regions near the front line, but also against the capital, and at that moment my translator called me to say, ‘Maria, I don't know if I'm going to be killed tonight’, and she hadn't felt this way for a long time. ‘ I look out the window and see neighbours picking up their children and running to the underground to take shelter. I don't know what to do. I can see things falling, I can hear the missile explosions, I'm following accounts on social media that tell you about the air raid sirens, where they're coming from, what the Russians are attacking with, and there's nowhere to hide.’
And it wasn't the only testimony I received in this regard. The next day, talking to more people, more friends, they conveyed that feeling of insecurity to me, ‘this is a lottery, and maybe it will be my turn in a little while, or tonight, or tomorrow,’ they confirmed. That is the feeling that this latest massive attack has produced, and it is not over yet, because in Kiev it was in the early hours of Wednesday to Thursday, but here there were more explosions from drones and gliding bombs, which they call FAP bombs or CAP bombs here, which are launched with an explosive charge ranging from 250 kilos to a tonne and a half. These are not drones, which are already quite damaging in themselves, but highly lethal explosives.
In the afternoon, one of these half-ton bombs fell in the vicinity of the train station, blowing out the doors and windows of all the buildings in the station. It fell on the outside, towards the tracks, but the train is still running. but there have already been several attacks concentrated in that area, and I very much fear that Russia's intention is to cut off communication with the city of Kramatorsk by destroying the train station, because it already did so a few months ago, for example, in Konstantinovka, which is the city between Kramatorsk and Bakhmut, and little by little advance in this siege towards the north of Donetsk, where we are under attack, The air raid sirens have been activated and attempts are being made to intercept the fighter bombers that are taking off to drop those aerial bombs.
The attack did not stop with what we saw in the city of Kiev last night; it is still ongoing. There was another very heavy attack with deaths and injuries in both the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, and it does not look like it is going to stop. There was a brief truce of just over 24 hours for Easter, which was not respected on the front line, but it was in the cities. However, as soon as the truce ended, this intense wave of attacks against cities, civilian targets, residential buildings, train stations, hospitals and all kinds of facilities began.
These are war crimes. It seems that we have become immune, that no one is shocked anymore when they say that Russia has bombed a train station, a house, a residential building full of families and children, killing them, but these are still war crimes that continue to be committed on a daily basis without anyone, without any international voice being raised. Many things are coming together. It's not just the attacks, it's also the peace negotiations that are not moving forward, it's also the front line where people are exhausted and morale is low.
You were in Borova, a village on the Kharkiv front that was occupied in 2022 and is now under siege again by the Russians. You spoke to people. What did you find in that village, on that front line where, incidentally, very few journalists go?
Yes, rather than us reaching the front line, it is the front line that is reaching a number of towns that were previously a little safer, further away from the Russian troops, and with the latest advances made by the Russian army in this part of the Ukrainian front, they have been trapped in what is considered the front line because they are within range of Russian artillery.
In the case of Borova, specifically, they are just over 10 kilometres from the Russian lines and are being hit hard, not only with drones and glide bombs, but they are also within range of artillery and have been bombarded systematically every day for several months. Only 10% of the population remains there, about 500 people. The rest have had to evacuate to Kharkiv and Izium, where they continue to come under Russian attack, but at least they are no longer within range of the artillery.
And I was there to see how life goes on, if it goes on at all, in these towns that have been trapped on the front line, not only in Kharkiv, but also in this area of Donetsk. I was able to talk to the mayor and the hospital director. They were running on bare bones. For example, the mayor told me that I was treated in a private flat because the town hall and the various headquarters where the civil administration and public administration teams had been relocated had already been bombed five times.
They had been bombed five times in the last three months and were in a private flat. They had set up rooms there as best they could, installing desks and offices to deal with the affairs of those 500 people who do not want to leave because, in most cases, they have nowhere to go. They are trying to provide them with humanitarian aid, electricity and running water. They are ensuring that services continue to function until it is no longer possible because the Russians are getting closer and bombing everything. But life is extremely complicated. I mean, these are people who are surviving 10 kilometres from the Russians with nowhere to go, and why would they go to a big city when they might end up with a missile falling on them?
Exactly, that's the reality of war on the ground. We briefly talked about ‘Vladimir stop’, didn't we? But here in Ukraine, Trump's peace plan is seen as Putin's proposal, but translated into English.
Basically, Trump insists that this peace agreement be signed before 30 April, which is completely crazy. It is impossible for Ukraine to accept these conditions. I will briefly list what is included in the peace plan that the US president has presented to the Ukrainian president: Ukraine must agree to a ceasefire on the current front line without Russian troops withdrawing or giving any guarantees; the lifting of all sanctions against the Russian Federation by the United States, which is one of Putin's main demands from the outset; Ukraine must renounce Crimea and the occupied territories in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, i.e. 20% of its territory plus Crimea; Ukraine's refusal to join NATO leaves open the possibility of Ukraine joining the European Union, but without any defence guarantees; and direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
And yes, President Trump also included the signing of a mining agreement between Ukraine and the United States and the transfer of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which, let us remember, is the largest in Europe and would come under US control, which would operate it through an energy cooperation agreement with Russia.
After Trump presented this proposal, there was a wave of massive attacks, and even then, President Trump said, after these massive attacks, that Putin still had goodwill when it came to brokering peace. He told this to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr, with whom he met in the Oval Office, and the US president did not hesitate to say that Putin was helping to forge a peace agreement by not conquering the whole of Ukraine, which was quite a big concession.
