Ivan Ganzer told how his sister lives under occupation in the Kharkiv region/Collage of the 24 channel site
The sister of the winner of the show “Voice of the Country” Ivan Ganzera has been under occupation since the first day of the full-scale invasion of Russia. She lives two kilometers from Russia – in the urban-type settlement of Kazachya Lopan, Kharkiv region.
The Ukrainian singer Ivan Ganzera exclusively spoke about the constant shelling by the Russians, the cynical demands of the occupiers and the life of his sister in the temporarily occupied territory in the Kharkiv region.
“Russians for about a week they didn't even let them pick up the corpses”
Ivan Ganzer said that it was from his sister that he learned about the invasion of the occupying troops on the morning of February 24. She informed him that Grads were firing at their village.
The sister was in tears. She cried and ran home. I wanted to evacuate, quickly escape. She ran home and tried to collect some things. However, literally at 6:00 in the morning she called me and said that it was no longer possible for her to evacuate. After all, Russian tanks are already driving around their village at full speed and any movement in the village is forbidden for them, – the man said.
Local residents were not even allowed to leave their houses. Ivan said that the situation was so horrendous that people in their village were injured from the Grad strikes. And the Russians didn't even let them pick up the bodies for about a week, they just lay on the street, at the crossroads. The occupiers forbade people to leave their houses, even to fetch water.
When it calms down a bit, my sister comes out of the basement to wash and cook. They then run off to the basement again. All this time they are under constant shelling. Fighting continues there – either ours are advancing, or the Russians. They have been in such a rhythm all this time,” he said.
Ivan Ganzera/Photo from Facebook Ukrainian singer< /p>
Human shield for invaders
Five days after the beginning of the occupation, electricity, gas and communications disappeared. Literally a week ago, light appeared in Cossack Lopan. While there was no light, people cooked food on a fire. There were moments during all this time that they did not have anything to eat. According to the man, people were ready to go under bullets, just not to die of hunger, to Kharkov or Russia.
At first they did not want to evacuate to Russia. But when the situation became very difficult, it became indifferent where to run away, as long as it was away from bullets and shells. Many left for Russia when there was such an opportunity. And a lot of people went to European countries in transit.
However, now evacuation is impossible anywhere. People are being held there like a human shield. There are about two thousand people left in the village who would like to leave for Ukraine. This is the line of fire,” he added.
There are not many Russian soldiers there. There are mainly military from quasi-republics. And Russian equipment stands right next to people in their yards.
That is probably why they do not allow the locals to leave, because they are a human shield for the occupiers. This is real terrorism,” Ivan emphasized.
Russian equipment is standing right next to people in the yards/Photo from the archive of the 24 channel site >According to him, now the connection with his sister is very bad. She goes out somewhere once a week to say that she is alive and well. Sometimes it doesn't come out at all. Communication is only in one place. And it's quite dangerous there. If she calls on the phone, it is literally for a minute or two to tell what the situation is.
The woman also asks what is happening in Ukraine, because they have a full-fledged information vacuum. The occupiers tell them that “they must have a referendum, they must join Russia, because Ukraine no longer exists, Poland has already taken Ukraine.”
It took me a long time to convince my sister that this was not true, that nothing had happened to Ukraine, except for the fact that the war continues, flying missiles, that Ukraine is and will be. She said that the Russians, if they see someone with a phone, they take away mobile SIM cards. My sister hasn't been in contact for a long time. And I'm worried that they won't take it from her either. To let her know that she is alive and well,” he said.
Russian soldiers often stop people on the streets and, at gunpoint, force them to open the bank’s mobile app. And then transfer all the funds that were on the cards to the one they say.
Occupiers spread fakes that Ukraine no longer exists/Photo from the archive of Channel 24
I don’t know how, but my sister managed to somehow find the Internet and just a few weeks ago blocked her card at the bank. She uninstalled all applications and thus secured herself. You must understand that the rule “he who has a weapon is the strong one” reigns there. People are really in a difficult situation, the laws do not work,” Ivan noted.
According to the singer, everything in the occupied territory depends on the mood of a particular military man, a particular terrorist. There are more or less adequate, and there are those who came to profit from something. As elsewhere, looting flourishes there. Also, he noted, “cases of rape and executions are known.”
I myself was also born in the Kharkiv region, but on the other hand, which is also occupied today, is my native Izium region. What my classmates who managed to leave say is actually very terrifying. We do not know about it, because there is no connection there either. But when Ukraine recaptures these territories, we will see more than one Bucha and more than one Borodyanka,” the man said.
Ivan's classmate said that the invaders raped both women and girls. And those who refused and tried to hide were literally shot before his eyes.
My classmate has children. When the Russian military came in, he tried to leave in the direction of Kharkov in the early days. But the trip was short. They were stopped, everyone was taken out of the car, the car keys were taken away and they were told to go home. Where is his car – he still does not know. Thank God, somewhere he managed to get another car from his acquaintances, and they, wandering along the field roads, nevertheless left, – he said.
“In order to live, you give up all your property”
Ivana's sister and her husband also tried to leave at their own risk in the direction of Kharkov when they ran out of food. At the checkpoint, at the exit from their village, they were also stopped and taken out of the car. The man was undressed and looked at the tattoos. Then they beat him up very badly. In the direction of Kharkov, they were never allowed through. And when the family returned home, they came with searches.
The last time we talked with my sister, she said that during another attempt to negotiate with the Russian military at the checkpoint so that they would still let them into the territory of Russia, one of them suggested that she transfer all her property to him – a car and a house . After she crosses the Russian border in Belgorod,” he continued.
The invaders force people to rewrite all their property in order to survive/Photo by Getty Images
According to Ivan, if a citizen of Ukraine crosses the border and, in the end, he is let through, then at the border he must necessarily hand over his Ukrainian passport and receive Russian citizenship. And the car is forced to be re-registered for Russian registration.
In order to live, you give up all your possessions. This is banditry and savagery. But this is wartime, wild people are all around us. I told my sister that no material things are worth her life. Everything can be earned and purchased. Moreover, I have serious doubts that such agreements will have any legal force. If the house survives and Ukraine will be there again, it seems to me that she will be able to return to her house just as freely. And I advised her, if there is such an opportunity, then do everything possible to survive, the man said.
The Ukrainian singer is trying to find an opportunity to take his sister and her husband to a safer place. He said that he even tried to contact someone he knows in Russia so that they could help take his family to Russian territory. And from there they could move to Europe.
But it is so hard. Because no one talks about evacuation, and many military people say that evacuating is even more dangerous than sitting and waiting in the basement, he stressed.
The occupiers are forced to hand over a Ukrainian passport at the border in order to travel to Russia/Photo by Getty Images If there are relatives in the Russian Federation, and they will come directly to the border and write a request to the border guards. Only then, perhaps, will it be possible that people from the occupied territories can be released across the border into Russia.
We have no relatives in Russia. I tried to contact famous people in Russia, including Diana Arbenina, my coach in the Voice of the Country show. Some of them at least reply that it's very risky and they won't be involved in rescuing my sister, and most of the people I contacted don't even answer. They just read the message and that's it, Ivan shared.
The singer also appealed to the Ukrainian authorities who deal with humanitarian issues. So that they do not forget that there are also a lot of people in the occupied territories of the Kharkiv region who need corridors and who want to return to Ukraine.
And if there were such an opportunity to organize this, I am convinced that we could save many Ukrainians, who even there, on the distant Russian corridor, love Ukraine and wait until the last moment for help from it. They believe that she will still take them home,” the man emphasized.
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