With bombings and a funeral, the conflict arrives in Ukraine’s West

Men in camouflage, hardened by battle, sniffled as a Ukrainian Orthodox choir sang the haunting funeral mass. One man put his arm round one other as tears welled in his eyes.

“The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished,” stated the priest through the funeral rites Saturday for 2 of the 4 troopers who died when the town’s navy airfield was bombed earlier than daybreak Friday.

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“For 30 years we were singing these words and saying we would suffer for our freedom, but we could not have imagined these words would become our reality, that we would have to send our sons to defend us against our neighbors,” Father Mykhail, the priest, stated.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now in its third week. With the 4 deaths on the airfield, it arrived in Lutsk, a provincial capital solely 55 miles from Poland. It was a uncommon assault within the west by a Russian navy that has centered primarily within the south, north and round Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

For weeks, Western Ukraine has been a secure haven for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who’ve fled battle zones, in addition to businessmen, journalists, diplomats and others. But with bombings in Lutsk and one other western metropolis, Ivano-Frankivsk, early Friday, violence and demise pierced the sense of safety that many had taken with no consideration.

“There is no peaceful town in Ukraine anymore,” stated Myroslava Kozyupa, 43, who stood outdoors in town sq. listening as audio system broadcast the funeral going down within the Church of the Holy Trinity in entrance of her.

She acknowledged that for now, they face much less peril than different cities like Kharkiv, which has been beneath assault for 2 weeks, and Mariupol, the nation’s most urgent humanitarian emergency, saying, “We are pretty OK.” But she was distressed that Matvii, a blue-eyed, seven-month-old child being carried by a girl subsequent to her, “already knows what sirens are and already knows they mean we have to go to a bomb shelter.”

Ukraine’s huge western area has stirred extra concern in current days following intermittent studies that Belarus, solely 90 miles to the north, may start to commit forces to the conflict. That apprehensive Lutsk residents due to Belarus’ proximity and the unpredictability of its autocratic chief, Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

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The area’s function as a hall for weapons being delivered from Europe and the United States might also make it a goal. On Saturday, Russia’s deputy international minister, Sergei Ryabkov, stated on Russian tv that he had warned the U.S. that convoys with weapons despatched to Ukraine could be “legitimate targets” for the Russian navy.

Some residents fear that along with the convoys, the Kremlin has its sights set on this territory.

“I believe his aim is to reach the border with Poland — the NATO border,” stated Serhiy, a surgeon who declined to present his final title out of concern for his safety, referring to Putin.

Kozyupa stated that she is apprehensive that Ukraine may quickly lose its skill to guard its airspace.

“Our borders are being defended by border guards, and our land is being kept safe by our defenders, but our sky is not protected,” she stated, echoing requires NATO to determine a no-fly zone above Ukraine.

Soldiers console each other at a funeral for native troopers killed when Russian jets bombed a navy airfield in Lutsk. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times)

Lutsk’s airfield was bombed Feb. 24, the primary day of the invasion, however it didn’t fully destroy the airfield, and nobody was killed. The metropolis, like a lot of the nation’s west, had not anticipated Russian navy exercise to escalate, at the least not but. On Friday, when the assaults occurred, an early warning system didn’t go off as a result of the Russian rockets had flown “super slow,” stated the mayor, Ihor Polishchuk. “I think this type of attack is to raise fear, increase the level of panic and to strengthen the position of the Russian Federation in possible negotiations with Ukraine,” he stated.

Mariia Zolkina, a political and navy analyst on the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, stated that Russia might transfer its troops westward however {that a} full assault was nonetheless not potential — “just yet” — till Russian troopers achieve a stronger foothold in central Ukraine.

However, she predicted that Russian forces will proceed attacking navy targets in Ukraine’s west as a result of even when different international locations donate fighter jets, the nation won’t be able to make use of them if there are not any airfields from which they’ll fly.

“It is important for Ukraine to receive support before Russia achieves its goals in the west,” she stated.

Western Ukraine has a special historical past than the east, which has traditionally been nearer to Russia and the place extra individuals take into account themselves ethnic Russians and native Russian audio system — the individuals Putin has claimed are a pure a part of Russia. In Lutsk, greater than 90% of the inhabitants consists of ethnic Ukrainians, based on the latest census, from 2001.

Civilians discover ways to deal with rifles at a classroom that in peacetime hosted a chess membership in Lutsk. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times)

Lutsk and the area of Western Ukraine at the moment are house to many displaced Ukrainians from the east and south; the inhabitants of Lutsk and its environment, which the mayor estimated at about 250,000, has grown by 10,000 alone. And it is going to play an important function on the hall by which humanitarian assist will likely be disbursed, stated Zolkina.

Lutsk’s residents have been preparing for a possible arrival of Russian troops, each time it might come.

“We have prepared to the max,” stated Polishchuk. “We have been able to buy enough food in case of a humanitarian catastrophe. We have 40,000 cubic meters of water in our reserves. And our residents have made at least 25,000 Molotov cocktails since the war began.” The mayor himself stated he made “too many to count.”

A reserve battalion of 4,000 volunteers is able to buttress each the navy forces and the territorial protection, a loosely organised a part of the Ukrainian military that consists of varied paramilitary teams.

Ordinary residents are additionally studying what it means to stay in wartime. At a basement classroom often used as a chess membership, 19-year-old Artem Kovalchuk was displaying civilians learn how to shoot a rifle.

“Everybody wants to learn how to hold a weapon properly,” stated Kovalchuk, who joined the Ukrainian military in 2020 and had been serving close to Mariupol, which is now surrounded by Russian forces. “God forbid we will soon face a similar situation as the one being experienced in eastern regions.”

A Russian airstrike on a navy airfield in Lutsk on Friday has pierced the relative sense of safety in Western Ukraine, which has been a haven for hundreds of thousands fleeing the Russian invasion, in addition to a hall for reduction efforts and weapons. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times)

At the coaching session, individuals requested questions on how far shrapnel from a grenade may fly. Then they took turns studying learn how to load 5 bullets into Kalashnikovs. The weapons are from the Sixties and ’70s — too previous for fight however usable for coaching.

Kovalchuk stated he additionally provides classes about technique, techniques and first assist.

His presentation was preceded by a chat from a psychologist about rest methods and coping mechanisms for coping with panic assaults.

The courses are daily at 1 o’clock, stated Yuriy Semchuk, a volunteer, and often draw between 150 and 200 individuals daily. He was beforehand a coordinator in a youth heart, the place he organised classes in patriotic training.

At the funeral Saturday, the priest prayed to god for “victory over the enemy.”

“There is a Christian commandment, ‘Thou shall not kill,’” Mykhail stated close to the top of his sermon eulogy. But the Russian attackers “deserve to die here,” he stated. “And tomorrow we will defend our motherland so that we do not become slaves.”

Later within the day at Holy Trinity Church, a soldier who was defending Lutsk’s airport deliberate to get married — an indication that life goes on amid the looming menace of battle.