Thread by @dpatrikarakos

I’m reporting from on-the-ground in #Mykolaiv, which is now suffering more shelling than at any point in the war as #Russia ramps up attacks. Here a row of offices has been struck. Across the road are houses.

“Are there any military targets near here?” I ask.
“No,” is the reply.

There are huge water shortages in #Mykolaiv. Here, a crowd of people lines up for water from a truck in the parking lot of a supermarket.

The locals here tell me they remain defiant.

This lady’s T-shirt says: “We dont give a fuck about tanks and APC, we are from #Mykolaiv, we are volunteers.”

Over the past few weeks Russia has struck civilian targets with huge ordnance. This crater is made by a #Russia parachute bomb that struck a child rehabilitation centre.

The ruins of the Hotel Ingul in #Mykolaiv. Another civilian building destroyed far from any military targets I can see.

The back vote of the shelled Hotel Ingul. In the foreground is a children’s playground.

Interviewing the mayor of #Mykolaiv. “I move constantly. don’t sleep in the same place two nights in a row. All I need is my gun and a place to wash.”

Mayor of #Mykolayiv: “In the beginning I’d get messages from Russians telling me to surrender or face the fate of #Mariupol. I told them: either go home and live or come here and die. Welcome to hell, motherfuckers.”

“The Russians don’t understand that we live in a democracy. One man can’t decide for everyone. Even if I wanted to surrender, which I would not do. The people would never accept.”

“Look, we are fighting for our families and our land: we are overmotivated. The Russians are fighting only to die on the orders of Putin, the 21st century Hitler. They are undermotivated.”

“This is a clash not between #Ukraine & #Russia but between civilisations. One that wants to cure cancer & go into space & the other only interested restoring a Soviet past.”

“Watch #Russia propaganda & understand that everything is backwards: they fight fascism by bringing fascism; they liberate by enslaving. When they say #Ukraine is planning a chemical weapons attack you know that’s what they are planning.”

I left #Mykolaiv to go to the villages on the frontlines of the war. Here destruction is everywhere. But life jas to go. Incredibly this store, in a bombed out building, is still open.

Here the war is almost constant. This village has been shelled twice today. Destruction is everywhere.

Amid the ruins of a bombed out building an old woman seems to have lost her mind. "Everything is CHAOS" she screams before breaking into song.

Here, by the front, one understands - beyond the rhetoric - the wanton & incontinent violence #Russia unleashing. Everywhere you look is destruction. The sound of shelling rumbles overhead.

I'll leave the final words to the Mayor of #Mykolaiv: "Putin is a Stalinist and he will go to the end. He has more troops & tanks & armour than us & he will keep sending them. But we will fight & every time he'll have fewer forces. This is why we badly need more weapons."

UPDATE: #Russia says it seeks 'full control' of southern Ukraine. This sounds unlikely given its problems but it mean #Mykolaiv remains vital. The mayor is unfazed: "Everyone who lives in #Ukraine has now had a relative killed, injured or sent into exile. They will never forget.”