Thread by @JulianRoepcke

Finally.

Situation here. Russia is bombing various regions in Ukraine for two hours now. No impacts in Lviv so far.

On the way to Kyiv physical war damage is still visible all around from Makariv to the east. Ukraine started fixing the first damaged bridges and is cleaning up everywhere, but even here it will take years to rebuild what Russia destroyed in February and March last year.

Shot down Russian Zala 421 drone. Used by Russia’s “civilian” emergency protection ministry during the military invasion.
It still comes with German folding propellers. Remember my February 2019 article, revealing it when it was “no sanctions breach” …
m.bild.de/politik/auslan…

Always fact-based. Never neutral!

I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t afraid. But we are heading in.
By the way: everything you see in this thread didn’t happen “today” for obvious reasons.

Air raid alarms, sudden blackouts and shelter visits are part of the daily routine in Ukraine.
Sickening and just another thing, nobody but Russia is to blame for.

To all non-Ukrainians. The situation is hard to understand if you are not here. Russia Perfect-ionized the essence of terror. 35 million people are living in constant fear. The rocket or shell could hit everywhere and at every time. This makes people crazy. Like sleepwalking.

Over the last days, I was in cities where people were killed that very day by Russian rockets. When we arrived hours later, life was “back to normal”. Russia, killing people indiscriminately, is the new “normal”.
This also results in pure/justified(!) hatred towards all Russian.

The physical war, the violence, all the deaths, is just the visible part of Russia’s all-out war against the Ukrainian people.
At least the same devastating is its total war against Ukrainian hearts and minds.
Russia must be punished as much as possible until it stops it terror.

As it is still #Caturday in LA, let’s start the day with some cat stuff.
This is @TimurDnipro and his lovely mate. They are working for @CharityPrytula and supply the Ukrainian army. @cheskeradio insisted, 😸 would give me an interview. Please pardon my stupid questions though.🤷🏼‍♂️

The @CharityPrytula delivered tactical medical kits to the Ukrainian army, fighting near Bachmut, which will probably save dozens of lives.
Their message is simple: If you want to help to Ukrainian people, help the Ukrainian army.
More on all of this in my upcoming articles @BILD

If I told you what Ukrainian soldiers told me about the situation around Bakhmut, you would probably call me a “Russian propagandist” again.
So I won’t go into detail, but let you watch things evolving on the ground. I think the trend is clear to everyone with a clear mind.😒

Right now, the Ukrainian strategy in Donetsk is to “slow them down as much as possible” and “kill as many as possible”, while waiting for Western arms and newly mobilized and/or trained of their own to arrive. Just after that, new “counteroffensives” are hopefully on the table.

Here is a little summary of our tour to Donbas. In English and - sorry for that - with shelling in the background.

Russian propagandists use their likely victory in Bakhmut to allege they are winning the war. Of course they don’t. Their casualties are 5-10 times higher than the Ukrainian ones and in 2022 they lost 500 times the area they conquered since January 5.
You already lost.

This is Kostyantynivka, 20 km West of Bakhmut. There were nonstop alerts, incoming, but also outgoing artillery and MLRS fire, when we visited it. Even under massive fire the Ukrainian army gave them hell and defended its citizens.

So thanks for your advice and your threats to get one of the best friends of Ukraine in jail.
I deleted the tweet. Not much to add to my explanation. Only that dozens of Ukrainian and international journalists would be in jail by now if that was forbidden to film and post later.

Here we go again. Take cover!
#RussiaIsATerroristState

We visited the town of Luch on the administrative border between Mykolaiv & Kherson. The destruction there is unbelievable. The frontline town has been under Russian shelling for eight month, displacing 95% of the population. Here is my report from the local school’s sports hall.

Residential area in Luch, where only 37 people returned since the end of the fighting. Population is now 64 including only 2 children.

There are still some remains of normality, but the reality is much tougher. Russians were so close, even small arms fire hit the buildings during their storming attempts. Ukraine defended it however.

We visited some of the bombed out homes. In this one, an old lady survived miraculously when the Russian shell hit her apartment. She was sleeping in the left room at the time of the attack. That saved her life. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Only the ground floors are inhabitable in Luch. People need urgent help to repair the roofs, before more can return. Svitlana is the town’s deputy at the municipal council. She had to move to a bunker after her home got destroyed. She still lives in it today with her husband.

While Luch is 30 km N of the next Russian position today, it doesn’t mean the war is over there. Shelling is going on (of course in both directions) and in the afternoon the 🇺🇦 Air Force retaliated against the deadly Russian shelling of Kherson (3 killed) with an air strike.

Honestly, I almost sh*t my pants as we didn’t immediately know who’s air plane it was and took cover. Just after checking the flight direction, we relaxed and I started filming the sky.
Last but not least: Never trust @googlemaps in Ukraine. It’s trying to kill you!😬

More Ukrainian forces on the road.
This time only images so nobody starts crying again. And of course, nothing of this was recorded today and they were all moving to distant locations.

Thanks a lot to Dnipro for having been so good to us over the past days.
Nothing to add to this video.

Some more videos from Luch which had its own little leisure park, made entirely of wooden houses, just opposite its church.
There is still unexploded ordinance in the park and the church got also hit hard by the Russians.

This is how close the Russians came to Luch. They controlled the antenna to the left, while Ukrainians held the area I’m in. Impacts on the factory building are small arms fire.

Building to the left with the nice mosaic is the kindergarten of Luch, in the middle of a residential area. As you can see, every building was hit here too. Still, a few dozen inhabitants lived in this area as you can see in the video.

Most cats and dogs in the town were really adorable.

But some dogs were not so nice - probably because we were strangers.

Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine turned highways throughout the country into runways to have an emergency substitute for its bombed or at least threatened air bases.
As you can see this from space, I don’t need to hide the location.😉

Finally back in Kyiv.

Say what you want, but even without much electricity, Kyiv is still beautiful!
I’m falling in love with the country, every time I am here. Even when it’s at war.💙💛

A cold shower after a 15 hour work day makes you hate Russia even more.
Just saying … 🥶🥶🥶

Generally speaking, of course. As journalists we are born neutral and without a conscience. Also we love cold showers.

We visited Makariv, the most western town Russia ever captured. It was liberated on March 17, 2022. From what I see, it is a great example of how Ukraine can shine again after its victory against the invaders. Reconstruction is almost finished there and it’s a lively town again.

We also visited the nearby headquarters of Aeroprakt - Ukraine’s leading microlight aircraft manufacturer - and met its CEO. Their airport was successfully defended by the Ukr army. Furious Russians attacked it with tanks and Su-25 however. Reconstruction is also going on there.

By the way: The Russians paid a huge price for damaging these soon again flying beauties.

As some pointed out, this is a T-64. An Ukrainian in the area told me however, this was a Russian tank, which is why its wreckage was not removed, unlike many others in and around Makariv.

Here is my summary of the day in / from Makariv.
I say “March 12” as the day of liberation, however parts of the town were under Russian control until March 28. March 12 was when the Ukrainians regained the center for the first time, though. As always: much more soon @BILD.