South of Zaporizhzhia, after the Dnipro River, there are Ukrainian villages where the border between the invader and the liberator is so thin that it becomes invisible.
And when the 'Z' of the Russians replaces the yellow and blue flag at the checkpoints, it becomes easier to get in than out.
In the village of Novovodyane there was no resistance to the invader, many were "happy to see the Russians".
They do not call it occupation because, even if there are tanks and soldiers guarding the borders of the villages, here "the soldiers avoid clashes, bombs, bullets or artillery - they say - life is always the same".
Then it was easy to enter this peasant block with small houses, because the village chief "stays with the Russians, as in the Crimea".
Among the 1,500 inhabitants of the village there are also employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is only about ten kilometers away and was attacked at the beginning of March: just then the militia troops arrived from the ground.
Also for this reason the inhabitants have decided not to fight and "avoid risks: we did not want to be injured", they say.
But something has changed, and how.
On the shelves of the few warehouses in the already poor village, goods are scarce and prices are higher.
The atrocities and destruction in the cities north of Kiev - such as in Bucha, Buzova, Hostomel, Irpin or Borodyanka - from here, however, seem to relate to another war, another country.
In Novovodyane, however, it is still impossible to protest: only a few weeks ago an anti-Russian protest was organized in a nearby territory and to disperse the crowd, Putin's militiamen launched stun grenades and 'N4', the sound ones.
It is unclear if anyone was also caught.
Two weeks ago Oleksander - who worked at the nuclear plant but was not a native of the place - managed to escape.
He walked for two days and about fifty kilometers.
"At the checkpoints the Russians stripped me, took money and documents and I was held prisoner for two hours, kneeling in a pit. Then they let me go. For him, the people of Novovodyane" betrayed Ukraine "and with less sophisticated words almost describe a place where people seem to be in the grip of Stockholm syndrome. "They let them in.
'We will be with you', they told him.
And now perhaps selfishness has also taken over, they have also understood that there is the advantage of making money by trading the fruits of their land in the territories of the Crimea.
But Putin's militias kill,
Here is the first reception point in Zaporizhzhia for those fleeing the war.
Every day, refugees arrive by car or on foot.
From a few hundred to 4-5 thousand people a day
