Bombed military airports and relatives in fear: reactions to the Ukraine war

Created: 02/25/2022, 17:00

By: Tobias Gmach

Demonstrated against Putin as early as 2014: Elvira Zechalo (centre) on Munich's Europaplatz in front of the Russian consulate.

The Gauting native regularly sends relief supplies to Ukraine.

© private

The Russian attack on Ukraine is causing great dismay, especially among those with direct contacts in the country.

They give first-hand accounts of bombed military airports and relatives in fear.

District – Maria Reitinger, Chairwoman of the Eastern European Aid for the districts of Starnberg, Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen and Munich, had been worried about her partners in the Ukraine for weeks.

Then she received a message from a friend on Thursday morning.

The bus operator sent a video from Brody, a town of 25,000 in the west of the country.

From the military airport, which had been bombarded with rockets in the course of the Russian large-scale attack.

In the ten-second sequence, a completely destroyed, blazingly burning building can be seen on the edge of an airfield - and two firefighters trying to put it out in vain.

The Ukrainian also reported on the bombing of the cities of Kiev, Mariupol and Kharkiv.

This is how Reitinger learned firsthand that there was war in Europe again.

She says, "I'm devastated."

Maria Reitinger, chairwoman of the Eastern Europe Aid, says: "I am devastated." © private

And she's angry – at Putin, but also at the West.

“Not much came out but words.

No one wants war, but Ukraine could have been better armed.

I'm ashamed. ”Reitinger hoped to the end that there would be no escalation.

Just last Sunday, the Eastern European Aid sent a shipment of relief supplies to Brody and Pidkamin – mattresses, clothes, wheelchairs and more.

And money for the renovation of sanitary facilities in a home for mentally ill people.

"Our driver was still quite confident that we could continue driving," reports Reitinger.

But now it is completely uncertain whether help will be possible at the weekend – especially now, when it would probably be even more important.

When asked about her home country, Elvira Zechalo just gushes out.

She talks for three quarters of an hour without a period or a comma.

Even the fact that Putin recognized the self-proclaimed people's republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine as independent dismayed the Gauting native.

"This is nothing but the next Transnistria," she says.

The unrecognized state of Transnistria is heavily influenced by Russia, which has armed forces stationed there.

And it's only about 150 kilometers away from Zechalo's hometown of Reni in southwestern Ukraine.

"Of course, people are very worried," says the 45-year-old.

The bombed military airport in Brody.

Eastern Europe Aid supports the western Ukrainian city.

© private

Zechalo, who has lived in Gauting since the early 2000s, has repeatedly supported her homeland with aid deliveries, most recently in December 2020. She visits her mother and other relatives several times a year.

In a phone call, she recently received the feedback: "Your deliveries have brought us more than Germany with 5,000 helmets." Zechalo had already demonstrated against Putin when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

She stood in front of the Russian consulate on Europaplatz in Munich with a poster saying "Putin, your politics is out".

From Zechalo's point of view, the best thing for Ukraine would be political neutrality based on the Swiss model.

On Thursday night, Zechalo was woken up by a call from her sister-in-law, who lives in Odessa on the Black Sea.

She cried on the phone.

Despite severe Covid 19 disease, she does not dare to go to a clinic because there are constant bangs outside.

An acquaintance from Moldova later reported that 20 rockets had been sighted flying from Transnistria towards Odessa.

"Streets are being bombed, cell phone and television connections are being bombed," says Zechalo.

"My people are done, they say: Now the Iron Curtain is coming back." In view of the war, after a day full of excitement and worries in distant Gauting, she says: "I still can't believe it."