ICHNIA REGION DURING THE RUSSIAN INVASION (FEBRUARY-MARCH 2022) FOLLOWING THE NEWSPAPER “TRUDOVA SLAVA”

Abstract

The article is devoted to people’s memories of the beginning of the full-scale invasion and occupation of the Ichnia region in February-March 2022. It is a kind of living illustration of what they experienced, how they perceived this terrible news, how their attitude to seemingly ordinary things, food, water, light, heat, and peace changed. The purpose of the study is an attempt to restore and perpetuate the historical memory of those times that will forever remain in our memories. The main source for the article was the materials of the district newspaper Trudova Slava, whose employees, fresh from the events, collected important memories of the residents of the Ichniansk community and recorded the main problems that arose at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the mood of the people, their experiences and their desire to survive at any cost, to withstand the terrible aggression of the Russian horde. Throughout the 2020s, the former district newspaper remained an important information resource for residents of the local community (as well as the neighbouring Parafiyivska territorial community, which was part of the Ichnianskyi district before the reform). The materials of the publications allow us to say that the population mostly did not believe that a catastrophe would begin for everyone, although such rumours were spread. The first days of the war and the occupation were a serious social shock for people, especially children, affecting their emotional state, everyday life, collective opinion, interpersonal relations, and socio-economic situation. This publication is important for understanding what happened on 25 February 2022, when the southern part of Chernihiv region became a zone of hostilities and the Russian offensive against Kyiv. Residents of the villages of Bilmachivka, Svarychivka, Vyshnivka, Pryputniv, Dorohynky recall the panic that initially gripped them, as they did not know what to do, where to run and where to hide. And most importantly, they felt fear for the lives of their children, parents and relatives. An important place among the newspaper articles is occupied by information about volunteering in the first days of the occupation. Women and children gathered wherever they could, cooked food, baked bread, made wax candles, sent canned food to Chernihiv, checkpoints, and wove camouflage nets.