[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Firebot

Russians in Belgorod are like WTF how the hell do they have helicopters when we were told everything was destroyed in the first 6 hours.

It gets even wilder. My in-laws village is the very last village that borders UA/RU. Belgorod is 20 minutes away from them. My wife and her cousin spend all day watching/reading the Telegram channels in both Russia and Ukraine for information for that region. So a lot of the chat, pics and videos are in real-time from people living there.

The day that attack happened they were both obviously panicked, with their parents being so close. We had no idea who did it, whether it was the Russians as a false flag, or the Ukrainians. At first the Telegram chat was all about blaming the Ukrainians, but I was skeptical as I am all about Russian false flag operations, especially since this was the day of those "negotiations" where instead of withdrawing from Chernihiv, the Russians shelled it extra hard.

Now it appears to be the Ukrainians. I still honestly don't know who to believe. But Russian people in that Telegram chat were freaking the #### out that day. One group of people who refused to believe that Russia was attacking Ukraine started posting how they were going to make a run to KHARKIV to escape the attack in Belgorod. Then another group of people started suggesting to organize an "evacuation" to Kharkiv, as they were so frightened. My wife was translating this for me in real time as we watched them post. It was crazy to see the control Russia has over it's own citizens in a place so close to the border. People there legitimately do not understand that the Russians are attacking the Ukrainians. People there literally want to flee to Kharkiv for safety, a city under constant shelling. These people have no idea what's going on there.

If it wasn't so stupid and tragic, it would be hilarious.

An update on my in-laws:

Spoiler!

As mentioned, my in-laws are the last village that borders RU/UA on the road that connects Kharkiv to Russia up north, so if you look on a map I'm sure you can figure it out. As great as it is that Ukraine is slowly pushing the Russians back, this leaves the family in a terrible position of being sandwiched in the middle. Because of this push north, their village is now completely overrun with Russian soldiers who were pushed back. Many of the residence of the village who left earlier have had their homes taken over by soldiers, who use them as stationing points and places to rest. This means they go door to door and take over each unit.

My in-laws have been trying to leave for weeks and they tried to leave last week to Russia. It was a difficult decision, as obviously heading towards the enemy's territory is not an ideal situation. However they speak Russian and have family north of Belgorod that said they could stay with them. Once inside Russia in that region, it's relatively calm. Many people in that village have family in Russia, so it makes sense for them go to Russia. My wife has quite a few friends and family who have already relocated there. At this point we figured at least they will be out of the danger zone, will be with family and we can figure out the logistics of returning home one day at a later time. We got them to send us photos of their ID cards and passport, delete sensitive information from their phones and send us any kind of registration numbers they could (bank account numbers, cell phone account numbers, apartment ownership numbers etc) so I could have a record of them in a spreadsheet for future use.

Unfortunately they were turned back when they tried to leave. The Russians did send "evacuation" buses earlier last week, but they tried to go by car. The Russians told them that for 3 days the border cross would be closed so no was is allowed to enter Russia. Going towards Kharkiv is not possible either. Telegram chat confirms that nobody is able to head towards Kharkiv at this time. So they are still essentially trapped in their village overrun with Russians, surrounded by non-stop gunfire and explosions.

My poor MIL is starting to have panic attacks daily. Luckily one neighbor who departed left them the keys to their unit, which has a basement. So they spend much of their time in a cold dark basement as sub-zero temperatures most nights. It's heartbreaking, upsetting and infuriating to know they are going through this. My wife and her cousin are so lucky to be back with me, but it's very upsetting for them to know their parents are enduring this daily.

The information war that is going on is intense as well. Last week my wife was trying to call her parents at the designated time and nobody was picking up their phones (4 people in their household have phones). Each phone was off. Then suddenly my wife got a text from her Mom's phone saying in Russian она мертва (SHE'S DEAD). Then nothing afterwards and no response. That was a very difficult night, as we figured the worst had happened. Sometimes they go outside to get more reception and with their village being overrun, our worst nightmare was realized; that some soldier had come across them, killed them, taken their phones and texted my wife this message when they turned it on. We had no further contact with them and we were both in tears all night.

Then suddenly, we got a call the next morning at the designated calling time. Turns out the parents had turned off their phones, as Russians were going door to door to make sure nobody was calling anybody. For their own safety, they turned off their phones so as not to have any kind of notification alert. Messages of SHE'S DEAD were spammed out to various people who use KyivStar mobile service that day. We're not sure if the crackdown on calling coincided with the spam message being sent out as a way to intimidate or lower morale among people using that mobile service. The parents themselves had no idea about this spam message, as it didn't show on their outbound message. Needless to say , it was a very frightening experience that night, but immense relief the next morning.

With this push the UA army is going to push the Russians back, we hope and pray that at some point it will be successful and that the family will be able to leave. The Russians were pushed out of Derhachi which is just north of Kharkiv, and administrative duties, some utilities and train service has been restored in that area. Hopefully one day that can be restored to those towns north of Kharkiv, because it's very rough there right now.