Ukraine War Day #154: Ukrainians Head South

Dear Readers:

Today I have this interesting piece by reporter Nikolai Storozhenko. By the way, if you click on the link and look at the first photo, the car in the foreground, strapped to the roof of the car, you can see those big carpet-bag type suitcases that I was alluding to in one of my comments, I just couldn’t remember the word although it was on the tip of my tongue. The Russian word is челнок (chelNOK) which means “shuttle”, like a shuttle-bus, for example. This is a beloved Chinese import, made of a soft plaid material, and can hold a ton of stuff. No Russian or Ukrainian worth his/her salt is without one. Especially those on the move.

The classic Russian chelnok: Every traveler has one.

The lede to this story is that Ukrainian are massively migrating to Russian-controlled areas of Kherson and Zaporozhie. And that the Ukrainian officials are not even trying to stop them! The reporter will attempt to explain this odd situation, which has the Westie media (for example Euronews) flummoxed, because it definitely does not meld into their narrative. People are supposed to be fleeing from the brutal Russians, not toward the brutal Russians. (Unless one is a masochist who looks forward to being brutalized.)

In essence, a system has been created, which people call “the Zaporozhie gateway”. Columns of automobiles are lining up to cross through this gateway, travelling in a southbound direction, and by no means are these just people returning to their homes; there are some of those, but most of these people are not even from this area.

This migration started earlier, in the spring, with people crossing over from Ukraine-controlled to Russian-controlled areas. Nobody was particularly paying any attention or regulating this flow. However, by the start of this month (July) Ukrainian military officials started to get their act together, as the flow of travelers increased with every day.

Slavyansky Avto-Rynok in Zaporozhie

The cars are formed into orderly columns in the region of the Zaporozhie “avto-rynok” (auto dealer & repair shop). The article doesn’t say which car dealer it is talking about, there are at least 3 of those things in the city of Zaporozhie. For example, the one called “Slavyansky”, which is shown in the photo to the right, but I don’t know if that’s the one they are talking about. Anyhow, usually, on an average day, three to four columns form up, of around 50 cars each. Only Ukrainian citizens are allowed to pass the checkpoint, At the checkpoint the driver must fill out a form and get the okay before proceeding. Pedestrians may also pass, but they need to hire a driver. Which costs $300-400 American dollars. And this is all official, not bribery or corruption.

Officially these are supposed to be people returning to their homes, if not they have to make up a story for the benefit of the soldiers manning the checkpoint. Like, they are going back to check on their homes or to pick up relatives, etc. In reality, most of these people are simply using this trick to get the heck out of the Ukraine, and they are never going back.

Who are these people, in reality? Mostly, these are men running away from conscription. A male aged 18-60, unless he is a super-patriot, has every reason in the world to flee that country. If he takes the Western route into, say, Poland or Moldavia, then he would have to pay a bribe of $5,000 American dollars, or even higher. And even then, it’s a big risk, and nothing is guaranteed. It’s cheaper and safer to head to Zaporozhie, and from there to Kherson and then to Crimea. Once in Crimea, one might proceed to the EU via Gruzia or the Baltic states. Or, one can just stay put in Russian territory.

The second major category are people simply fleeing from the Ukraine, for reasons other than conscription. And not necessarily political reasons, they might simply feel there is no more future for them. And many of them end up in Russia even though, as holders of Ukrainian passports, they could rightfully feel welcome in any EU country.

Most of the cars are heading Southbound.

It is still a bit of a mystery why the Ukrainians are permitting this, given the avidity with which they are seizing military-age males right off the street and impressing into service. One factor is the cash this brings in: Every car or microbus must pay a tax of $400 American dollars, and the cash is piling up and very welcome to the cash-strapped nation; and it’s all completely legal and legit. This is the main reason why nobody is grabbing the men out of the cars, but rather allowing them to pass through.

It goes without saying that the Westie press is ignoring this phenomenon, because it doesn’t fit their narrative. Their story arc requires terrorized refugees with big eyes to flee from the barbaric atrocity-committing Russians. For this purpose, Westie propagandists are forced to scavenge social media for those rarer anecdotes (“A friend of a friend told me that…”) of people fleeing in the other direction, into the Ukraine. And an old pre-war joke seems strangely apt in these circumstances.

According to the old joke (which requires a bit of Linguistics knowledge), one Ukrainian asks another which is the grammatically correct preposition to use: into Ukraine (в Украину) or into the Ukraine (на Украину), and the correct answer is “out of the Ukraine” (из Украины).