EVERY DAY, EVERY HOUR, WE THINK ABOUT PEOPLE'S SAFETY, War correspondent Maryana Naumova

2 months ago
10

“The idea of boarding up windows with sandbags came from a pharmacy owner in Shebekino, where a woman was killed... When I first saw it, it felt like a blow—how can you live in a city where everything is boarded up with sandbags, like in the Great Patriotic War? Then I realized I was wrong, and we needed to act quickly. I instructed the head of the district to do this work, and it saved hundreds of lives...

The idea of putting film on bus windows to reinforce them against explosions and shrapnel came from the drivers themselves. They suggested it, and we realized we could replicate this in schools, hospitals, and other institutions...

There are no small things here. Shelters, first aid kits, doors in apartment buildings that open properly, posters with infographics on emergency procedures—these aren’t just attempts to calm people psychologically; we can see how many lives have been saved...

Over the past two and a half years, 33,000 homes and apartments have been destroyed or damaged in our area. If a settlement isn’t closed off, we rebuild them and will continue to do so...

For us, this is simply life. There are no showy performances, and everything we do comes from one main goal—the safety of people.

A huge number of people, hundreds of thousands, are going through this ordeal. I’m just one of them, a public official—it’s my job, and if I’m not with the people in this situation, then I should be replaced…”

For the fourth week, our film crew has been working throughout our border regions—in the Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions. We travel to familiarize ourselves with the situation on the ground, observe the evacuation of civilians, and prepare material for our project, We Are Alive. So far, we’ve released ten episodes, and I take personal responsibility for every word and frame in our reports.

Of course, we talk to and listen to people—our people, Russian people, whose lives were suddenly shaken by war. These are civilians, city and special service workers, doctors, rescuers, and government representatives.

A big thank you to the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, for the extensive interview and for answering my questions. Special thanks to the governor's press secretary, Denis, for his professionalism and clear role.

Watch, listen, subscribe, help, participate. No one will help us but ourselves. All of us are in this together."

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