ANDREY KURKOV on how citizens are refusing to bend to Russia’s bullying 

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Within the small town of Makariv, west of Kyiv, not far from the village where we have a summer house, there was a bakery where we would buy the ‘Makariv loaf’ — soft, white and brick-shaped.

It was surprisingly light, tender and delicious.

At least that’s how I remembered it. Now, when I recollect it, the taste of blood appears on my tongue.

For I know that the Makariv bakery is no more. In the middle of the day, while the oven was in operation, a rocket hit, killing 13 and injuring nine. The building was completely destroyed.

I hope the bakery will be restored after the war. But many of those who baked this bread will never come back.

Over the past 27 days, Ukrainians have become used to all kinds of atrocities — but we will never get used to the sheer barbarism, the utter cruelty. 

In Mariupol, 300,000 citizens have been left without food, water or electricity for three weeks and live under constant bombardment and fighting.

People are so thirsty they are draining water from radiators, and there are reports of children dying of dehydration. Bodies are strewn across the rubble and starving families have resorted to eating stray dogs.

Meanwhile, Russian checkpoint guards laugh at those trying to flee what has become hell on earth, and fire at convoys of vehicles bearing white flags and carrying children.

I am lucky. I left our home in Kyiv and write from relative safety in Western Ukraine, but my country’s suffering casts a shadow over everything I do.

It may seem like surrender is the only way out of this genocide, but what has become clear is that the Ukrainian spirit cannot be killed easily.

Our President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an extraordinary act of defiance, is refusing to wave the white flag in those cities at risk of being razed to the ground like Mariupol.

‘People won’t let [the Russians] do it,’ he has said. ‘The only way they can seize the cities is to kill everyone, and take the empty city.’ He’s right.

Zelensky, a former comic actor who many thought could never be a serious politician, did not run when the first shells rained down. Instead, he changed into battle-dress, leads as a commander-in-chief — and inspires others.

When the Russians demanded that those defending Mariupol surrender, the answer came back in minutes. Pyotr Andryushenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor, said Ukrainian troops were determined to fight to the last man.

Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk reinforced the message, telling news agency Ukrainska Pravda: ‘There can be no talk of any surrender, laying down of arms.’ Our government is still leading, our parliament still passing laws — and the army still fights.

So we the people maintain confidence that Ukraine will defend its independence and refuse to be swallowed by the Russian Federation.

We watch in horror the apocalyptic videos from once-familiar places — from the ruins of Kyiv’s Retroville shopping centre to the crumbling facade of Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol. But we also watch in admiration war footage showing the bravery of our countrymen in the face of profound evil.

Contrary to the Kremlin’s lies, nowhere is the Russian army greeted with flowers. Instead, when residents spot Russian tanks, they send messages with the location to our Ministry of Defence.

And while millions try to reach the Western borders, or at least Western regions of Ukraine, tens of thousands of men (and some women) are returning to Ukraine from abroad to defend their country, whatever the cost.

We are all in this war together. Because we are under no pretences about the alternative. The independence of our state, our freedom and the future of our children — all of this is at stake.

Ukraine has a relatively small army — about 250,000. But we have almost 400,000 veterans of the war triggered by Russia in the Donbas region, and 663,000 members of hunting associations — armed with 1.5 million firearms in total.

Recently, one of those hunters approached a group of Russian soldiers near Chernihiv and detonated a grenade, killing them and himself.

Near the town of Genichesk, in the Kherson region, a Ukrainian soldier, Vitaly Skakun, blew up a bridge to stop Russian tanks entering.

The tanks were approaching and he did not have time to reach safety. He was 26 years old. He had studied engineering in Lviv. Perhaps he dreamt of building bridges but, thanks to Putin, he never will.

Vitaly is now one of our Heroes of Ukraine, awarded the title posthumously by our President. This war is creating a Pantheon of Glory and, when it is all over, countless stories such as Vitaly’s will make it into the history books. 

I lament for the Ukrainian children who will grow up without fathers. But I hope they can grow up proud of the memory of them — with their photos on the wall and their medals treasured.

You don’t see many elderly people among the refugees flooding westward. They prefer to remain in the homes they know and if they are killed by missiles, so be it.

Among them are people who remember World War II all too clearly — the war that stole their childhood. Indeed, could anything be more tragic than the death of 96-year-old Boris Romanchenko, who spent his young adulthood living through the nightmare of four Nazi concentration camps, only to be killed during the Russian assault on Kharkiv? A life blighted by one war and ending with another.

As I write, the Russians are holding captive a female paramedic who has become famous in Ukraine, a symbol of resistance. She is nicknamed Taira, and has saved dozens of lives. Her capture gives us all the more reason to fight on.

And it is not just us. The world has witnessed Putin’s crime — his attempt to destroy an independent country together with its people. 

The whole world now knows that Ukraine is a freedom-loving country that wants to be European, not Russian. Many, including readers of your paper, are sending money and aid to our people. Believe me when I say this gives us even more strength to fight.

Despite the pain and bloodshed, I no longer doubt that we will win this war.

Putin’s goal is to win his place in history as the man who managed to recreate the Soviet Union, restore the Kremlin’s power and strike fear into the hearts of free nations.

He does not care about the thousands of dead young Russian soldiers, or for their weeping mothers. Nor does he care about ordinary Russians and the misery they will suffer as sanctions wreck the economy.

But what Putin doesn’t realise is that he has already lost. He is a man humiliated by the fact he has underestimated the strength of my country.

Yes, we continue battling for military victory, but we have claimed the moral victory. When Russians wake up to this, I have faith they will stop supporting him. Or they will stop him.

Whether this war rages on and continues to ravage our towns and cities, or ends in a ‘peace’ negotiation, one fact remains. Those who survive are still Ukrainians — and that’s the thing no missile or tank can destroy.

No matter how long it takes, we will rebuild our nation. Putin’s dream of a victory over freedom-loving Ukraine will never come true. 

Andrey Kurkov is the author of Death And The Penguin