Alvydas Medalinskas, a Lithuanian political analyst, currently based in the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk in Ukraine, says that the city is now a two-government city. Although the occupiers have occupied the administrative buildings, the local government, housed in the local palace of culture, continues to work. However, the political analyst notes that the Russian army is slowly “tightening its grip” on the city, moving from the entrances to the city centre. lrytas.lt reported.
He reports that on Monday, the occupiers arrested an active local priest.
“The Russian army is increasingly tightening its grip, demonstrating more and more that it is in the city. Whereas before, it was engaged in distributing humanitarian aid in the dormitories, where people live less well, and more can come (because there are protesters against such supposedly humanitarian aid), now they are walking around the city with automatic rifles.
As you can see from the photographs and video footage, they are practically the little green men who used to walk around in Crimea. Today, a priest was arrested who was quite active in public life,” Medalinskas told “Lietuvos rytas” TV programme “Nauja diena”.
For the political scientist, the situation he sees through his window and hears on the phone from others reminds him of the Soviet occupation.
“This is indeed already a Russian occupation, and if I tell what I see through my window, then I will tell you where I am. I am in Berdiansk. Here, I can see the sea through the window. There are protests here with Ukrainian flags every day because this is Russian-occupied territory. Melitopol, Berdiansk, Cherson – these are Russian-occupied territories”, he explained.
According to Medalinsas, the residents of Berdiansk can still talk on the phone and use mobile internet, but cable internet is no longer available here. So instead, he says he gets news about what is happening in other towns from his acquaintances, officers, and police officers he met during his almost seven years of work in the Donbas.
“For example, I know what is going on in Mariupol, especially when we talk to people from the army or the National Guard. Because if I talk to my friends, people from academia, the cultural world, most of their mobile phones are already dead, because the situation there is terrible,” the political analyst noted.
He assured that, even though the war is now in its third week, the will of Ukrainians to fight has not diminished in the least.
“Some would even say that they are overconfident, but on the other hand, the world did not believe in Ukraine even when the war first started. When I ask today, what about Mariupol and so on, they tell me: “Alvydas, we should stand up.”
For example, there is now ahead of the national police in Odessa. This is a man with whom I had a lot of contact in Mariupol because, at that time, he was still the head of the Donetsk Regional National Police. His team members also say that we will not allow any landing here and that we will stand our ground,” Medalinskas said.
However, he wondered why Ukrainian troops did not defend Berdiansk. The city was already occupied in the first days of the war. However, he added that the logic was probably that all forces should have concentrated on Mariupol, one of Ukraine’s core cities.
“There is a clear assessment that there is a lack of a more robust Western response. Indeed, there was a situation where the West started to bring in arms and then slowed down when it became clear that Russia might attack.
When I was in Kyiv, and I was talking to NATO officials in various embassies, I said, ‘What have you stopped, carry it so that Putin will attack. I was told that yes, but you have to be careful not to provoke and so on,” Medalinskas wondered.
Speaking about the no-fly zone over Ukraine, he argued that the Ukrainians do not need the West to supervise it, but they would be happy with modern aircraft that could defend their skies.
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