We want to be there for the viewer, for the resident of Poland, for the resident of Europe – said Michał Przedlacki, author of the reportage about Wuhłedar, which will be broadcast in the “Superwizjer” program on Saturday at 8 p.m. on TVN24.
– Getting to Wuhledar is quite complicated, this is the heart of the red combat zone – admitted Michał Przedlacki, author of the reportage “Wuhledar – report from a ruined city”. The journalist of “Superwizjer” TVN said that the city in the Donetsk Oblast had been unavailable to journalists for many months, but an exception was made for the Polish team.
– We were allowed to see what the situation is like in this city, or rather in the remains of a town that seemed to be affected by the apocalypse – added Przedlacki.
A shot from the reportage “Vuhledar – report from the ruined city”Superwizjer TVN
A shot from the reportage “Vuhledar – report from the ruined city”Superwizjer TVN
Civilians are hiding in basements
The “Superwizjer” journalist said that civilians still remain in Vuhłedar, where over 14,000 people lived before the armed invasion. They hide in the basements of buildings.
– This is practically the last percent of the population that remains there. Most of them are elderly people, said Przedlacki. – My conversations with them indicate that these are people who cling to memories at all costs, to the delusion that their lives will return to normal, that the city will be rebuilt – said the journalist, adding that he saw a “sea of ruins” around him.
The report – as the author stated – is not only about the defenders of Ukraine, but also about people who “continue in this hell”, who have nowhere to go and who left all their loved ones in Vukhledar. – But most of these relatives are already at the cemetery – he said.
The bodies of the dead are buried not only in the cemetery.
A shot from the reportage “Vuhledar – report from the ruined city”Superwizjer TVN
A shot from the reportage “Vuhledar – report from the ruined city”Superwizjer TVN
Daily shelling
Vuhledar, located about 50 kilometers from occupied Donetsk, is under daily shelling by Russian forces. Przedlacki said that taking the body of a killed relative to the cemetery “is too great a threat.” – But it also turns out that taking the body in front of the building and burying it in the square or in the square in front of the building may be too much of a threat – he added.
Referring to his Ukrainian heroes who defend the city against Russian forces, Przedlacki stated that “many months of living in the trenches and maintaining positions, defensive fighting, makes people try to find normality in this terrible, terrifying place.”
The journalist said that after a day of working and living in a cramped dugout, he witnessed the hero of the report, Dima, the father of an 11-year-old, trying to raise his son remotely and do his homework with him. He confessed that he was moved by this.
Main photo source: Superwizjer TVN