now in Ukraine more than two years after
the Russian invasion border areas are
still coming under massive shelling just
a month ago Russia launched a widespread
bombardment of towns and villages in the
sui region in northeastern Ukraine using
missiles and guided aerial bombs DW met
with residents of a village called V
pisara and with former residents who
have fled Elsewhere for
safety the Sumi region six kilomet from
the Russian border before the
bombardments in March 4,000 people lived
in the village of valika
pisara now about 500 are
left the regional government says
Russian aircraft dropped nearly 200
guided bombs on the community over two
weeks in
March makola and his wife Tamara stayed
to take care of their elderly parents
my father-in-law said I was born here
I'm going to die here and that's it I
have to give him food he can barely
stand on his own
feet police helped evacuate residents
from Villages near the border while
local authorities organized evacuation
buses some Villages are now completely
empty in valika pisarka local
infrastructure was destroyed the
administration building the hospitals
schools workers were just finishing
repairs on the light Library when the
shelling
started we had so many projects and
ideas but we didn't have time we didn't
have time to do it now I think it will
calm down a little bit and we will
restore it again more Russian air
strikes could come at any time we asked
the mayor if she is afraid to stay on
and work here
look this is my house this is my home
I'm Not Afraid at
home this town about 50 kilm from the
Russian border now shelters evacuees who
tell harrowing stories of Russian
bombardments everything was flying from
the sky something happened to my ears I
have a noise in my head and cannot hear
well the explosion are really scary
unbearable I didn't want to leave I
didn't want to up to the last
moment shelter residents are supposed to
move on to stay with relatives or find
rental housing it's unclear when it will
be safe for anyone to return
home we're going to cross straight to DW
correspondent karolina chimoy who's in
ke hi karolina good to see you now the
the sui region of course isn't the only
border region that's that's being
attacked by Russia is it can you give us
a sense of how things are looking along
the front
line yes well as you know Russia has
been intensifying its attacks in the
whole Eastern region we saw yesterday
for example that har Ukraine's second
biggest city um had been attacked
heavily even the TV tower was destroyed
fortunately though no one died because
the employee
uh were hiding uh but this intensified
attacks are being felt uh by uh the
people living not only in the Frontline
cities uh but also here in the capital
in Kiev yesterday uh we had uh several
attacks in the middle of the night at
around 3:00 a.m. 4:00 a.m. uh so you can
really feel in Ukraine that this attacks
are been intensifying and also the
Ukrainian military said that up to 500
strikes can occur in a region every day
and uh that is uh quite a lot that is
absolutely an extraordinary intensity um
we know that the 61 billion US dollar
support package for Ukraine is expected
to be approved uh this week by the US
Senate um when will it be delivered
though and and is it coming soon enough
to really make a difference on the
ground
now that's a great question yes we're
expecting the US Senate to pass that
bill uh today and President Biden
already already said that he will sign
the bill as soon as it's ready we do
know also that the Pentagon is preparing
to deliver that uh weapons and military
aid as soon as possible also members of
uh the House of Representatives have
said that it will take days or perhaps
only weeks to deliver that military aid
that is uh urgently needed here in
Ukraine we're talking about mainly about
uh defense systems like a camps but also
artillery uh shells and this is prec
precisely what Ukraine uh needs will
this help well yes of course it will
help president zalinski said yesterday
for example that all the attacks that we
saw in har could have been avoided with
more air defense and that is also what
soldiers are are are telling us and are
telling our colleagues at the Frontline
cities they do need more ammunition but
of course this is not the only thing
clear that they need um they also need
more soldiers okay and a quick question
about the mobilization law that was
passed in Ukraine a few weeks ago is
this going to help to boost the number
of Ukrainian
troops that is the Big Goal Ukraine
needs at least
250,000 more soldiers and that is what
this mobilization uh law um is is trying
to do there are new centers where people
can voluntarily sign up uh to help
Ukrainian um forces the the the age has
also been lowered from 27 to 25 um for
military aid Ser uh for military service
and also there are more restrictions for
the ones who are trying to avoid this
military service like for example the
penalty they would have to pay that is
up to 600 EUR per person all right
Carolina thanks so much for that update
that's DW's karolina chimoy reporting
from keev