The governor of the eastern Ukrainian region now seeing heavy fighting with Russia, Sergiy Gaiday, opened the pockets of his flack jacket Saturday to show gun cartridges and a tourniquet.
Appointed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, the 46-year-old heads the Lugansk region, including the city of Severodonetsk, where Russians are fighting street battles, and Lysychansk, where bangs of artillery are near-constant.
"There's an expression: prepare for the worst and the best will come by itself, Gaiday said."of course we need to prepare." "Look how long Severodonetsk has held out: you can see they don't control the town fully... they can't go further in and they can't put their big guns or tanks there," the governor said."The fact that the West is helping us is good, but it's late."The governor could still theoretically visit his home town of Severodonetsk accompanied by military, he said,"but it's very highly risky".
"It's all painful, I'm a human being but I bury this deep inside me," he said, adding that his task is to"help people as much as possible".Conditions are grim for civilians left in Lysychansk, who have no mobile phone connection, running water or power. They cook on campfires and shelter in cellars."We try to talk to people and persuade them to leave. Some point-blank refuse.
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