The Ukrainian-Belarusian cultural and educational society "Constellation" has been operating in Melitopol since April 2017.

In September 2020, when the Ukrainian authorities did not recognize the results of the presidential elections in Belarus, the Ambassador of Belarus to Ukraine

met in Melitopol with representatives of the city authorities and the Belarusian diaspora, headed by

Mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov

The Mayor of Melitopal

could not answer Svaboda's questions about whether this community is working now and how its leadership and activists reacted to the war and the Russian occupation.

And are there any laborers among Melitopol Belarusians?

"There is no such information," he said.

Svaboda tried to call the activists of "Constellation" on mobile phones, but the operator informed that these numbers are now out of reach.

Presumably, they remained in occupied Melitopol and disconnected from Ukrainian mobile operators.

It was previously reported that in the occupied regions, the Russians are disconnecting Ukrainian operators and forcing Ukrainians to switch to the numbers of Russian telecommunications companies.

Melitopol is multinational.

Belarusians occupy the sixth place here - 0.8% of the total population, which before the war was 150,000.

Some of them still consider Belarusian as their native language.

Two centuries ago, Belarusians mastered the Ukrainian steppe

The village of Husarka in the Zaporizhia Region was also under Russian occupation.

It was founded 200 years ago in the steppe by Belarusians from the Smolensk Region.

Before the war, a little more than 800 people lived here.

Residents of Husarka before the war

Local residents of mature age speak the Belarusian language, although it has already been significantly changed under the influence of Ukrainian.

But the pronunciation remained soft, Belarusian.

Ukrainian journalists dubbed the speech of local residents "hussar dialect".

The village got its name from the hussars - before its creation in 1808, a hussar regiment was based in this part of the Taurian steppe.

In 2015, the journalists of "Hromadske TV Zaporizhzhya" shot a film about the village of Husarka, in which there is also a widespread warning among Belarusians "that there should be no war".

The village was decommunized.

In 2016, a wooden monument to potatoes was erected on the pedestal where the Lenin monument used to stand.

In honor of this tuber crop, the village held the "Hussar potato" festival every year.

This year, in October, he had to pass another time.

A monument to potatoes in the village of Husarka, Zaporizhia region, where Belarusians live

Now it is impossible to call landline phones in the village of Husarka, as well as in other Ukrainian settlements occupied by the Russians.

The village of Husarka before the war

But Svaboda was able to talk to the management of the agricultural enterprise "Aloins-Agro", which before the war had its allotments in Husarka and was the main taxpayer in the local budget.

Most of the agricultural company's employees managed to evacuate to the territory controlled by Ukraine.

"Yes, Husarka is now under occupation, and what is happening there, I do not know, I cannot say," said the representative of the agricultural company.

According to him, the Russians occupied Husarka in the first days of the invasion.

"Before the capture, the Russians launched a rocket attack on the warehouses and hangars, as a result of which they were completely destroyed, agricultural machinery and threshing equipment were damaged," the interlocutor added.

The Zaporizhia Military Regional Administration reported in May that as a result of the hostilities, 500 buildings in Husarka were left without electricity, and it was impossible to restore it then only through active hostilities and the lack of access of repair crews to the damaged power lines.

And this is the last information that mentioned that village.

The flag above the village council of Husarki before the war

Children in Husarka before the war

Russia's war against Ukraine

• At 5:00 a.m. on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a military operation against Ukraine in the Donbass at the request of the "DPR" and "LPR" groups.

  On February 21, during a televised address to Russians, Putin called the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" independent states within the regions.

  On February 22, the Council of the Federation ratified this decision.

• All days of the war, Ukrainian cities were bombarded with rockets, aircraft flew over them.

  Russian troops are attacking, including from the territory of Belarus, using airfields, bases and roads.

  Representatives of Lukashenka's regime justify the war, his opponents consider the territory of Belarus to be occupied, many call for resistance to the Russian invaders.

• On February 27, the International Legion of Territorial Defense was created in Ukraine, and foreign volunteers were invited to join it.

  Belarusians also entered there.

• During the six months of war in Ukraine, it is known about the death of 11 Belarusians who died fighting on the Ukrainian side.

  These are Ilya Khrenov, Alyaksei Skoblia, Dmitri Apanasovich, Dmitri Rubashevskyi, Konstantin Dubaila, Pavel "Volat", Ivan Marchuk, Vasil Parfyankov, Vasil Grudovik, Vadim Shatrov and one of the fighters of Kalinovsky's regiment, whose name was not mentioned.

  In addition, it is known for sure about two prisoners from Kalinin - Ian Djurbeyka and Syarhei Dzhogtsev.

  There are no details about their fate.

• It is also known about cases of death of natives of Belarus who fought in Ukraine on the side of Russia.

  During the six months of the war, there were nine such people.

• On March 30, the UN approved the composition of an independent commission that will investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

  It included people who worked in the analysis of the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Contrary to Putin's statements about attacks only on military facilities, the Russians are bombing schools, kindergartens and residential areas of Ukrainian cities.

  The Russians are using banned weapons, including cluster bombs, against civilians.

• On April 1, Lithuania became the first country in the European Union to completely abandon Russian gas.

  Latvia and Estonia followed her example.

  Germany has promised to completely stop using Russian oil by the end of 2022.

• On April 2, after the liberation of the town of Bucha near Kyiv, photojournalists published dozens of photographs showing hundreds of dead people, victims of mass murders committed by Russian troops.

  Many are buried in spontaneous mass graves.

  The Russian occupation also brought great destruction to the people of Barodyan.

  It is also known about a number of rapes, including babies.

• On May 9, the US President signed the Land Leasing Law.

  This law restores the program from the Second World War, which will speed up the supply of weapons to Ukraine and increase the amount of such assistance.

• In June, two volunteers from Great Britain and one from Morocco were sentenced to death in the so-called "DNR".

  The same punishment threatens some other prisoners.

• On July 29, as a result of an attack on the colony in Alenivtsi, at least 53 Ukrainian prisoners who previously defended the Azovstal plant and surrendered after completing their military mission were killed.

  The Russians accused Ukraine of the attack, the Ukrainian side declared the deliberate killing of prisoners by the Russian side.

• On August 22, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny announced the official number of dead Ukrainian soldiers.

  According to him, it is about 9,000 soldiers.

• During the six months of the war, Russia was able to occupy about 20% of the Ukrainian territory.

  In March, the area of ​​occupied land reached 30%.

  However, at the end of the month, Russian troops retreated from the north of Ukraine, as well as partially from Kharkiv.

  At the end of August, the Crimea, Luhansk and Kherson regions were completely occupied.

  And also 50% of the territory of the Donetsk region, about 70% of the Zaporizhia region, approximately 30% of the Kharkiv region.

• Kherson remains the only regional center of Ukraine captured by Russia after February 24.

  The city was occupied by Russian troops in the first days of the war without actually fighting.

  Kyiv suspects part of the former leadership of Kherson and the region of treason.

  The former head of the SBU of the Kharkiv region was also detained on such suspicion.

• In September, Ukrainian troops launched a large-scale counteroffensive, as a result of which Russian forces began to rapidly flee from their positions in the Kharkiv region.

  Only on the day of September 11, Ukrainians liberated more than 20 settlements in Slobazhan region.

• In September, Ukraine withdrew its mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under the AAN to send an aviation unit to defend against Russian aggression.

• On September 21, Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia.

• Independent verification of information about military actions provided by officials of various parties is still impossible.