Local news to big picture
Sending holiday greetz to all!
I just wanted to shoot out a quick post on an observation I made while doing research. I’ve been looking a little bit at a Ukrainian newspaper that serves transcarpathia — the region of Ukraine that borders Hungary and Romania.
This newspaper is local, serving the Zakarpattia (transcarpathia) region. The war appears only in the obituaries for local men. It carries news of drunk drivers arrested and local choirs putting on Christmas shows “We invite you!” Yet despite this parochialism, one can readily see larger stories influencing the region.
Scanning the article headlines two themes rapidly emerge. The two main story threads are: men fleeing across the border, and people dying while trying to heat their homes. This second one is harder to pin down as an effect of the war. Are safe heating systems unavailable due to the conflict, or is this sort of incident typical for the season? I have no idea.
Men fleeing mobilisation is a much more clear cut story. Here are a selection of the crime headlines. Of the 25 more recent stories featured in their sideline, 16 are related to attempting to cross the border:
Five evaders were detained in Zakarpattia, one of whom was serving his sentence in Russia
Three men in Zakarpattia tried to give bribes to border guards to cross the border
A man was detained in Zakarpattia who, due to a criminal scheme and a bribe, tried to leave the country illegally with a "client"
A ferryman was detained in Zakarpattia together with "clients"
More than 20 border violators detained in Zakarpattia
Two Transcarpathians who organized the smuggling of evaders across the border through telegrams will be tried
Two residents of Velykyi Bereznyi, suspected of smuggling evaders, were taken into custody with bail
In Zakarpattia, the head of the ISEC center and an accomplice were exposed for forging disability certificates to cross the border
In Zakarpattia, men were detained who wanted to cross the border by the river in children's inflatable circles and wrapped in cling film
This last story is kind of amazing. These guys were planning on crossing a fast icy river using children’s toys!
Look at that river. Look at those inflatable tubes. That is insane desperation.
That’s all I have. Just sharing something which I found interesting. Happy seasons greetz!