Ukraine, the correspondent of tg3 Piro: “Fear in Rostov, but 70% support for Putin in the polls”

In Rostov city “the atmosphere is normal, but people are worried. I was yesterday in the villages, there is concern, they repeat ‘there is war, there is war’, but we remember that the polls give, as regards the recognition of the legitimacy of the two republics, over 70% of support for Putin. Does this translate into support for the war? I don’t know, but certainly the Donbass theme in Russia is strongly felt “. Speaking with Adnkronos is Nico Piro, correspondent of TG3 in the Rostov-on-Don region, which borders both the seaside part of Mariupol in Ukraine, and the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass, configuring itself as the ‘gateway’ for self-proclaimed republics. “Here in Rostov from the point of view of security it is obviously not like Kiev, things are normal – the journalist tells us describing the atmosphere in those areas – There is however a climate of great sadness, of fear because the war has begun” . The concern “is due to the fact that these are lands that historically have relations with Ukraine, three years ago they were under the same banner – explains Piro- This area remembers well the fighting and suffering of the Second World War. On the other hand there is also fear that there will be a hard blow to the economy with consequences on the lives of ordinary people “. If in Rostov city the atmosphere is relatively calm, “on the border there is a five kilometer strip beyond which you cannot go unless there is a justified reason, officially for ‘safety reasons’ -describes Piro- Obviously the reason is to keep under I check the situation, certainly intended as avoiding possible attacks that arrive from the other side, says the reporter. The road is deserted, free from both military vehicles, which had already become rare in recent days, but above all because there are no more buses nor cars that carried the evacuees, because tonight the evacuation was suspended “. And making an analysis on the general situation, the journalist – who is the author of several books that analyze scenarios in war contexts, including ‘Kabul, crossroads of the world ‘- he observes: “I do not make predictions because we do not have all the elements and we are in a phase of great confusion but it seems to me that there is a shift in focus. We had left and we had imagined , based on facts, an operation aimed at consolidating the positions in the Donbass and we moved on to an all-out operation on Ukraine “. Summarizing “in a simplistic way, it could be said that we moved from Donetsk and Lugansk to Kiev as a goal”. Finally, Piro gives a striking anecdote that took place during the celebrations of the Day of the Defender of the Fatherland, where he went to the Memorial of Rostov-on-Don. “The city has been conquered twice by the Nazis. I was struck talking to the people who were visiting the memorial yesterday – he says – An elderly lady told me ‘we are children of war. We remember well what it is, and not we want it ‘”.