By Evgeny Feldman, press photographer
08.03.2014  Novayagazeta.ru
All photos via Evgeny Feldman
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine
Source: http://www.novayagazeta.ru/photos/62620.html

Chonhar

The village is situated on the plain of Chonhar’s eponymous peninsula. It is south of the Kherson region, right on the border with Crimea. Chonhar is windy so that gusts knock you off your feet, there is still snow in some places.

There are two massive roadblocks at a distance of twenty kilometers along the road. In Sivash, by the water, closer to the Crimea – under the Russian flag is a camp made up of several tents. They dug the armored personnel carriers into the ground, and are currently working on making a minefield. Armed men in army uniforms and blue camouflage uniforms marked “Militsiya” [Police] carefully inspect the cars. The camp even has a field church.

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Twenty kilometers away from the Russian camp is the Ukrainian troops camp. There are dug in APCs, sandbagged emplacements, and tents bearing the national flag. Car inspection is not as rigorous – the men do not look inside the trunks. A senior officer says that most soldiers have automatic guns without magazines.

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There are two villages between the checkpoints, Chonhar and Mykolayivka. Their residents have been in constant panic for several days – there are rumors that a local dog got blown up on one of the mines, and the villagers do not want to end up as the front lines. The school in Chonhar has been closed since Wednesday: locals passionately talk online about the impossibility of “learning under fire from APCs.” On the highway, both villages display the blue and yellow [Ukrainian] flags: they decorate a bus stop and a Mykolayivka marker. Despite the situation, life seemingly goes on as usual: the men are busy buying flowers today [for International Women’s Day], paying no attention to the military or the journalists.

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18:00
Russian military entered the territory of the village Chonhar in Kherson region. The employees of the village council reported it to the Ukrainian News via a phone conversation.

“The military mined the fields and are drilling holes for boundary pillars,” said the council.
According to them, the locals have put up Ukrainian flags on their houses in protest.

According to Left Wing, a member of the media center of the Defence Ministry of Ukraine, Vladislav Seleznev, wrote on his Facebook page that the Russian military entered the territory of Arabatskaya Arrow in the Kherson region.

“Green Men ( Russian military men), have gone to the area of Arabatskaya arrow in the Kherson region using the war enginery,” wrote Seleznev.

According to him, they are planning on creating a checkpoint in the area of Arabatskaya Arrow.
Chonhar population is 1.5 thousand people.
Source: http://focus.ua/incident/299800/

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Related Link:
http://un.ua/eng/article/497094.html