With evil next door. How Volyn village Kortelisy lives on the border with Belarus

“There is already Belarus. The border is less than two kilometers away,” Mykola Yosypovych points with hishand.

The evening sun goes down behind the dense Polesia forest in the indicated direction. It is getting dark in the village of Kortelisy, and it is slowly becoming dark blue around.

Mykola Yosypovych is the headman of several border villages in the north of Volyn Oblast. We are standing on the hill of the Memorial to the victims of the tragedy that happened here 80 years ago. In 1942, the Nazis destroyed the village and burned almost 3 thousand people alive. A monument erected in Soviet times now reminds of the tragedy.

80 years later, another enemy is destroying Ukrainian land and people. And the village of Kortelisy, outwardly cozy and quiet, borders on a “sleeping volcano”. If the offensive on Volyn from Belarus does take place, Kortelisy will be one of the first places where the enemy can set foot.

The village is preparing for this, Mykola Yosypovych assures. And the villagers themselves are adamant. They say, if the enemy comes, they will take up arms. Meanwhile, life goes on.

“30 tanks started moving from Belarus. And we are standing and did not know where we should look, what we should do”

Just before the Domanove checkpoint, a narrow but well-paved road turns right. A large blue and yellow sign, in the color of the national flag, reads: we are entering Kortelisy, a border village in Volyn, almost touching the Belarusian forests. However, to get there we have to pass several other small villages, all connected by one road.

Life here resembles a calm and peaceful rural autumn — no matter that people are near the border with evil. On both sides of the road, there are estates with farms. People are picking apples and collecting nuts. Locals, mostly women in skirts and headscarves, are riding bicycles. Probably to church. And on the left, a woman is peacefully grazing cows in the pasture.

At first glance, no one cares about the war in the village. Even the repair works on the road are continuing here.

“Despite the war, we engage in landscaping,” a rosy-cheeked local resident says with satisfaction.

But it was not always like that.

“When the full-scale war started, we gathered together as a family. My brother and I took women and children and put them on buses. My brother sent his family to Germany, my family went to our friends in Poland. And the men all stayed behind,” says Ihor.

Next to him is three-year-old Anton. He and his mother and sister returned home three months after the full-scale Russian invasion.

In Kortelisy, as elsewhere in Ukraine, people feared that the enemy would come. And after the first Russian missile attacks, the locals created a volunteer community formation (VCF).

“At the beginning of the war, more than 70 people joined the VCF. People carried sacks together, built barricades, and tried their best. Because they were worried,” says Vadym Likhvan, administrator of the headman district.9

“As soon as it got dark, we went on duty”, Ihor intercepts.“Everything was equipped and organized. The guys who had experience went out with rifles. If you were assigned to the military enlistment office, you were given an assault rifle. And those who were not servicemen just joined the duty”.

Both Ihor and Vadym, and other men passing through the square, are ordinary civilians, who probably have families and are going home to rest on a Friday night. It is hard to imagine them with weapons in their hands. But the war has added its touches to the portrait of every Ukrainian.

“We were standing near the former road, which has been called Tankova since the postwar period,” Mykola Yosypovych says.

We met the head of the headman district by chance in the neighboring village of Mlynove. He is optimistic. He says: “Look how bright the sky is today!”

“Over here,” he points again towards the border, which, judging by the wave of his hand, is somewhere just under the dawn. “There were 30 tanks. And then, when they started moving from Belarus, the ground was shaking. And we were standing and did not know where we should look, what we should do”.

It did not come to a breakthrough across the border then. So for 8 months of the war, the ranks of volunteers in the village have thinned by almost half. But 32 residents of Kortelisy are still preparing to “welcome the enemy”.

Locals stand guard every night. They look at and listen to the border.

“The tank is 2-3 km away from the border. You can hear it when it starts up and accelerates. This is how we help our military”, Mykola Yosypovych says.

“What is meant to, will be, and we have nowhere to run”

Residents of Kortelisy are not very happy with the attention of cameras and do not want to give their names. Everyone here does what they have to do. At the local school, since the beginning of the aggression, local housewives have been making dumplings for the military, recalls the principal, whom we accidentally meet on the square. Moreover, the villagers always participate in fundraising for the needs of the army.

In the evening, some of them go to the center. Here in the store, you can have bitter black coffee with condensed milk. Only a few say their names.

“For example, I am building a house now,” says Andrii. “Everyone says: "Why are you building it?" And I answer: "Don’t we need to live now?" Who knows what will happen? They may or may not come, but we have to live.”

And they live. The priest hurries to the church for the service. He grabs our questions on the go, and has a laconic answer to everything: “It will be as God wills”.

The church in the village still belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate. A local resident says off the record that almost 20% of the population in the village still believe in the “Russian world”.

We are standing over a granite platform encircling the stump of an old oak tree. 80 years ago it caught fire. This is another reminder of the atrocities of the occupiers. It is hard to believe that it is possible in such a village. Especially now, when the enemy's aggression is looming every day.

“A lot of planes fly to the border from Belarus, but they fly to the border, turn around and fly back,” Mykola Yosypovych says. “Now we only watch the sky at night. Drones and sometimes missile launchers of different colors are flying there.”

But there was also a moment that the headman recalls both with delight and fear at the same time: “2 Belarusian planes were flying directly to Ukraine. We called our military: "So and so, 2 planes are flying". We looked: one turns around, and the other flew directly to Ukraine. Literally, half an hour passed, and that plane flew back, followed by ours. There was smoke coming from the engine of the first one. We thought, it must have been shot down, and it would fall somewhere. But ours flew to the border, turned around, and theirs flew further. It was accelerating, flying away. We thought it had been shot down.”

Meanwhile, a pretty old woman hurriedly crosses the square and asks not to take pictures of her. But she assures me: she will stay in the village until the last moment.

“You cannot run away from fate. What is meant to be, will be, and we have nowhere to run. Should we be afraid? On the contrary! We have to fight against these enemies. For example, I am not afraid,” she says.

This really beautiful elderly lady with clear eyes and a gentle smile calls the enemy the devil. And she believes that a fair trial awaits him in this world.

“I believe that this "great army" that abused people in Bucha will receive a great punishment. It will be huge, and the enemy deserves it.”

“If there is a threat, we will know and have time to make our choice”

“In World War II, the Germans burned the village, and 3 thousand inhabitants died. Those people who hid in the forest survived,” Mykola Yosypovych says. He calls himself an indigenous resident of Kortelisy. He has spent all his life in the village.

The calm and slow life of the Volyn village is fascinating. But everyone here actually admits that sooner or later aggression will come. Everyone in the village talks about the potential attack from Belarus surprisingly calmly. And they usually say one thing: they are ready and are not going to go anywhere.

“In the village, maybe 2-3 percent out of 100 are not ready. But for the most part, everyone is ready, no one will run away. We will only send children and women somewhere,” says Andrii.

The school principal adds: “I have no doubt. I will stay where I am. What will be, will be. We will defend our village, and help the military. During World War II, women and everyone who had the opportunity joined the fight.”

None of the locals, whom I met on the central square, intends to leave Kortelisy. They say, nowhere else we will be better fed. And if anything, there are many dense, familiar to them forests nearby. Children in the village are well aware of the war. But they are not afraid, they trust our military, the school principal says.

“If you cannot trust the military, then who can you trust?” Ihor asks rhetorically.

“My opinion is that Lukashenko, like Putin, will not stop,” Mykola Yosypovych suddenly says. “Lukashenko has nothing to lose, he will go till the end.”

The village headman admits that he is ready to take his wife and four children out of the village in case of aggression.

Despite the optimism, Kortelisy and nearby villages are preparing for the worst-case scenario. In the settlements, the authorities are collecting lists of people willing to evacuate, those who can do it on their own, and those who need transport.

“We have to do it. Because God knows what may happen, we must be prepared and react appropriately,” the headman says.

“We are making lists. Our intelligence is working very well, both in relation to Russia and Belarus. There are no questions,” Mykola Yosypovych reassures. “If there is an evacuation, we will be told in 2-3 days. People complain: "They will blow up bridges, where will we go?" No, it will not be like that. If there is a threat, we will know and have time to make our choice.”

***

We stand and silently look at Belarus, the country that sheltered a murderer and executioner, and now resembles it.

“Who will say that they are not afraid? You are afraid of something anyway. The most important thing is that no missiles or Shahids are flying here. Yes, we have a threat from the Belarusian side, but we live and, God willing, we will live as we should,” Mykola Yosypovych says calmly.

Sooner or later, the peaceful sky of this village may also crack. But the village of Kortelisy will survive. Everyone is sure of this: from little Anton to the adults around him.

I do not want to leave Kortelisy. Leaving here is both calm and disturbing.

“If the Belarusians attack, our partisans will kick their asses here,” - a young guy shouts after me. “Write that down.”

I smile and leave the village still calm.

Author: Nadiia Sukha