Telegram channels secret to survival on Ukraine’s front line with Russia

Kyiv, Ukraine — Inna makes cakes, pies, pizzas and chebureki, deep-fried turnovers.

These days, her service in the front-line town of Kurakhove in Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas area is all however gone as Russian bombs kill and injury individuals and ruin homes, while Russian soldiers shot to roll in.

“If I make 10 pies, 10 chebureki, I take them to a medicalfacility for nurses to buy – that’s it for the day,” Inna informed Al Jazeera over the phone on Thursday afternoon, simply as Ukrainian forces drivenaway yet another Russian attack on Kurakhove.

She markets her services on Kurakhove Roll Call, a Telegram channel with 8,000 customers that serves as a virtual lifeline for civilians enduring on the edge of Europe’s bloodiest war. Its twin channel, Kurakhove Without Panic, has 16,000 customers and is ran by the exactsame administrator, who firmlyinsisted to Al Jazeera that his privacy is secret “during political and social instability”.

Both channels post messages from local Ukrainian authorities about the hostilities, the shelling, its victims — and on how to prevent endingupbeing victims. The tone can feel laconic, however the material is frequently blood-curdling.

Like on Friday earlymorning, Russians shelled the Kurakhove district 13 times, one individual was injured, 5 homes were harmed; 2,928 individuals were left, consistingof 238 kids.

“There is an air raid alert in the world’s finest town,” was the administrator’s message — one is that his most regular, repeating post on the channels.

A caution followed: “Silent mode on” with phone numbers for cops, medical assistance and a fire brigade. Hours lateron, the administrator published: “Air raid alert in the world’s finest town off.”

The Telegram messaging app, whose Russian creator Pavel Durov was jailed in France earlier this week, hasactually grown into an important survival tool. If reception is erratic or restricted, users still get text messages – and can download pictures and videos.

Content smallamounts takes time, and duetothefactthat of contending channels, “keeping the audience endsupbeing a madecomplex job”, the administrator stated. But to the audience itself, the channels are important, go-to platforms that can conserve time, nerves, cash and lives.

“There is gas offered at the Platter,” a label for a gas station, one user composes. “Not real” is the reply.

Dozens of messages are about post workplaces that are still functional and where individuals can get parcels with basics – medical drugs, power banks or files.

A pharmacist composes that “absolutely all medical drugs you require” are readilyavailable at a chemist next to the Kurakhove bus station. But someone madly retorts that the drugs are overpriced and now is the “time to pack and leave” anyhow.

A grocery shop trumpets the arrival of sausages, marinaded meat and chicken – problems about extortionate rates follow.

Authorities desire citizens to leave Kurakhove and neighboring towns – however some puton’t or can’t.

“I’m not going anywhere, got noplace and no one to go to,” somebody composes.

“If God forbid [Russians] come, they’ll take you away,” is the response. “You won’t stay home. Without water, power, stores. These are reasons or…”

The “or” is an unmentioned allusion to the “zhdun”.

‘The one who waits’

The word that sounds like a shot implies “the one who waits” and is a mainly negative term for those thought to be looking forward to the arrival of Russian soldiers, a Moscow-appoint