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Transcript/ScriptNew York, Ukraine (TV)
HEADLINE: In New York, Ukraine, People Just Want the Soviet Union Back
TEASER: A small front-line city changed its name two years ago, hoping to get help
from the West but instead got war and misery
PUBLISHED: 03/06/2023 at 8:02 pm
BYLINE: Yan Boechat
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: New York, Ukraine
VIDEOGRAPHER: Yan Boechat
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Reifenrath, Sharon Shahid
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV __ RADIO __
TRT: 3:22
VID APPROVED BY: mia
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES: ))
((INTRO))
[[Novgorodske was a typical industrial city in the Donbas region that got poorer after the
fall of the Soviet Union. With the war at its footsteps, city residents decided to change its
name to New York to draw help and money from the West. But the investments and
tourists never came, and now the few New Yorkers remaining look back fondly to their
Soviet past.]]
((VOA VIDEO))
((NARRATOR))
Bombs often fly over this small city with an unusual name in Eastern Ukraine
((VOA VIDEO))
((NARRATOR))
New York is in the heart of Donbas, and until two years ago, it had a very Russian
name: Novgorodske.
((VOA VIDEO))
((NARRATOR))
Everything changed in summer 2021, when residents renamed Novgorodske to New
York, its original name before the Soviets changed it in 1951, to draw help and money
from the West.
((Ianna Nikolaivna, Resident - female, Russian)).
"At that time, we thought about investments coming here; tourists coming ... but nothing
has happened, except that the war started. They built and renovated the museum, but it
is in ruins now. The tourists never came. New York hasn't given us absolutely anything."
((VOA VIDEO))
((NARRATOR))
Nikolaivna is one of the 2,000 people still in New York. Home to a booming chemical
plant during Soviet times, New York was a typical industrial city. But since the collapse
of the Soviet regime, things got harder. For many here, war is just another tragedy
endured in recent decades.
((Yuri, Resident (male, Russian, no surname given)))
"Our hopes that something would change for the better died 30 years ago. About 30
years ago, the hope got lost. And to tell you the truth, this name doesn't matter to us.”
((VOA VIDEO))
((NARRATOR))
Yuri lives in a potato cellar with his wife, Galina, and their three kids. They moved to this
tiny space after a bomb landed in their yard two months ago and blew up doors,
windows, and part of the roof of their house. Unlike her husband, Galina was hopeful
that changing the name would change their fate.
((Galina, Resident (no surname given, 43, unemployed - female, Russian)))
"But in essence, it is all about war. Who is going to care about anything else but the
war?
((VOA VIDEO))
((NARRATOR))
The bombs, she says, are now part of their routine. And Ukraine's New York, too, is a
city that never sleeps.
((Galina, Resident (no surname given, 43, unemployed - female, Russian)))
"The truth is that we haven't slept for a year."
((VOA VIDEO))
((NARRATOR))
On the other side of the city, an explosion makes Nikolaivna jumpy.
((Ianna Nikolaivna, Resident - female, Russian)).
”You see, it started. Now, you can hear."
((VOA VIDEO))
((NARRATOR:))
She's trying to fix her insomnia with a sleeping aid.
((Ianna Nikolaivna, 55, retired - female, Russian)).
"But when the shelling starts at night, the sedatives stop working. Nothing can help
you."
((NARRATOR))
She dreams about the days when the border between Russia and Ukraine was just a
bureaucratic line. Like many New Yorkers of Donetsk, she just wants the Soviet days
back. The name of the city, she says, never really mattered.
((For Yan Boechat in New York, Ukraine, Marcus Harton, VOA News.)
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)
New York, Ukraine
Embargo DateMarch 6, 2023 19:58 EST
Byline((For Yan Boechat in New York, Ukraine,
Marcus Harton, VOA News.))
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
