- Frank Gardner
- BBC News, Narva
7 hours
The border at Narva is the most convenient in Europe for Ukrainians crossing from Russia, a volunteer worker told the BBC.
Narva is a strange place, almost an aberration. It lies at the far end of NATO’s eastern flank and is Estonia’s third largest city, but 97% of its nearly 60,000 inhabitants speak Russian, making it the largest Russian-speaking city in the European Union.
It lies on the western bank of the Narva River that flows into the Baltic Sea. On the eastern bank is Russia. To someone just visiting her for the first time, she looks like a classic cold war frontier. Two huge opposing fortresses stand on either side of the river, with the international border running through the middle.
To the west is Narva Castle, built by the invading Danes in the 13th century. To the east is Fort Ivangorod, built by a great Muscovite prince in 1492.
The Ivangorod Fountain in Russia, seen from the opposite bank of the Narva River, in Estonia.
As much of Estonia’s border with Russia runs along a lake, the likelihood of any future invasion of Moscow is likely to happen here or further south, near Latvia.
Lines
A vehicular bridge crosses the Narva River, with high metal fences and barbed wire on both sides and customs posts at each end. Here I coordinated a meeting with Erik Liiva. He is a border police superintendent or, to identify with his Estonian charge, a commissar. Tall, bearded and armed, he accompanies me down the road to where it is painted a simple red line on the road.
“You just got to the border,” he tells me. “The Russian Federation is touching the edge.”
I ask him how relations with his Russian counterparts across the border have turned out since the invasion of Ukraine began.
“We don’t have much contact with them,” Liiva replies, “but we do have a hotline for operational reasons. We’ve increased our border patrols, we do much more rigorous inspections of passing vehicles.”
Estonian policemen inspect a vehicle arriving from Russia.
It is through this unknown border post, according to the Estonian border police, that thousands of Ukrainians have been arriving – many escaping the horrors of Mariupol and other war zones. Until 300 a day have been crossing into Estoniamost of the way to other countries or back to Ukraine.
In a bar in the city, I meet Don Katri Raik, the newly appointed mayor of Narva.
“Ukraine is our war“, he explains. “We feel it here.”
When the invasion began, she says, there was a tense silence in the city, no one mentioned her. Only 47% of the people here are Estonian, 36% are Russian and the rest are classified as “foreigners” – stateless people, mostly Russian speakers.
Before the invasion, people watched Russian programs on TV and frequently crossed to Ivangorod and beyond, until Saint Petersburg, which is closer to Narva than Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
But now that the respective consulates in Narva and St. Petersburg have closed, it is difficult to get visas, and Estonia has banned Russian TV programs, considering them to be mainly propaganda for the Kremlin.
Katri Raik, the mayor, has met many of the Ukrainians who pass through her city.
“They’ve been through hell,” he says. “It’s like the light in his eyes has gone out.”
In another area of the city, I visit six volunteer assistance centers set up to help incoming Ukrainians. Most of the staff It is composed of young russians and ukrainians working without pay, like Katia, who is from Russia.
“This border is the most convenient in Europe for Ukrainians crossing from Russia,” he tells me. “Some of them were evacuated from war zones by Russian troops, some voluntarily, others forced. By the time they reach the border they are exhausted and traumatized.”
Katya is a volunteer at the center as Ukrainian refugees in Narva.
At the Russian border post in Ivangorod, Ukrainians are subjected to extensive interrogation, especially the men. Security agents from the feared Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (FSB) inspect their phones for photos, social media posts and contacts.
Men are strip-searched, looking for tattoos of nationalist shields or regimental affiliations. They even look for bruises on their shoulders, caused by shooting rifles. Interrogations can last for hours and anyone who arouses suspicion can be held for further investigation.
However, some of those who have managed to reach Estonia continue to criticize the West. At the volunteer center, two older Ukrainian women from a village near Kharkiv agree to speak to me in Russian, with Katia as interpreter.
they tell me they are grateful to the russian soldiers who helped them evacuate Belgorod, on the Russian side of the border.
BBC
The younger ones think differently. Even those who claim to be Russian are angry at Putin for causing this mess.”
Who do they blame for this war? I ask them.
“It’s like a divorce,” Viktoria replies, cooing a small dog on her lap. “Because both sides are guilty. The United States is guilty because they should not have supplied weapons to Ukraine.”
And what if Ukraine ends up divided into zones ruled by Russia on one side and the legitimate government in kyiv on the other? Where would you prefer to live?
“Zelensky shouldn’t be president, he’s a drug addict,” Viktoria’s friend replies, echoing the partisan line expressed by the Kremlin.
“We would go to live in the Russian zone, of course”.
Outside the center, another volunteer, Dennis, pulls me aside to explain.
“It’s a generational issue,” he says. “Even here in Narva many of the older people blame NATO and the West for this crisis. The younger ones think differently. Even those who claim to be Russian are angry with Putin for causing this disaster.”
Invasion
Estonia – like its Baltic neighbors of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – is seriously worried regarding Russia’s future intentions following the invasion of Ukraine.
A monument with a Russian tank from World War II on the Estonian side of the border in Narva.
“Europe and NATO face a completely different reality,” says Tuli Duneton, political director of the Estonian Defense Ministry. “An attack [de Rusia] can no longer be excluded.”
To deter any Russian ambition to invade these four Baltic nations, NATO has rushed to reinforce its eastern flank – part of what it calls its “Enhanced Forward Presence”.
Britain, leading the multinational battle group in Estonia, quickly doubled the size of its contingent there. It now has 28 Challenger 2 main battle tanks, 95 Warrior armored vehicles and 12 AS90 artillery pieces.
They are not enough to stop a concentrated invasion of Moscow, but they are enough to act as a deterrent as a “trip rope” that would unleash NATO’s full force should Russia ever decide to cross the border.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC World. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss out on our best content.
