Meanwhile, Erdogan's problems are growing in Syria, in the areas bordering Turkey. His army is taking unprecedented losses in the clashes with Kurd military formations. The center of the confrontation is the city of Afrin. It is approximately 60-70 km to the north-west from Aleppo. Erdogan's motives are clear: to prevent the formation of a Kurdish state in the north of Syria, which, like a magnet, will attract Turkish Kurds. And those will leave taking with them a piece of the present-day Turkey, of course. Yes, it seems this is also the US undeclared plan. Erdogan has deciphered it long ago.
In Afrin, where blood is flowing, is our war correspondent, Anton Stepanenko. The only Russian telejournalist there.
Turkish Air Force has just struck the 4th strike against Afrin city center, it's difficult to say where the rockets hit, but right now we're in the center of Afrin, and people in this building have gathered on the stairwell because they think it's the safest place.
The first in the city hospital is a boy and a teenager. In Afrin, there are still explosions, but 4 surgeons are working here around the clock. The Turkish operation against the Kurdish region of Afrin continues for the 22nd day. This woman was brought from the Qestel Magdad village, after an artillery shelling.
John Pulat, deputy Head Doctor: "There's many, there's also many dead that we can't get to right now. There are very many injured and many bodies. We can't take them away, this area is under heavy fire".
There are now not enough beds in the hospital, designed for 120 patients. Scheduled operations are postponed regardless of the illness. In case of heart attacks or strokes, people of course receive help, but the wounded come first.
John Pulat: "This grandmother, miraculously survived".
The fighting and shelling of the Kurdish region of Afrin are not only along the perimeter of the Turkish-Syrian border. Villages that seemed to be far back ended up under fire. A small Kurdish town of Djenderes, to the south-west of Afrin. This is the result of just one artillery shelling, the Turkish artillery shells this area regularly. Shells hit a cemetery, houses, and even a mosque. The minaret survived, but the roof was hit 3 times.
"I don't know what they bombed us with, but I have this crater in my garden. It's good that we weren't home, we left as soon as the war started".
80 people now live in the basement of this unfinished house: those whose homes are already destroyed, and those whose are still intact, in order to survive. We worked in the town for 3 hours, and during this time Djenderes was shelled. 30 minutes after we left the residential areas of the city were hit by artillery. The explosions could be heard clearly.
"I was sitting in the yard and heard how shells were falling, fragments hit my head and leg, didn't hit but grazed me a little".
This old man has been living for 22 days under fire. And every day he collects fragments in his yard that haven't killed him. Before the war, up to 100,000 people lived in the town of Djenderes. No one has yet counted how many are now hiding in their cellars. Others were counted, those who tried to escape the war.
This is one of the caves in the mountains that surround the town of Djenderes which was recently shelled by the Turkish artillery. About 30 people are hiding in this cave, there are many such caves, where around 10,000 refugees from Djenderes are trying to stay safe.
The shelling lasted only 5 minutes. 6 shells hit Afrin's water treatment plant. The equipment was destroyed, and the city is now without water. A million plus people who are trying to survive this war, are now without water.
Anton Stepanenko, Artem Grigoryan, Alexander Pushin. From Afrin, Syria — Vesti.
