STANYTSIA LUHANSKA, Ukraine -- A young woman in traditional Ukrainian costume smiles from a billboard overlooking a square on which all buildings have bullet holes.
“Stanytsia Luhanska is Ukraine,” reads the billboard.
But many in the small city of 12,000 people, located in the outskirts of Luhansk, the former provincial capital and now a stronghold of Russian-backed separatists, haven’t warmed up to this fact.
All the Ukrainian yellow-and-blue flags painted on the electric poles along the main road have been crossed out with white or red paint.Under a roof of the former gas station pierced with bullets, some 100 people are patiently standing in line waiting for a permission to cross the only checkpoint in the region, connecting the Ukrainian-controlled territory with the unrecognized separatist republic whose center is Luhansk..
“They led to this themselves when they were waving the Russian flags and asking: “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin, come here!” a border guard called Slavik, said pointing at the crowd. Slavik refused to give his last name as he was unauthorized to talk to the press.
Across the bridge, just about a mile from the checkpoint, there is separatist-controlled territory, marked with the Russian flag on a high building.
The shootings from the other side are still frequent.
In early November, George Tuka, who governs the Ukrainian-controlled part of the region, threatened to close the checkpoint if the shoutouts don’t stop. The checkpoint was opened in mid-October.
Before that the locals bribed the soldiers to reach the other side. Some of them even risked their lives when crossing the mined fields.
So the residents are fearing the closing the checkpoint as almost everyone has a relative living on another side. Many young men from Stanytsia Luhanska fight on the separatists’ side, the Ukrainian soldiers say.
There are two big tents at the square, where the officers of the emergency services, offer hot tea and biscuits for free.
But most people prefer standing in a cold outside.
Those, who come into the government-organized tent, hurry up to leave it quickly. The residents try to avoid talks about the war.
“We live our lives regardless of their fights,” said Olga, a woman in her 30s, who refused to give her last name over safety issues.
She stands holding her bicycle loaded with two bags with food. She is heading to Luhansk where she lives with her children. Olga came to visit her relatives in Stanytsia Luhanska and to buy some milk products, which are much cheaper on the Ukrainian-controlled side. Olga said there are many people living in Luhansk now.
Schools work normal but have the Russian five-grade system instead of Ukrainian 12-grade one.
There are special offices in Luhansk for transferring money from Russia, but there’s no way to get the Ukrainian payments, so the pensioners regularly travel to Ukraine-controlled Stanytsia-Luhanska to get them.
The Russian convoys arrive regularly, but Olga has never received any humanitarian help from them. There were some talks about the local elections planned for the February in Luhansk, based on the second Minsk deal, Olga said.
“But I haven’t seen any election campaign so far,” she added.
The soldiers stationed in Stanytsia Luhanska don’t believe in Minsk peace deal, which presumes the local elections based on Ukrainian law, amnesty for the insurgents and Ukrainian control over the border with Russia.
“How do you imagine our guys, who lost so many friends in this war, may patrol the border together with the Russians against whom they fought?!” said Oxana Chorna, paramedic-driver of 28th brigade. Chorna, whose unit arrived in the town just a few weeks ago, accuses the local authorities and the civilian medics of pro-separatist moods.
“The local doctors recently hesitated to help our seriously wounded guy,” she said. “It’s appalling the officials didn’t change at all after Ukraine liberated this town.”
The civilians blame the Ukrainian troops of heavy shelling and looting.
There is a monument to the residents of Stanytsia Luhanska killed in this war located in the center of the town.
Elena Petrovna, a woman in her 60s, stands in a line for the second-hand clothes offered by a Christian charity in a tent by the border crossing checkpoint. She refused to give her last name saying she “wants to live.”
She holds a big bag on a cart and remembers how she had to collect an old neighbor by pieces after he had been killed by Grad multiple launcher rocket system in August 2014.
“On Aug. 15 (2014) some 20 shells fell next to my backyard,” she said. “I still live in a house covered with plastic film on the place of the windows.”
The Ukrainian troops entered Stanytsia Luhanska on Aug. 18, 2014, after nearly two months of fights.
But the city remained the scene of shelling and regular armed clashes up to the end of summer.
In times of the heavy fights, many residents fled to Luhansk or to Russia.
Last winter the locals had to survive without heat, hiding from Grads in their basement.
Elena Petrovna said she had used the poplars growing on the edge of her garden for heating of her dwelling.
Now the sounds of explosions usually are caused by someone’s stepping on the mines. Residents say it’s nothing in comparison to what they experienced.
They are hoping for peace and for the checkpoint to Luhansk keep on working as normal. “I’m ready to serve to any king and kneel to any god if there’s no more shelling,” Elena Petrovna said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grystenko can be reached at [email protected]
