SHCHASTIA, Ukraine - Although Ukraine, Russia and the E.U. on Dec. 17 agreed to hold the next round of talks on a ceasefire in Donbas on Dec. 21, little has changed for residents of the war zone despite long-running peace negotiations.
The decision comes after several
failed attempts earlier in December to introduce a ceasefire and hold
negotiations in Minsk. The attempts followed the parties’ failure to enforce
the Sept. 5 Minsk ceasefire deal.
The announcement on the next
round of talks was made by President Petro Poroshenko after a meeting with his
Polish counterpart Bronislaw Komorowski and a telephone conversation with
French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian
President Vladimir Putin. Poroshenko said that the talks could be held on Dec. 21.
Ukraine, France, Germany and
Russia agreed to comply with all clauses of the Sept. 5 Minsk ceasefire agreement,
Poroshenko’s press office said. The parties also agreed to increase
humanitarian aid supplies to occupied territories due to the winter season.
As negotiations about a new
ceasefire continued, locals of the Luhansk Oblast town of Shchastia felt all
the consequences of a war that has never ceased for them.
In Shchastia, the sound of shelling
has become a usual background noise. While in daytime it is usually
minor, at night it becomes more intensive.
The sound of Grad multiple rocket launchers and
mortars and machine gun fire is clearly audible at night. Most cafes are closed
because of the war, and schools only started working in October.
Locals did not give their last name for fear of
reprisals.
“We don’t have a basement at the
hotel – the nearest basement is far from here,” Maria, a 41-year old hotel
receptionist, said last week. “The way out is to go to the first floor when
there’s heavy shelling and stay away from windows.”
Nelya, a 49-year old chef, said she
was frustrated after waking up many times whenever shelling resumed and falling
asleep again. “There is no fear anymore,” she said. “Only self-preservation.”
She said that relatives and acquaintances
living in different parts of the town regularly called each other to ask “are
you alright?” “It’s like ping-pong,” Nelya said.
Locals say that, though no formal
curfew has been introduced, people do not go out after 5 p.m., and taxi
companies forbid their drivers from working after that time.
“Everything can happen, we don’t
know who might hide in the forest,” Nelya said.
Local residents seem to be not only
scared but also lost and confused.
“We don’t understand anything
anymore – who’s right and who’s wrong,” Nelya said. “We are confused,
everything has lost its meaning…”
She said that she sympathized with
both the Ukrainian army and insurgents.
“I feel pity for both sides,” Nelya
said. “All of them are people made of flesh and blood.”
Another resident, a pensioner who
looked bewildered and lost, stood near a building shelled by insurgents. She
did not give her name for fear of reprisals.
Pointing at a hole gaping in the
building, broken windows and piles of roofing slate, the pensioner said that
she had been in the building when it was shelled. “It had been calm for a
while, and we did not expect anything like that,” she said.
Half of another old lady’s apartment
was destroyed, but she survived because she was in the other half, the
pensioner added.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
