AVDIIVKA, Ukraine - Avdiivka, a Ukrainian-controlled city on the war front just 10 miles north of Donetsk, is a bizarre buffer zone.
“Neither Ukrainian nor (separatist) Donetsk People’s Republic laws work there,” Alexei, a taxi driver from the village of Ocheretine, northwest of Avdiivka, told the Kyiv Post. Locals say they don’t consider themselves part of either Ukraine or separatist-held areas and, consequently, many — like Alexei — don’t want to be quoted by name about their opinions.
Despair mixed with hope for peace are the dominant emotions in the industrial city with a pre-war population of 35,000 people, many of whom have left.
Ukrainian television channels are not working and so many locals watch Russian satellite television.
Few stores and almost no cafes are working, and banking services are not available in this buffer zone.
Retired residents have to go to nearby cities to get their pensions from Ukraine’s government.
The city’s economy is dominated by the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant, Europe’s largest coke producer.
The plant could become the target of the next separatist offensive, due to its strategic role as the major supplier of coke for the Donbas steel industry. Many residents have left because of the war, with some of Avdiivka’s empty streets looking like those of a ghost town.
Residents say that not a single building in Avdiivka has escaped shelling. Almost all buildings have broken windows, and many have been heavily damaged.
A recurring theme among locals is that shelling allegedly starts after journalists arrive – something that they interpret as a sign of collusion between the Ukrainian army and reporters. Residents say that Channel 112 reporters have recently been beaten here. A couple of pensioners reacted aggressively to the appearance of Kyiv Post reporters and shouted from their balcony about their hatred of Ukrainian authorities, with the sound of their voices resonating throughout the whole neighborhood.
“We don’t care if you take pictures or not,” one of the pensioners, who gave his name as Viktor, shouted. “We are not afraid of the Security Service!”
Viktor and other locals, however, did not give their last names for fear of reprisals.
Repeating the common mantras of Kremlin propaganda, Viktor ranted against what he saw as an American plot to seize Ukraine and lashed out against the Ukrainian army.
Oleg, a 44-year old unemployed resident, accused Ukrainian troops of “exterminating peaceful residents” and called them “occupiers.”
Street market vendors Alexander, 30, and Valeria, 28, disagreed, calling the Ukrainian army “liberators.”
They said they wanted the city to be part of Ukraine.
But other residents were less concerned with politics and cared more about the practical consequences of war. Many said they did not support either the Ukrainian army or Russian-backed separatists and only wanted the war to end.
Natalya, an employee of the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant, volunteered to show her heavily damaged apartment. One of the most terrible moments in her life was when she was in her bedroom and just barely escaped being killed when an artillery shell flew into her window and broke the wardrobe’s mirror.
She ran out of the room just in time and says she was saved by an icon of Mary, mother of Jesus, at her bedside. Every room in the apartment was damaged. Tile in the bathroom was broken by a shock wave, while in the kitchen the window is broken, and a crack runs through one of the walls.
Natalya says she’s planning to repair the apartment. “It’s an eerie feeling to live in my town and not to be living at home,” she says.
Another apartment fared even worse and was burned almost completely by an artillery shell, with two holes gaping in the walls instead of the windows.
Natalya also showed the place where she and other residents had to hide during shelling. Bending down in a dark, moist basement with a low ceiling and rubbish scattered over the floor, she led the Kyiv Post reporters with a flashlight, bumping into dogs that were hiding there. She then showed chairs and mattresses on the floor where locals used to sleep.
Another horror story was told by Vladimir, a 64-year old pensioner who was standing between two heavily shelled apartment buildings. He was trembling and was on the brink of bursting into tears. He recalls a situation when he was sitting in a basement and counting artillery shells that were hitting a nearby building – nine in total. In another situation shells were flying right over his head. “I bent down my head and then fell on the ground and was lying by a fence until it was over,” he says.
Vladimir says his only hope is for peace.
But the current situation is desperate.
“We are not the Donetsk People’s Republic and we are not Ukraine,” he said. “We are nobody. And no one needs us.”
Nikolai, a 56-year old pensioner with a walking stick, told the Kyiv Post that many of his neighbors had left because of the war. “Once we were playing cards in a toilet with an old lady when my apartment building was being shelled,” he recalls.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
Editor’s Note: This content has been produced with support from the project www.mymedia.org.ua, financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action. The content in this article is editorially independent of the donors.
