LUHANSKE, Ukraine -- The sound of Grad missiles from separatist-controlled territory brings only smiles from soldiers manning the Ukrainian checkpoint in the Donetsk Oblast village of Luhanske.
“This
is nothing compared to what it was yesterday,” one of them
says.
The
soldiers stand by the damaged bridge at the entrance to the village.
There are children’s drawings taped to the wall of the
abandoned house that serves as a base now. Luhanske is located
in 15 kilometers away from Debaltseve, an important railway junction
and the sight of the greatest fears at the moment. Some 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers are still engaged in a tense standoff with Kremlin-backed insurgents threatening to encircle them.
Despite
a cease-fire announced by both sides at midnight on Feb. 15,
Debaltseve is still being severely shelled. The Kremlin-backed separatists of the
self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic insist that Debaltseve wasn’t
part of the cease-fire agreement. They say that because it’s surrounded, it’s now part of their territory.
The
Ukrainian troops continue to deny that the road to the city is closed
off, saying it was still possible to reach it, even though the road
leading to it is under fire, and mined in many places.
On
Feb. 15 this road was closed off for everyone apart from the army. In the middle of the day, there was a truck with soldiers
speeding through the village of Myronivsky. The soldiers were smiling
and waving, they were heading away from Debaltseve. They managed to
dodge the shells and bullets, but said the situation in Debaltseve
was really bad.
Myronivsky
was not much better, with howitzers, mortars and Grad multiple rocket
launchers shelling at the Ukrainian positions there while this Kyiv
Post reporter was in the area.
A
cloud of smoke after the shells was hanging
above the village. But despite all, the current situation was better
then a couple of days ago, and could save many lives, says Igor, 50,
a soldier who goes under nom-de-guerre Fog, who serves at the
checkpoint near Myronivsky.
“We thought peace would start today,”
he tells the Kyiv Post. “But as you can see they (the separatists)
are not wishing for this.”
Burned
armored vehicles, pieces of ammunition, empty casings from Grad and
pieces of shoes and closes are scattered along the road connecting
Debaltseve with Artemivsk, a city controlled by the Ukrainian
authorities.
The sound of Grads is heard on the way to Artemivsk. A soldier named Ivan says that Ukraine’s agreement to stop fighting is really stretched in the village of Chernukhyne, at the very edge of the
government-controlled territory. “I spoke to a friend serving
there, they were asking for artillery support,” he says.
Right
next to him, there is a group of medics standing by the ambulance,
waiting to pick up wounded soldiers from the front lines. The
doctors are skeptical about the current truce, saying that every time
after it was announced it always led to a new escalation.
“Probably
now they (the separatists) are receiving a new portion of
humanitarian convoy,” says Vasyl Tekhtemysh, a military surgeon
from Kyiv. But he still hopes that peace might be real.
In
Luhanske, the residents are also skeptical about peace, using the
relative cease-fire to repair the damaged houses or just go and see
their relatives.
Sergiy,
53, a manager at the local power plant, says that despite all, the
current peace process is a “fiction.” He carried a warm blanket
and a bag with potatoes on his bicycle, which he rode to the sound of
artillery shelling. He says that now it’s too late to strive for
lasting peace. “These guys from
DNR and LNR (separatist Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk
People’s
Republic) will not retreat. Too many lives perished,”
he said.
Valentyna,
a 76-year-old pensioner, says the fights three days ago burned down a
woman in her house in Myronivsky and wounded two other people. She
feared the fights would go on soon.
“This
war is pointless,” she says, walking through the remains of the
village park.
A
group of four men nearby is using the cease-fire to grab what they want from abandoned dwellings nearby. Army soldiers say they have
no time to stop the looting. There are no police anywhere in sight to
stop it.
Valentyna says looting is common. It does not shock her anymore. “What
is the point of stealing anything from here? Just to die later
nearby?” she says sadly.
Kyiv
Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at
[email protected]
Editor’s Note: This article has been produced with support fromwww.mymedia.org.ua, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action. Content is independent of the donor.
