The threat of a new Russian invasion has nailed the last reason for the New Year’s Eve celebrations from the residents of Ukraine’s border guards. The eighth-year-long war has taken health, zest for life and confidence from decision-makers in eastern Ukraine.
Mariinka / Avdiivka
Arjesta The war in eastern Ukraine gets a moderately good idea when Nadezhda Sobestanskaya accompanies his war stuff by imitating various bullet sounds and explosions.
“Bum!” a grenade exploded in his garden and destroyed the raspberry and plum crop. Sobeštšanska, 65, then grabs an imaginary machine gun and fires it around her kitchen.
The backyard garden offers a direct view of the destroyed hospital, which is used by Ukrainian soldiers as a reconnaissance and base. The eighth year-long war has confused their heads as well.
Nadežda Sobeštšanska, a pensioner living in the small town of Mariinka, says that she lives today like a flame of savings. “Before the war, I was energetic and thrived. I wish you had seen me before the war, ”he says.
Sobeštšanska tells how a Ukrainian soldier fired at him once for fun from the hospital while a pensioner was picking potatoes from his garden. She was saved by crawling along the ditch her husband dug back inside.
“Is that how you shoot your own mothers?” he shouted at the soldiers towards the hospital.
Young people Ukrainian soldiers are rarely poured along the quiet tracks of the small town of Marinka on Sunday, but the sounds of fighting are not heard.
Traces of war are visible everywhere instead. The fences of the houses are spotted with bullet holes, graffiti has been painted on the ruins of destroyed apartment buildings, and the windows of many homes have been nailed to the boards.
In the Donetsk region, right next to the front line, Mariinka is peaceful this time, but the war is still hot in the region.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Community in Europe (OSCE) recorded the latest report on Friday a total of 101 ceasefire violations in the Donetsk region. Of these, 67 were explosions.
According to Sobeštšanka, the latest explosion in Mariinka happened a week ago. He was just washing the floors with a Peach cat on his feet when he heard the familiar “bum”. Before that, it had been quiet for a long time.
“That’s when I let go of the tanning and started crying. This is hell. ”
Nadežda Sobeštšanska praises her Peach cat for being wise, unlike politicians who have still not found peace in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has concentrated a large number of troops on the Ukrainian border over the autumn, raising the threat of a new Russian invasion of Ukraine and an escalation of war in eastern Ukraine.
No information is yet available on Russia’s military intentions, but bringing an estimated 100,000 troops to Ukraine’s borders has exacerbated tensions between Russia and the West.
On Friday, Russia unexpectedly released its draft security guarantees to the United States and the military alliance to NATO. Among other things, Russia demands that NATO not admit new members and stay out of Eastern Europe.
Read more: Russia insists NATO will not admit new members and stay out of Eastern Europe – proposes talks with US “even tomorrow”
Russia said it was responding to security threats that it said were due to Ukraine ‘s ever closer ties with NATO and its aspirations to join the military alliance. In fact, Ukraine’s NATO membership is not coming to an end in the near future, precisely because of the unstable situation in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry intervened in the talks between the great powers and immediately replied to Russia that it had the exclusive, sovereign right to conduct its own foreign policy. Ukraine recalled that only it and NATO can decide on their mutual relations, including NATO membership.
At the same time, Ukraine called on Russia to restart the peace process in eastern Ukraine. An estimated 15,000 people have died in the war between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists in more than seven years.
In Eastern Ukraine Residents of the small town of Avdiivka Yelena Diyashkova and Alexander Dokalenko are not in favor of NATO membership, even though the war has destroyed two rooms in their house and taken away health.
It is intolerable for Alexander Dokalenko and Yelena Diyashkova that the war in eastern Ukraine will continue for eight years. Diyashkova has to eat sedatives that will survive her days.
Dokalenko has lost part of his hearing and, as a result, his job at a local factory, which is Ukraine’s largest coke producer. Dijatškova works in a factory but eats sedatives every day and goes to see a psychologist.
News of the Russian troops behind the border is worrying. In good memory is the battle of Avdiivka in early 2017, when the roof of their houses was partially destroyed. It has been patched with plastic presses from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
“We would take the first blow here. We remember how at the beginning of the war the soldiers and tanks were here in our garden, ”Dokalenko says.
Alexander Dokalenko presents a bullet that was shot at his and his wife Elena Dijaškova’s home.
For them, war is still commonplace. Dijatškova sleeps in a tracksuit and keeps a flashlight close by so she is ready to leave quickly if needed.
There is a shortage of many things and not enough money. The price of coal needed to heat a home has doubled. Sugar has also become more expensive. It has been bought to save money in a 50 pound sack along with a neighbor.
Avdiivkassa more than 30,000 people lived before the war, but various estimates put the population almost halved during the war years. Young people and people of working age have moved elsewhere for the most part.
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“We no longer live, we exist.”
More than 30,000 people lived in Avdiivka before the war, but according to various estimates, the population has almost halved during the war years. Young people and people of working age have moved elsewhere for the most part.
Diyatskova and Dokalenko cannot afford or have the strength to leave. Only three of the street lamps on their home street are lit. The couple stays home after dark. That’s when hostilities usually start on the front line less than a mile from home.
“It wouldn’t be fun to change anything, but this is how life goes about its expenses. We no longer live, we exist. We sit here in fear and receive bullets, ”Dyatshkova worries.
Yelena Diyashkova and Alexander Dokalenko live in a house where parts of the war have been destroyed. In addition to the kitchen and bathroom, there is one room left.
Fresh research nearly 60 percent of Ukrainians are in favor of NATO membership, but Dokalenko and Diachkovka and their local acquaintances are not.
“If we had joined before the war, our northern neighbors might have been afraid of it. Now the consequences would be even harder and worse, ”Dokalenko exclaims.
Diyashkova thinks that young people are mainly into NATO. His confidence in decision-makers has faltered.
“We thought there would be peace when we voted [Ukrainan presidenttiä Volodymyr] Zelensky. Now we understand that it is not that simple to do. ”
Mariinkassa pensioner Sobeštšanska barks Zelensky into a clown. The war is not over, even though he had hoped for it. The pension is shrinking for expensive medicines. He blames many of the illnesses, such as heart problems and high blood pressure, for the stress of war.
Different parts of Ukraine are preparing for the main celebration of the year, ie the New Year, in very different moods. Spectacular lights have been hung in the capital, Kiev, and in the temporary center of the Donetsk region, Kramatorsk.
Kramatorsk is only an hour and a half drive from Avdiivka, but the war does not seem to affect the townspeople. In the sparklingly decorated restaurant, the presenter holds a loud show and elevates the audience to a festive mood.
“What is the most important element of the New Year?” he shouts. And he says, “Six, of course!”
Avdiivka Dokalenko and Diyashkova see no reason to celebrate. There are no decorations or spruce. They have not celebrated New Year’s Eve or Orthodox Christmas for seven years. This year, too, brought no improvement in life.
“We are afraid. I hope not to shoot. ”
As a Christmas present, the couple hopes for peace, quiet and a walk in their bathrobe, and not always in full dress.
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