MARIUPOL, Ukraine – Just a few minutes’ drive from the peaceful port city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea, the destructive aftermath of Russia's war remains clear.
Ten kilometers north of Mariupol, in the village of Sartana, 47-year-old Svetlana Chuvilin points to her partially destroyed house, which is practically on the front line.
“Rockets landed not far from my house, but it was the shrapnel that ruined it,” she said, recalling the attack on Mariupol in January by combined Russian-separatist forces that killed 30 civilians. Emotionally, she points out other badly damaged houses on her street, which overlooks now-empty fields where cows used to graze, and tractors plow.
For months she and her son have been rebuilding the house with the help of some volunteers from Mariupol, and occasionally volunteer soldiers from the Azov Battalion.
“Now there’s less fighting I’d like to enjoy the nature here again, to go out camping and to enjoy my life here,” she continues. She says she has hopes the ceasefire on the demarcation line in east Ukraine will hold.
Chuvilin’s house is surrounded by Ukrainian checkpoints, because just a stone throw’s away lies the Russian-seized village of Kominternove. And while the occupied village is only a few hundred meters away, Chuvilin says its too dangerous to go there. Although there is now no intense fighting and the ceasefire is largely holding, acts of suppression of civilians continue on the “terrorist side,” according to Chuvilin.
“Two days ago, a resident of Kominternove was beaten and arrested because she was against the occupation by people she believes are terrorists,” Chuvilin said.
At a checkpoint in Sartana stands 35-year-old Artem Garaschuk, a government soldier originally from Lutsk in western Ukraine. He and his fellow soldiers, whom the war has made firm friends, say that since the ceasefire they have started to have more “relaxation time.” Garaschuk plays with a young boy who is curiously observing the troops clear freshly fallen autumn leaves from the streets.
“It’s been quiet for the past few months, but we always have to be aware that the enemy is watching us,” Garaschuk said, as he puts the young boy on his lap, pretending to him that he is riding a tank. “The war isn’t over. The war is on all of our minds. We have to take that into account,” Garaschuk told the Kyiv Post.
“It would just take a pull on a trigger to escalate this war again.” He noted that there have been many failed ceasefires in Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has already cost more than 8,000 lives.
Nevertheless, it appears the truce is finally holding in eastern Ukraine, and the Minsk peace agreements are finally being implemented – including the withdrawal of heavy artillery from the demarcation line. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported on Oct. 5 that it had observed the withdrawal of 27 tanks belonging to the Ukrainian army, while on Oct. 4 it said that Russian-separatist forces in the Russian-occupied parts of Luhansk Oblast had started the pullback of 30 of its tanks. The process of the withdrawal of heavy weaponry is expected to last for 41 days.
While separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko has several times stated that he wants to take over Mariupol, and many of the city’s residents support the Opposition Bloc party, which is largely made up of old allies of runaway Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, there is no great support for separatism.
“I do have to admit though that some residents don’t want anything to do with me, because I’m from the west of Ukraine,” Garaschuk said. “There is still this aversion to Ukrainians from the west. I won’t say it’s because the people support separatism, but rather due to cultural differences. I speak Ukrainian to my soldiers, and the Ukrainian army wants me to speak Ukrainian while I’m performing my duties. So, I speak Ukrainian to civilians here, who often don’t understand it and prefer me to speak Russian instead. We’re creating a gap between the army and the civilians that we need to serve.”
Back in the center of Mariupol, 29-year-old Vitaliy Koshmal hands out election flyers of the Opposition Bloc on Lenin Street (still not renamed, even though the Ukrainian parliament adopted a bill on de-communization last April).
Koshmal has little faith in the government in Kyiv.
“Kyiv is miles away, and all they’ve done is triggered a war,” he told the Kyiv Post as he offered his flyers to passersby. “For Kyiv, Europe is also miles away. Their wish to become more European has unleashed anger and a war, something many just don’t want to understand. Ukraine has always been under Russian influence. Look around you in Mariupol, or any other city in Ukraine. It’s just not European. Do I support the separatism in Donetsk? No – they’re bandits. I believe in democracy instead.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Stefan Huijboom can be reached at [email protected]
