DONETSK, Ukraine – Spring, but not peace, has come to Donetsk. "The city of a million roses" is a place where 20-year old Vitaliy Gontar trains his martial arts skills with other fighters backed by Russia who control the city.
“We’re bored,” Gontar laughs, as he kicks his leg into the air, jumps onto the solid ground and performs a somersault. He uses his bare hands as though he holds a rifle. “Bam, bam. And another ‘Ukrop’ is killed,” he says, bragging about his desire to kill Ukrainians, whom he derogatorily calls “Ukrops” – literally “dill” in Russian.
Both Russia-backed fighters are Donetsk natives. “When this war started, we joined the army here. We sought a purpose in life. Both of us were tired doing nothing all day long,” Gontar explains.
For now, though, both young men aren’t doing a lot of fighting. A cease-fire that came into effect on Feb. 15 has slowed down the war and the killing.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that 65 Ukrainian fighters have been killed since the cease-fire. But he also acknowledged that the separatist warriors have withdrawn much of their heavy weaponry from the war front as outlined in the Minsk II agreement.
“For now we can say that we’ve halted the offensive drive of the aggressor. Ukraine has withdrawn its heavy weaponry from the frontlines. Russia-backed separatists have also withdrawn a significant amount,” Poroshenko told journalists in Kyiv.
However, the special monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe are still unable to monitor any heavy artillery withdrawal in the separatist-controlled areas near the Ukrainian-held Azov Sea port city of Mariupol. Many Ukrainians fear that the city of 500,000 people is the next target for Russian forces in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drive to create a land bridge between Russia and Kremlin-occupied Crimea.
One of the separatist leaders who represented the separatists during the Minsk II talks, Denis Pushilin, admitted that the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic consider Mariupol to be part of their territory. “We will push for a political solution and prevent any military interference to liberate Mariupol,” he said.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused the separatists of trying to destabilize Mariupol, where Russian and Ukrainian sympathizers live side by side. According to Yatsenyuk, the separatists have disrupted the transport of supplies to Mariupol’s steel plants.
Meanwhile, Shryrokyne, a village just east of Mariupol, has endured multiple attacks by separatists from the Novoazovsk area close to the Russian border.
According to the latest report by the special monitoring mission, international monitors were denied access to the separatist-controlled area near Shryrokyne, making it impossible for them to monitor the full withdrawal of heavy weaponry.
It is believed that the Russian army is also present in that area, another reason to obstruct OSCE monitors.
During the latest briefing of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that separatists have brought in several heavy artillery pieces , military vehicles and tanks via the railway hub in Debaltseve.
A spokesman of the self-proclaimed Ministry of Defense in Donetsk could not confirm the accusations. “Our authorities are renovating the severely damaged railway station. I can only confirm that once it’s ready to use, our republic will do so,” he told the Kyiv Post.
OSCE monitors were also unable to back up the NSDC’s accusations, but only because they were not given full access to monitor the situation in the severely damaged town of Debaltseve.
Many fear that Kremlin-backed separatists are simply regrouping and rearming for a spring offensive, despite the denials of their Kremlin-backed rulers.
Gontar, who talks eagerly about killing Ukrainians, he wants to remain in the army. “I don’t know where I’ll be assigned next, but I’m hoping for a time to shoot again,” he laughs.
Kyiv Post contributor Stefan Huijboom is a freelance Dutch journalist.
