Alina Polyakova: A view from Luhansk – waiting for war to return

Ukrainians are waiting for war to start again. Since a ceasefire agreement went into effect in February, the winter has been relatively quiet in Luhansk Oblast, marred only by sporadic rockets fired from the territory of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic. In many respects, life appears oddly normal in the small towns and villages along the border of the Luhansk People's Republic and Ukrainian-controlled Luhansk. Parents walk with their children along the narrow roads, grocery stores are open, and there is the occasional group of teenagers smoking and loitering around bus stops. But these normal scenes are jarringly interrupted by handwritten warning signs. "Danger, do not walk here," written in bright red letters hangs on one school building in a village outside of Sievierodonetsk. Fresh shelling sites from missiles fired by Russian-backed separatists are just a few miles away from the normalcy of small city life.