REPORTING. Crisis Ukraine – Russia: “Last week, the school and a house right next to it were affected”, the fragile armistice in “grey zone”

Faced with the situation in Ukraine, United States President Joe Biden has urged American nationals to leave the country. On the Russian side, Moscow does not see any notable diplomatic progress and continues to threaten the Ukrainian borders by massing tens of thousands of soldiers and heavy weapons.

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If the war in the Donbass has been officially frozen since 2015, daily life in the villages located on the front line remains difficult. The 350 inhabitants of Pavlopol, a village located near Mariupol, in the south-east of Ukraine, cohabit with the army in a “grey zone”, very close to Russia and the pro-Russian separatist region.

The front line is a few kilometers away and the soldiers, installed in the houses abandoned by the villagers, outnumber the inhabitants.

The whole sector is under the control of the Ukrainian army, because on the other side of the checkpoint, you are already entering rebel territory. “There is no life heresays Zoya. Sometimes there are still attacks: for example last week, the school and a house right next to it were hit.”

The pressure is enormous. Before I was pretty strong, except that there I lost my brother and my husband. My brother because of the Covid and my husband, it was his heart that could not bear this stress.

Zoya, resident of Pavlopol

at franceinfo

“I also suffer from it: as soon as there are attacks, my whole body shakes, it’s very difficult”, says the 74-year-old lady. All she wants is to find peace and health.

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For eight years, the psychological damage to the population has been deeper and deeper. Yulia Ostrovska is a volunteer psychologist in an association that provides support to the inhabitants of Pavlopol and observes a form of acute stress in her patients every day.

“People live with permanent psychological pressure, since war is at their doorstep and the shooting can resume at any time. Here it is one of the essential needs of man that is called into question: sense of security.”

Yulia Ostrovska, psychologist

at franceinfo

In the small building of the Pavlopol rural council, the chief Sergei Chapkin explains how he took the opposite view of this difficult situation for several years. The rural council has took the initiative to enter into direct contact with the military forces of both sides since June 2017 to implement the “wheat armistice”, a form of diplomacy at the local level.

“We even drafted the agreement and it worked! At harvest time, there is no more military action and the wheat fields no longer burn.”

Sergei Chapkin, head of the Pavlopol rural council

at franceinfo

“That’s why it would be more logical to organize the negotiation meetings in Normandy format, not in Paris or Berlin, but rather here on our land!”, he adds. But not all residents necessarily see Russia as the enemy, as a villager convinced that Vladimir Putin will never attack. “his Slavic brothers”.