(Novolouganské) A demi-accroupi, le ministre ukrainien de l’Intérieur Denys Monastyrsky court le long de la route jonchée de véhicules abandonnés allant de la ligne de front en direction de la petite ville de Novolouganské, dans l’est du pays.
Mis à jour hier à 16h08
Autour de lui, d’abord un, puis une dizaine d’obus de mortiers se sont soudainement abattus en sifflant.
Plus de peur que de mal au final pour le ministre. L’incident n’a pas fait de blessés et M. Monastyrsky, portant un gilet pare-balle et un casque estimera plus tard que c’était l’armée ukrainienne, et pas lui personnellement, qui était visé.
Ce bombardement témoigne néanmoins de la recrudescence des violences cette semaine dans l’est de l’Ukraine sur fond de crainte d’une invasion russe.
Kiev et les séparatistes soutenus par Moscou s’accusent mutuellement d’envenimer ce conflit qui a fait plus de 14 000 morts en huit ans.
L’armée ukrainienne a fait état de deux soldats tués et quatre autres blessés dans les bombardements samedi, pire bilan quotidien depuis des mois.
L’un d’eux, Anton Sydorov, un capitaine de 35 ans, père de trois enfants, a été tué dans la matinée par un éclat de missile d’artillerie près de la Novolouganské.
« La situation est encore pire qu’hier […] It shoots with prohibited weapons, 152 mm caliber shells fell near the city, “says AFP Andriï, a 26-year-old Ukrainian soldier posted near this locality.
“There are wounded in several battalions. It’s getting hotter and hotter, ”adds the young man. It confirms the government’s position assuring that the army refrains from responding to separatist bombardments unless they are aimed directly at them.
“Peace, Calm, Tranquility”
To get to Novolouganské, 4,000 inhabitants before the start of the conflict, the road is full of potholes, the result of a lack of maintenance. On foot, you have to slalom between the minefields delimited by small posts painted red.
The city, just three kilometers from the separatist positions, is one of those gray areas located in the middle of no man’s landof which only a few inhabitants have not abandoned the decrepit buildings.
“We’re not afraid,” bravado Rouslan, 10, who paces with his German shepherd and a few friends between the damaged stadium and a command center of the Ukrainian army, 50 meters of the.
Manager of a grocery store, Elena Valerievna, in her fifties, is more worried. “It’s been a long time since it had bombed so much,” she says, referring to “very powerful” and “very scary” shots from 8 a.m. in the morning.
While Westerners fear an invasion by Russia, which has massed some 150,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border, Minister Monastyrsky wanted to show journalists the level of preparation of the Ukrainian army by showing them around the trenches.
The Ukrainian authorities also continue to assure that, contrary to the assertions of the separatists and Moscow, no offensive against the rebels is planned.
“We are not afraid. We are ready for all scenarios,” the 41-year-old minister told AFP just minutes before the bombing. “I have the impression that there is not the slightest chance for the enemy here.”
In a hat and down jacket in a temperature close to zero degrees, Elena Valerievna has less hope: “I want it to be peace, calm, tranquility. This is what I want. No war, but that I think is not possible,” she sighs.