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In this small border village, the 2014 war has already wreaked havoc and left an indelible memory for the inhabitants, who fear to find themselves again in the middle of an armed conflict.
Alexandrovsky, a village on the front line. “There is one last checkpoint and then it’s Ukraine”, explains Nicolaï Pelir who lives on the pro-Russian side, in the self-proclaimed people’s republic of Donetsk. Its roof was partly destroyed at the height of the fighting in 2014-2015: “It landed in the roof and destroyed all the windows”. Since then, no more heavy weapon fire, but regular automatic weapon fire.
“In the vegetable garden, there are military shelters. If it starts we will run away. I just hope they don’t use heavy weapons”, he continues. Here, it is not the Russian army that is feared, but a Ukrainian attack. Sergeï Andrievski was in his garden when a bullet lodged in his arm. If the scar is almost invisible, the pain is present because the bullet is still inside: “I can only lie on my back and on my right side. When you live in a place like this it can start at any time”.