Standing guard near the destroyed shells of houses in the town that was turned into a makeshift triage point, Sergey peered at the sky and nervously listens to the sounds of artillery fire.
“It’s like Aleppo,” — said Ukrainian soldiers, comparing the plant with the war-torn Syrian city. His unit at that time in the cold and in the freezing rain brings supplies to the point of a medical emergency.
The residents in this important border cities and troops accustomed to daily gunfire and mortar attacks in the three years that have passed since the conflict between Ukrainian troops and enjoying Russian support for the separatists.
But 10 days ago there was a dramatic escalation of this previously hushed, conflict and the city, located just 10 kilometers from the stronghold of the separatists of Donetsk subjected to a powerful bombardment of the “Grad” Russian production and from heavy artillery. Deputy Ukrainian Prime Minister Ivanna klympush-Tsintsadze said Monday that in the area of Avdeevka in the fighting killed 15 Ukrainian soldiers and three civilians. This is the most intense fighting in the East of the country for the last two years.
The beginning of the attacks coincided with a telephone conversation held on 28 January between the Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Donald trump. Because of this, in Ukraine, there are fears that these attacks are part of Russia’s plan to pressure on the new US President so that he made concessions.
Trump in the first days of stay in power mainly remained silent about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, however, the signs that he is ready to cooperate with Putin, became the alarm for Kiev. The new President hints that may lift sanctions against Russia and to agree with the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
An analyst from the Royal Institute of international Affairs Chatham house James Sherr (James Sherr) openly linked the exacerbation of the window with a telephone conversation trump and Putin. “Russian, pre-prepared and all thinking, at this point answered clearly and disproportionately to test the reaction of the West,” he explained.
On Saturday, the us President spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the White house issued a statement in which he noted that the administration would work “with Ukraine, Russia and all other stakeholders to help them in the restoration of peace”.
But in the town inhabitants and the soldiers with the fear of talking about the fact that they are being used as pawns in a big game with a demonstration of military pressure.
“Let trump will come here and see for yourself the huge destruction, to the suffering of our people because of the Russian war against our country”, — says Dmitry soldiers, imploring the West to support Ukraine and to give her necessary, according to him, the weapons, and primarily anti-tank systems “javelin”.
“Does the world about what is happening with us? asks a resident of the Town Folk. — People are dying, suffering. We were shelled. Without heat and electricity we almost froze to death.”
The attack on Avdiyivka again attracted the world’s attention to this prolonged conflict, which has recently disappeared from the media headlines. With the outbreak of hostilities in the East of Ukraine in 2014, it killed almost 10 thousand people. They also point to the failure achieved in 2015, under international mediation of the Minsk peace agreements intended to end the suffering of the people.
In Ukraine, there is anxiety about the fact that a divided group of Western leaders, faced with many challenges from Brexia and sudden victory trump, not enough determination to achieve lasting peace and stop the war raging on the doorstep of the EU.
On Monday, fierce fighting in the town began to decline, but the Ukrainian military and separatists continue to accuse each other of intensifying fighting.
The military commander of the Donetsk national Republic Eduard Baturin said that during the shelling by Ukrainian troops killed two of his militia. In General, the city and nearby areas were shelled 1 229 times, he said. “Fire from the positions of armed forces of Ukraine is not terminated,” Basurin said during a video conference.
Ukrainian authorities do not confirm such statements. But observers from the Organization for security and cooperation in Europe regularly reveal violations, which killed and injured people and destroyed homes on both sides of the front line.
At weekends, the town seemed able to avert a humanitarian crisis. Authorities are trying to restore electricity and the system of public services in the face of continued frosts. Queue that crept up last week at a government soup kitchens today have subsided.
But dozens of residents still crowded together in heated tents, not wanting to return to their homes. Many are asking visiting journalists to tell the world about their plight.
Continuing to serve at the point of triage, Sergei transmits the mocking invitation of the American President to come to the front line and to see everything personally.
“Greetings Trump with this very real war. Please come and visit us, ‘ he says. — I ask you only two things. Tightened sanctions and give us a “Javelin””.
