Living conditions getting steadily worse as Moscow continues to concentrate its firepower on Ukraine’s east
fter five grimy days on the frontline, Slava Vladimirovich stripped to his underpants and plunged into the gleaming Torets River. A seagull flapped over the water and willow trees. “Life goes on, even in wartime,” Slava said. Wringing out his khaki T-shirt, he added: “In battle there is nowhere to wash.”
For seven weeks now, Moscow’s vast firepower has been concentrated on an eastern theatre in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking industrial heartland. Its army is seeking to conquer Sievierodonetsk. The next targets are the cities of Slavyanask, a one-time spa resort, and the garrison town of Kramatorsk. A terrible battle draws near.
The omens were grim. Might Slavyansk avoid the tragic fate of Mariupol and other Ukrainian urban areas which the Russians had flattened and then overrun? “I believe in our army. I hope there are enough forces,” Pidlisnyi said. “Russia has an imperial complex. Putin thinks he doesn’t have much time left.”
Worst-hit was apartment block number 10, where Vitaly Kolesnichneko was asleep with his wife, Neliya. “We live on the third floor. It was dark. There was a huge explosion. It blew off the bathroom door. I saw yellow and green smoke,” he recalled. He added: “I looked for my wife. She had gone very quiet. She said: ‘My legs, my legs.’”
“The mayor’s office should send a commission to value the damage and help us but they haven’t,” another resident Elena Voitenko said. “And then Russia should pay for all of this. I am ethnic Russian but my homeland is Ukraine.” She added: “I didn’t ask them to come here. My daughter lives in the DNR [Donetsk People’s Republic] and is zombified. We can’t talk any more.
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