Fear prevails near line of contact in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region

By Jeyhun Aliyev

MARINKA, Ukraine (AA) - People living near the line of contact in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region are in a constant state of fear as they worry over the safety of their families and close ones.

Andrii Bolbat, 50, who works at a coal mine in Vuhledar, a city in the Donetsk region, told Anadolu Agency he decided after work to visit his house -- which he, his wife and children were recently forced to leave due to intensified shelling -- to fire up the stove for a while to heat the rooms.

"I came from work and wanted to heat up the stove. It was cold outside. I live here in Kurakhove (city). Me and my wife, we don't bring our children to stay in Marinka (another city in the Donetsk region) because the children are small. They are seven and 11 years old," he said.

Noting that "it's dangerous for kids" to live in Marinka due to the shelling, Bolbat said they rented a house in Kurakhove just to feel safer there and he hasn't visited his own house in Marinka for nearly a week.

"I just put coal and firewood in the stove to fire it up and (then) heard a blast. My entrance door opened (from the blast wave), and I went out to check what happened. At that moment, the second explosion happened in my yard, crashing my bath, garage and my car...I felt down and understood what happened.

"My artery was cut in the area of my shoulder. I was alone at home. My godmother, who is also my aunt, lives just two houses away from us. I crawled towards them. I felt like I was about to lose consciousness. They were (hiding) in the house basement (due to the shelling). I could just enter the house and called my godmother. She called me to the basement, but I said that I can't stay anymore and lose consciousness. I was crawling while explosions continued (around)," he added.

Bolbat said his godmother called an ambulance, which arrived quickly and took him to the hospital.

“Later on, I started losing consciousness because I lost a lot of blood due to the totally damaged artery. This is what happened yesterday. I was unconscious and only in the morning came to my senses. I lost nearly two liters of blood," he added.

Sitting on the hospital couch, Bolbat said that two pieces of shrapnel were still lodged in his shoulder and another one in his chest.

"They (doctors) didn't take them out because they said they were stuck in soft tissue and while removing them I may lose blood again. They will take them out later," he said.

Bolbat went on to say that the situation was "much worse" with his arm.

"They put metal sticks on my (left) hand and I don't feel a single finger...Besides everything, I'm lefthanded," he added.

He recalled that before the New Year, there was an escalation of tensions near the borderline, and the shelling had significantly increased since last Thursday.

"I wish everything ends as soon as possible. I think this conflict should be resolved in a peaceful way through diplomacy. Just imagine what would happen if a war starts. How many more civilians will die? People will die, especially people like us, who live near the borderline," he said.

Around 5,000 residents of Marinka were forced to move to Kurakhove alone, he said, adding that before the 2014 Russia-Ukraine war, nearly 25,000 people used to live in Marinka.

"Many people left it. People moved wherever they could go. Just imagine how it is to live here when they constantly shoot. This is not really good.”

- 'Very tense situation'

Larisa Kondratenko, head of investigations at the regional police department in Pokrovsk city, said the situation as a whole is "very tense" now in the region.

"During the week, there was very strong shelling of the city of Krasnohorivka and the city of Marinka," she said, noting that residents of Krasnohorivka have no electricity as a result.

"The shelling is massive, (including) mortar shelling with heavy equipment. Houses get damaged and people get injured," said Kondratenko.

"For eight years, this has been going on. It never totally ended. We used to have wounded military personnel. Most of the wounds were caused by mortars. Lots of them (servicemen) had bullet wounds.

"Well now, in the last week, the shelling has become very aggravated. Very much! From the side of the occupied territory, very heavily populated areas are subjected to shelling," she added.

- 'Miracle'

Alina, 40, a resident of Marinka, whose house was damaged by a shell, said at 5.30 p.m. on Wednesday, there was a shell that fell on her house while her daughter was alone at home.

"I was on my way (home) from work. Shelling caught me on the street…The shell fell right on her room while she was sitting on the sofa. She is 16 years old. It was just a miracle that she got out of there and could reach the basement within seconds," Alina said.

"(Shelling) continues since 2014. The situation became more tense over the past week. It became more intensive. I would like this (conflict) to end. Because at the moment...I have no other place to go," she added.

Alina recalled that they had a house just opposite the current one, but it was bombed in January 2015.

"It's not possible to live there as well. This is our second home. We had a car, and it's also gone. It was stolen a year ago. Now we are left with no car, no house. We have nothing. We have only our children (with us)," she said.

- 'Let us live our lives'

Lyudmila Dorofeyeva, 70, Alina’s mother-in-law, also recalled yesterday's shelling and noted that her home is located just two houses away from the one that was hit.

Upon hearing the bombardment, “I closed the doors of my house, took all my documents and ran to my granddaughter. The poor girl was crying. The shell fell just on her bedroom...Everything was falling apart here. She wanted to run to her grandmother, but it wasn’t possible to open the door, as the roof slate was falling down," she said.

Dorofeyeva emphasized that "the poor girl" then managed to go to the house basement.

"The child is just 16 years old. What do you think? How can she handle it all? Friends, I'm terrified. How can a child handle such a thing psychologically?"

"She, the poor girl, was shaking (from fear) in that basement with the documents in her hands," she added.

"Dear friends, please stop all this nonsense. Let us live our lives. We don't care anymore about ourselves; please let our children live their lives. They want to live, they try to do so.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that Moscow was recognizing the two eastern Ukrainian breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as “independent” states, followed quickly by sending forces to “maintain peace.”

The announcements drew widespread global condemnation as violations of the UN Charter and international law, with Western countries announcing new sanctions on Russia.

In 2014, after invading Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, Moscow began to support separatist forces in eastern Ukraine against the central government, a policy that it has maintained since then. The conflict has taken more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN.

Putin's latest moves follow Russia’s amassing of 100,000 troops and heavy equipment in and around its neighbor, with the US and other Western countries accusing it of setting the stage for an invasion.

Russia has denied that it is preparing an invasion and instead claims that the West has undermined its security through NATO’s expansion toward its borders.