Ukrainian activists keep flag waving over separatist-held territories

By Jeyhun Aliyev and Talha Yavuz

SVITLODARSK, Ukraine (AA) - A group of activists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine are doing their best to keep the country's flag waving over the territories currently controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

As part of a campaign started in 2014, the activists in the city of Svitlodarsk in Bakhmut district of Donetsk Oblast tied a flag to helium balloons and floated it across the separatist-held territories.

Recently, Russia amassed thousands of troops near Ukraine's borders, prompting fears it could be planning another military offensive against the former Soviet republic.

The US and its allies have warned of an imminent attack, and threatened Russia with "severe consequences."

Moscow, however, has denied it is preparing to invade Ukraine and said its troops are there for exercises.

- Volunteer campaign

The activists gathered early morning in Svitlodarsk, one of the closest settlements on the contact line between the Ukrainian army and the separatists, to run another volunteer campaign by sending a 645-square-feet Ukrainian flag hanged on helium balloons to the separatist-held territories.

The idea is to show solidarity with Ukrainians living on the other side.

Before floating the flags, the activists check the weather forecast to calculate the wind direction.

"We will get back those lands so that the residents, the Ukrainians, understand that we are waiting for them, we will do everything to ensure that they return home," Vlad Boroda, an activist, told Anadolu Agency.

Although the people living near Donbas are hopeful of their freedom, Boroda said, they also understand that a "huge aggressor country with giant military potential" is against them.

"In principle, we believe in victory. If they go (against us), we will give a befitting response. All the residents here, including pensioners, are ready to take up arms and stand for Ukraine," he said.

Boroda also thanked Turkiye for its stance on Ukraine amid escalation of tensions.

Efforts by world leaders, including Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are ongoing to resolve the row peacefully. Turkiye has offered to host a peace summit between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky.

Boroda also emphasized that they organized a similar campaign with Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar flags near the territories of the illegally annexed Crimea.

In March 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in southern Ukraine in a move labeled illegal by the EU, Turkiye and the UN General Assembly.