Irina has been promoted to manager of one of the stores of the supermarket chain where she works, she has rented an apartment for herself, she has gained a little weight, in the afternoons she has free time to take a walk through one of the city ??parks and have a coffee that you love so much in one of the many establishments that operate in Sloviansk. “I know this is temporary,” says the 55-year-old woman who was forced to leave Bakhmut in late autumn 2022 when her house was destroyed and the supermarket closed.
His company moved it to Kostiantínivka, 26 kilometers away and converted into a strategic military center in this area of ??Donetsk province. It was also removed from there as Russian troops pressed towards Chasiv Yar, 19 kilometers away, where the largest Russian campaign is now focused. Today the place where she worked, near the train station, is destroyed. Her old house was also damaged, and the battle is getting closer.
Chasiv Yar is attacked daily, unlike Sloviansk, where although the war is still less than 20 kilometers away, life seems to have regained a strange and uncertain stability, compared to the first months of the large-scale invasion, when much of of the population was evacuated. The battle was less than 8 kilometers away, the streets were empty, the train station abandoned, there was no water in the pipes and the attacks were continuous. As an example, dozens of gardeners now mow the grass and take care of the rose bushes in the parks.
“When I walk through Sloviansk these days, I see the flowering trees and I see how they fix the streets, I can’t stop thinking about what was happening in Bakhmut before the invasion. The city was beautiful. I’m afraid that something like this will happen again,” says Irina with the same smile that has accompanied her since Bakhmut, when we met her. When the power went out, which was very frequent, she ordered tables from the supermarket to be taken out onto the street, and bags with bread and other foods were displayed so that the population had something to eat.
In Sloviansk the panorama is the opposite. The shelves are full and the counters display imported cheeses and hams. The only similarity is that the windows and doors are covered with wooden shelves in case there is an explosion. “I’m thinking that if I have to leave here, let it be to Kyiv, I don’t want this anymore,” says the woman, who like many in these cities in eastern Ukraine fears that the situation could worsen in the coming months.
Vladimir Putin has made it clear that one of Russia’s objectives is to take control of the provinces of Luhansk – almost achieved – and Donetsk. After the capture of Avdiivka in February, the Russians have been advancing very slowly, but still at a pace greater than that of winter. In recent months, Moscow’s army has deployed many more men in the sector to take advantage of the shortage of weapons, ammunition and men in the Ukrainian ranks.
“We kill a lot of Russians, but they keep sending men and we defend ourselves with everything we can, but many times we have to retreat because we don’t have enough,” explained a soldier identified as Nick who fights north of Avdíivka, near the town of Ocherétine. , under Russian control for a few days. The lost look of Nick, who had come to Sloviansk to spend Orthodox Easter with his mother, who had returned from Germany, was the greatest example of the difficult situation they are experiencing on the front. He and other soldiers told how some brigades that had been fighting in the area for some time have been withdrawn, or assimilated by others, due to lack of men. Many of his soldiers have been killed, wounded or exhausted. There are new brigades in the area, but they are just beginning to adapt. “We are waiting for the weapons that the Americans have given us to arrive, that will help stop their advance, but we need men too,” said another 36-year-old soldier who identified himself as Taylor.
In the city’s press center, Valeri Harmash, a businessman who years ago opened a local media, recalled the difficult situations that this city has gone through, which exactly ten years ago, between April 12 and July 5, was controlled by Russian separatist forces supported by Moscow. “Now everything seems calm, but we know that what awaits us can be very difficult,” says Valeri, who puts his finger on the balance of support in the city. “There is everything, but many of those who once looked favorably on Moscow today reject it,” he explains. One of them is Anton, 67 years old, who walks with his dog down the street. He says a bomb should fall on the Kremlin to end his evil. “This way we prevent them from continuing to ruin our lives.”
Inna, 42, says that her 17-year-old daughter and her parents live in occupied territory. “My parents don’t want to leave their house and the Russian authorities won’t let my daughter leave until her mother goes there and gets a Russian passport, something I’m not going to do,” explains this woman who went to live in the west. of Ukraine when the full-scale invasion began. She returned to Donbass when the situation calmed down and now she works in a restaurant in Slovianks. But she is clear that she will leave again if the Russians get close again. Everyone in this area knows that its future depends largely on the battle for control of Chasiv Yar, which so far continues despite pressure from the Russian army.
