Raste strah u Donetsk regionu
Rusinjski prodor dublje u Donetsk region ostavlja posledice: Kostiantynivka je bez pouzdanih snabdevanja strujom, vodom i gasom, granatiranje je učestalo, a dronovi preplavljuju nebo. Civili beže iz grada koji je postao nepodnošljiv, dok Kramatorsk, svega 25 kilometara severno, još pokazuje znake života — restorani i kafići rade, ulice su uglavnom sačuvane, ali je grad pod velikim vojnim pritiskom.
Priče iz Kostiantynivke
Stanovnici opisuju grad kao razrušen: “(Donetsk) region has been trampled, torn apart, turned into dust,” said Natalia Ivanova, a žena u sedamdesetima koja je pobegla nakon raketnog udara. Putin “will go all the way ... I’m sure of it. I have no doubt more cities will be destroyed.” Ivanova je navela: “They was always shooting,” Ivanova said. “You’d be standing there … and all you’d hear was the whistle of shells.” Iako je oduvek izdržavala, morala je da napusti dom: “I never thought I’d leave,” she added. “I was a stolid soldier, holding on. I’m a pensioner and it (the home) was my comfort zone.”
Njena molba svetkim liderima bila je jasna: “Please, stop it,” she pleaded. “It’s the poorest people who suffer the most. This war is senseless and stupid. We’re dying like animals — by the dozens.”
Kramatorsk: privid normalnosti
Mnogi iz Kostiantynivke su našli utočište u Kramatorsku. “We’re used to life in Donetsk region. We feel good here. Kramatorsk is familiar. A lot of people from our city moved here — even local municipal workers,” said Olena Voronkova. Nada bleđi: “At first there was hope that maybe some homes would survive — that people might go back,” she said. “Now we see it’s unlikely anyone has anything left. The city is turning into another Bakhmut, Toretsk or Avdiivka. Everything is being destroyed.”
Mlada Daria Horlova opisuje strah ali i način da se živi danas: “It’s still terrifying — when something’s flying overhead or strikes nearby, especially when it hits the city,” the 18-year-old said. “You want to cry, but there are no emotions left. No strength.”
