No one will hear us if we scream

PAVLOPIL, UKRAINE- OCTOBER 25: A view of a destryed bridge during the conflict bettwen the Ukrainian army with Pro Russian forces in Pavlopil, Ukraine on October 25, 2019. Photo: Omar Marques

Nataliya compares her current life to that of her grandmother’s story, who was a Polish aristocrat exiled to Siberia. “I am continuing the fate of my late grandmother, by not living in my own home. At least I am here, on the territory of Ukraine, not in a faraway land, but my destiny is the same,” she says. Since she was two years old, Nataliya has lived in Luhansk, today the capital and administrative centre of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic. On May 11th 2014, when pro-Russian separatists held a referendum without the presence of international observers, 96.2 per cent of voters were allegedly in favour of separating from Ukraine and the authorities in Kyiv.

Obviously the pink-haired activist voted against independence, and she had to pay the price. “I was holding a copy of the constitution and arguing with them, stating that the referendum is in violation of it,” she tells me.

Traitor

Nataliya’s strong belief in a united and strong Ukraine is impossible to hide. A wealthy, educated woman before the referendum, she now lives in a small house next to the buffer zone. Days after the referendum, her new life started: “I was forced to flee the ‘country’, otherwise I would have been taken to the basement. The referendum should have been nationwide, with all regions having voted,” she says. For her beliefs she was labelled a traitor by the pro-Kremlin separatists. Since then, she has been forbidden to enter the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic. Days after the 2014 referendum, she fled her home, where she had lived for more than 50 years, leaving behind family pictures and most of her personal belongings. She is unable to access them or even visit family graves, which were walking distance from her former door.

The Donbas conflict has been taking place for over five years now. Some significant steps have been achieved since the implementation of the 2015 Minsk Agreements, and with it the official war might have reached an end. Yet, peace remains elusive.

“All along this street up to the borderline is a grey zone,” Nataliya explains to me. “We are driving here and, show me, where are the police officers? Maybe I just can’t see them?” She laughs as she speaks. Stanytsia Luhanska is possibly the first city fully controlled by the Kyiv authorities along the entire 500 kilometres of the front line dividing Ukraine from the self-proclaimed republics, but civilians still lack a sense of safety. In the last two days of June 2019, the Organisation for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was notified by Ukraine’s foreign ministry and the separatist authorities about a completed disengagement in the agreed disengagement area near Stanytsia Luhanska. Apart from the success of this peaceful transition, a bridge serving as the main connection between Ukraine and the Luhansk People’s Republic is damaged and now under renovation. Crossing the bridge is an everyday routine for thousands of people. They pass through several military checkpoints with their belongings and supplies until they reach their destination.

For the government of Ukraine it is another tick off the list of achievements. On October 1st, the former comedian and current president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, signed an agreement to move forward in implementation of the Minsk Agreements, ultimately ending the conflict in the region. It is colloquially called the Steinmeier Formula. The formula calls for elections to take place in the separatist-held territories under Ukrainian law and the supervision of the OSCE. The formula was voiced but was not put on paper until it was signed on October 1st in Minsk by representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the separatist territories of Luhansk and Donetsk, and the OSCE. However, agreeing to the Steinmeier Formula led to protests by several Ukrainian groups in Kyiv, and civilians in the eastern regions fear Ukraine was being sold to Russia in the long term.

“For the Ukrainian nationalists, this is a defeat, since although neither Donetsk nor Lugansk will be independent, they will have a victory by gaining broad autonomy with their own conditions. What will luckily be a region very similar to Transnistria in Moldova or Abkhazia or South Ossetia in Georgia.

“In short, the formula can bring peace, but at the same time creates uneasiness in Ukraine. Something that President Zelenskyy will have to deal with. If he won’t move forward with the agreements and continues with the conflict, he risks having western partners turn their backs on him; if he moves forward there is a risk of rebellion. It seems that today his intention is to move towards peace despite the internal problems he may have,” writes Pablo Gonzalez, a journalist specialising in international politics and military conflicts in the countries of the former Soviet Union. For Zelenskyy, these steps are a success as his electoral campaign had set a Donbas peace deal (which has left 13,000 people dead) as his number one priority.

Trapped

Ceasefires are regularly broken and heavy weaponry, which is outlawed by the Minsk agreement, is often used by both sides of the contact line, according to weekly reports from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. The buffer zone bordering the unrecognised Donetsk People’s Republic is no exception when it comes to the end of war.

Chermalyk, located 35 kilometres from the sea city Mariupol, is one of the villages located inside the buffer zone. During a “road trip” towards Chermalyk from Mariupol, military checkpoints are a landscape pillar as driving through a highway toll, and the empty agricultural fields are decorated with several military bunkers from old front lines, resembling scenes from a film about the Second World War. Shepherds walk in between damaged buildings with their herds, and abandoned houses are taken by soldiers as they are stationed several kilometres from the contact line.

Elderly people who refused to leave depend on constant assistance from international and local NGOs. Public water points have been created with special filters provided by the NGO Polish Humanitarian Team (Polski Zespół Humanitarny) to diminish the possibility of a tuberculosis crisis. Public heating systems are another issue as most of the infrastructure has been destroyed during the last number of years and being managed by international aid with regular deliveries of coal to the locals.

“We usually pay our medical visits during the mornings since the shelling may start around 4pm,” says a Caritas Ukraine worker to me during my visit. Even with “proper” support from international aid organisations, the buffer zone inhabitants continue to remain trapped in limbo. The shelling may come after 4pm, or not, and who will be there to save them?

“Stability, yes, since that would bring the end of the conflict, in the hot phase, and will begin a peaceful life. Another issue is the quality of that peace and the consequent stability. It will be years before all the displaced can return to their homes on both sides of the front. In any conflict, obtaining a stable peace is the first step in improving the quality of life of local residents,” writes Gonzalez. “Normalisation unlike stability will take time to arrive. Agreements will need to be reached in many areas, something that will be difficult, but the Steinmeir Formula is the first step of a long road.”

The Donbas war has killed thousands of people and displaced millions across Ukraine with more than one million Ukrainians coming to Poland to work and start a new life. However, an end to the conflict is not near, and as Nataliya said during our interview: “No one will hear us if we scream.”

Omar Marques is a freelance photojournalist from northwest Portugal based in Kraków, Poland. He works as a stringer for Getty Images, Anadolu Agency and collaborates with magazines on editorial and commercial assignments between Central/Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Omar’s photographs have been published in New Eastern Europe, The Times, the New York Times, Stern Magazine, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Paris Match, among others.

Donbas, eastern Ukraine, Ukraine, War