More than 200 settlements, where about one and a half million people lived before the war, are on the so-called “contact line”, which has decreased since the June, 2014, from 500 to 350 kilometers. Population of front line territories decreased three times because of military operations – crowds of people were leaving settlements in the crossfire zone.
Lisichansk. Luhansk region
“The shelling has started, everyone hid in a basement, and when this thunder started we tried to protect each other. And then it started again. 3 or 4 times overall… We were in shock… If only someone would have helped…”
Life of those people, who couldn’t or didn’t want to leave, was very difficult.
Debaltsevo. Donetsk region
“We have nowhere to go. Do you not understand? We have nothing to get out of here on. There were people here and, thank God, they are still alive. We have two children, they stayed with us, we don’t know where to go. Both of us stayed here until we could, because our jobs are here”.
– Why do you cook outside?
– We have neither heating, nor electricity for 5 days already.
– Would you leave if the opportunity will arise?
– Scared, huh? wwe live like that every day.
Dozens, sometimes hundreds of mines, shells or missiles have been falling on those cities and villages every night. They destroyed residential houses and infrastructure.
Mariupol. Donetsk region
“It hit in the pharmacy store. People died there”.
Sometimes it was impossible to restore damaged communications under continuous fire and thousands of people have had no electricity, water or gas supply for months. Somewhere water or gas supply hasn’t been restored until now, even after a month and a half of reconciliation.
Mykolaivka. Donetsk region
Artillery fire wounded and killed people every day.
Sartana. Donetsk region.
According to the UN more than 8 thousand people died and 17 thousand civilians were wounded in the military conflict.
Hospital in Artemovsk. Donetsk region
“The shell went through, her mouth was full of blood. She can’t hear on this side.
– A mine exploded.
– Where were you?
– I was at home…
Stakhanovets. Luhansk region
A woman got killed just outside her house by shrapnel. She couldn’t make it to a hospital. Hundreds of thousands of people had to hide in basements without basic comforts.
Lisichansk. Luhansk region.
“People started to come down after shellings started. We slept here. And here are our tables. We had electricity here. I’ve instructed people. We were near this wall during all the shellings, because they fire from there”.
Local self-administration and state administration in the most part of those cities were paralyzed and couldn’t ensure even basic people’s needs: during military confrontation many settlements were not supplied by food, meds; there was no public transport; ambulance carriages and fire fighters, police and utility services were not working.
Debaltsevo. Donetsk region
Wounded and dead people were not counted – dead people were buried by neighbors and relatives right in courtyards.
Dozens settlements couldn’t recover from consequences of the war even after the ceasefire – infrastructure objects are not restored there, just as residential houses and enterprises. Administrations don’t work there, residents don’t return there as well.
Stakhanovets. Luhansk region
About 2 billion US dollars and several years are needed for restoration, according to some calculations.
Debaltsevo. Donetsk region
Ukraine doesn’t have resources to resolve this problem on its own.