Eastern Ukraine: What Was Left of the Armistice

A year ago today, a new ceasefire was agreed for eastern Ukraine. High hopes were placed in him and he actually lasted longer than the previous ones. But the guns have not been silent for a long time.

In the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, it becomes clear what is meant when a “difficult humanitarian situation” is mentioned on the diplomatic floor. Here abstract figures, such as the violations of the armistice listed by international observers, are given a story and a face.

Like that of 13-year-old Daniil, who lives in Krasnohorivka, a small town on the front line. He spent half his life in the war and learned early on never to shorten the way to school across a field: “You are always afraid that you will get caught in a booby trap or step on a mine or an unexploded gun.” Daniil is someone who knows exactly what to do when shots are fired. And there is again a lot of shooting in the city not far from Donetsk.

It started again a few months ago, says Olexij. Explosions and gunfire – during the day, but especially at night. “The fear is dulled. But when bullets go over our house, it’s terrible,” he says.

Bullets are flying again

The hospital was only recently hit. The traces of the impacts can be clearly seen on the house wall. Windows broke, trees were literally blown away. There are destroyed houses and destroyed infrastructure on both sides.

“2,200,000 square meters of street were destroyed,” reported Ivan Prichodko, head of administration of the city of Gorlivka in the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic, recently on Russian state television. The conflict has claimed 46 deaths on the Ukrainian side since the ceasefire began. According to official figures, 22 deaths in the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk this year alone. More than 100 people were injured. Heavy weapons are back in action.

Little hope of the end of the war

“Unfortunately, war is part of everyday life,” says psychologist Olexij Geljuch. And the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk also called for things to be called by their names. You can no longer pretend that the ceasefire still exists, he says. But the current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj is sticking to it – in the hope that it will prevent worse. That the war does not break out again in full.

It is a war that, according to the United Nations, has claimed more than 13,000 lives in the past seven years. For whom there is indeed a peace plan, the implementation of which did not progress even when the ceasefire actually lasted for some time and in which hardly anyone on the ground believes anymore. Like this resident: “The people have come to terms with the fact that we will no longer experience peace.”

The OSCE Special Representative in Ukraine, Heidi Grau, believes that only one thing is needed to take a first step forward: the political will of the conflicting parties.