‘I hear bullets’: Fear grips Ukrainian villages near Russia | Conflict Issues

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Sloyansk, Eastern Ukraine – “I do not want to live any longer,” said Olga, a Ukrainian “babushka” (grandma), as she prepares to celebrate her 89th birthday.

“I will turn 89 on January 2, but I would love to be dead,” he told Al Jazeera, with a headache.

Olga lives in the eastern part of Ukraine, in the town of Marinka, near the Russian border.

It has a government-controlled section, close to the so-called “connecting line”, which divides them into the dividing areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The shooting has been reported here in recent weeks and, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, machine guns and machine guns have been reported around November and December.

Olga can hear shots every night.

“I can’t sleep. The war has been going on for over 7 years. It was quiet, but now, I hear bullets flying over the roof of my house every night. I wish my life were over.”

Olga’s house is surrounded by warning signs of bombers and land mines.

The military allowed Al Jazeera to spend only 20 minutes reporting to the area, based on the dangers.

Marinka students return home after graduation [Sara Cincurova/Al Jazeera]

The war that broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014 has killed more than 14,000 people according to Kyiv and created a major migration problem, leaving the most vulnerable people living in the war zone.

According to Srdan Stojanovic, head of the EU Humanitarian Aid Office in Ukraine, 3.4 million people need humanitarian assistance by 2021.

As the argument continues unresolved, even in the middle high-level discussions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused by Western powers of assembling more than 100,000 troops near the Russian-Ukrainian border.

He says it is Moscow’s right to deploy troops wherever they want on Russian soil and deny allegations of invasion. Russia says NATO is growing in the east and fears an alliance is growing closer to Ukraine.

As cases cross the border from the President’s office, security incidents have grown since November.

On November 13, a 15-year-old girl named Masha * was sleeping at her grandmother’s house in the village of Nevelske – a suburb of the state, when she was awakened by gunfire.

“I also found myself being hit by bullets again, as I did in 2014 when the war started. I felt the same way,” Masha told Al Jazeera.

The whole city was destroyed. No deaths were recorded, but several people, including Masha and her grandmother, were evacuated.

The boy is now living with his family in a neighboring village, several miles away.

But even here, I hear bullets every night. It wakes me up. I come home from school exhausted every morning. ”

School pictures teach children how to avoid mines when they play outside [Sara Cincurova/Al Jazeera]

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Ukraine) told Al Jazeera that living on both sides of the line is a tropical area.

Security incidents were recently reported in three places Al Jazeera visited: Marinka, Nevelske and Pisky.

For Nastya *, 16, a fight near Nevelske reminds her of the horrors of the war.

“I had a sister who was just born in 2014 and I was not only scared of my life, but I was also scared of them,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Now that we hear gunshots and shootings, all the questions come back: Will we survive? Will my little sister survive? ”

Alyona Budagovska, a spokeswoman for People in Need, a leading NGO, told Al Jazeera that at least 54,000 children live 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from government-affected areas.

“Most of the children we help live within 5km (3.1 miles) of connecting line and hear bullets every week or every day,” he said.

“Kids do not feel safe at home or at school. Reaching the underground shelter during a shooting spree also varies from place to place. “

Thousands of children live within 15 miles[15 km]of government-owned areas, according to People in Need, an NGO worker in the area. [Sara Cincurova/Al Jazeera]

In the village of Novomykhaivka, about an hour’s drive from Pervomaiske, people have been bombarded with explosives and bombs.

Katya *, 16, told Al Jazeera that she heard an explosion on December 21 coming from a school where, recently, volunteers painted pictures on the wall to teach young children how to avoid mines playing outside.

Parents live in fear.

Alexandra and Ivan, aged 87 and 89, said that when they heard gunshots, they were “heartbroken”.

They remember the early days of the war when their only son survived a house collision.

Alexandra relates: “We now hear loud bangs from Pisky village because we live on the other side of the same farm.

Their house is near the village of Vodiane, on the junction.

In late November, Pisky was hit by bullets and bullets. Ivan and Alexandra learned of the plot while at home.

They shot at our friends’ houses; they even destroyed their own toilets. People slept all night hiding in the basement. We remembered the day our son almost died, and we were terrified, ”they said.

“We did not study, we survived World War II and the famine in the Soviet Union in 1947. We thought we were not afraid.

But in the meantime, we pray every night before going to bed, and then we pray again in the morning because we are happy that we are alive. ”