KRAMATORSK – Soldiers fill sandbags to reinforce new trenches along the city’s main entry arteries. For months the Russian front has been about twenty kilometers north and east of the Seversky-Donets River in front of the town of Bakhmut. But if only rockets arrived here in Kramatorsk before the capture of Severodonetsk, even the artillery continued to pound the city for months. The same fate befell the twin town of Slovjansk, a few kilometers away. Militarized cities where there are more uniformed men than civilians in the few shops that are open. “Two days ago two missiles crashed here, Tochka-9 or C-300. A first missile destroyed a school. They think there are soldiers here, but we’re not here,” says a National Guard officer. The school was almost completely destroyed. Amid the rubble, only books and toys remain, including a red plastic tricycle.
The fighter prof
At a certain point in front of the destroyed school, a girl arrives with an electric scooter. Her name is Yulia, she has a red bandana on her head and wears camouflage pants. Much has changed in these six months of war. Before the invasion, she was a computer teacher. Today he is a soldier. A decision made in recent months against the background of terror for the return of separatists to the city «In 2014 I belonged to a minority of students who supported the Maidan revolt, but at that time it was really difficult and risky, for sure to have positions. When the separatists took power, they eliminated all forms of dissent. As a child I spoke Ukrainian and others considered me an inferior human being, as if I was uneducated just because I spoke my language. My mother was born in Smolensk, Russia. And when she was six, she moved here. She also spoke Ukrainian thanks to her teacher who wanted to speak Ukrainian to better integrate with the locals. I, too, thought until recently that a conflict could be avoided and that our two cultures and languages could coexist. But when they started beating up pro-Maidan students in 2014, I took sides. I went to school every morning with a small Ukrainian flag in my backpack. I was afraid to show it because most people didn’t want to take sides. Luckily it took a few months and we were released. But today we are back at the front».
The fight
When the Kramatorsk train station was hit by a Russian missile, leaving more than fifty dead and hundreds injured on the ground, all civilians trying to ride the evacuation trains west, Julia was supposed to serve as a volunteer right next to a green canopy on the first platform. A message from an Italian photographer saves her life. He no longer uses the translator on his phone to reply. He cannot forget what he experienced that day. “I thought I lost everything. I wasn’t working anymore, I wasn’t sleeping and I didn’t want to do anything anymore, then I thought my computer experience might be helpful and I reached out, and my dad with me. I’m on the back burner and started training to be a drone operator, but it’s a very dangerous job. A boy from our battalion was killed by a mortar shell, the Russians had spotted him. Now, with other companions, I’m studying a system to mix up the GPS positions to avoid being identified. I wanted to be useful to my country, to defend it and this is my small contribution ». Julia has decided never to speak Russian again. “For me, who partly has Russian roots, this language has been buried and forgotten.”
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