The road from Luhansk Oblast to the vicinity of the city of Kharkiv looked like a scene from Dante's inferno. We passed a private vehicle damaged by indiscriminate shelling by pro-Russian separatists. Rescue workers treated a man who was lying sprawled next to the old car. Miles ahead, we will discover the thick smoke rising from the bombed-out airport of the city of Kharkiv, which was hit by an air strike and cruise missiles.
The smell of charred fuel filled the air.
On the way if the Ukrainian army is prepared to face the threat, like David versus Goliath, only without the feeling that a miracle is going to happen.
Our car stopped a few feet next to a Grad missile battery preparing to launch.
Near a nearby interchange, a launch vehicle of anti-aircraft missiles passed us on the way to a new location, in order to avoid detection and destruction.
While the depressing news of the opening shots in Europe's new war is being collected for our mobile phones, the sad sight of civilians trying to escape the battles will be revealed from all sides.
Documentation of the destruction in Ukraine from the Russian attacks
At the gas stations, hundreds of civilians gathered in a last-ditch attempt to get gas, before supplies ran out.
Queues were also seen near the containers and ATMs in the area.
Worried faces wrinkled on all sides. In the town of Andreyevka in eastern Ukraine, citizens stood in a long line to use the only ATM in the town and buy groceries in the small supermarket.
"Everything is so scary, but we have to take care of ourselves. Our army will do anything to keep us safe. I want the world to look and see what has happened to us, it can happen to any country," said Louisa, an elderly resident of the town waiting in line to buy groceries.
Huge damage, abandoned buildings
The roads in the eastern Ukrainian province of Luhansk clearly illustrate the eight tragic years that have passed over the Donbass region, the center of friction between Ukraine and Russia.
The signs of the tank chains are noticeable on the asphalt, and along the road are cluttered homes damaged by fighting, abandoned buildings and the homes of residents who refuse to leave, and continue a grinding life routine in the shadow of the threat of war. A third of the province and established a "People's Republic", a political entity not recognized by the countries of the world other than Russia, which recognized it this week in a defiant move towards the West.
Sverdonetsk, home to 100,000 people and one of the largest population centers in the province, looks at first glance like many cities in the former Soviet space, but very soon the signs of proximity to the front line are revealed.
The city, which was occupied for a month by separatists when the uprising against Kiev's rule broke out in 2014, suffers from all the familiar problems that characterize a conflict zone - bad roads, a constant shortage of all kinds of products, especially fuel, and a tense atmosphere. Day, in a city just tens of miles from the battle line.
Citizens of Kiev leave the city, Photo: Reuters
But while life in Sverdonetsk continues on some kind of routine, albeit difficult and tense - not far from it, in the village of Novotoskivska, the everyday reality is so different from the rest of the country that surrounds it, that its inhabitants feel they exist on another plane, isolated and detached.
This is due to the fact that the front line between the Ukrainian government forces, which control the place, and the pro-Russian separatists, passes right through the village, and only a few minefields separate it from the no-man's land.
The fighting itself breaks out a few hours after visiting the village.
Daria Sprigina, an English teacher at the local school, was evacuated from the village and settled in a nearby town.
In a phone call, she recounts the messages she received from those who chose to stay and absorbed the anger of the Russian uproar.
"From five in the morning they did not stop shelling. There is no electricity, no water and no way out of the village. Everyone was in the shelter, so in the meantime no one was hurt, but the damage to the village is huge. It's heartbreaking. Anxiety about my friends, my country, I pray to God to make peace, "says Sprigina.
The village of Novotuszkiewska was established during the USSR as a thriving mining town, inhabited by almost 3,000 people. A separatist uprising broke out, and the village became a battleground between the Ukrainian army and separatists.In the civil war that has since erupted, the village has become a front stronghold, with large Ukrainian army forces stationed in the village, with occasional small arms and artillery fire causing further destruction and damage in the battered settlement.
Damage to the Chuhuib area, Photo: ARIS MESSINIS
School as the center of life
"The bombing and shooting, along with the distance from any other settlement, made life in Novotoshkivska a real challenge. Many apartment buildings are abandoned, the water flow is insufficient, and water has to be brought from streams in nearby fields, where there are mines, and sometimes shooting," said Oksana Quintseva. Volunteer program and lived there for more than a month.
"There are two shops here. In one there is almost nothing to buy, and the other is too expensive. There is one pharmacy here with very little medicine, and everything the pharmacist has to order, and it takes him many days to arrive. No post office, no clothing store, no restaurant or house "Coffee, and nowhere for cultural events or entertainment. There was a bus to the village twice a day - but it was also canceled. No driver is willing to come here because of the shooting," she says sadly.
In the absence of almost any kind of entertainment or distraction from the difficult situation, the residents of the isolated village find creative solutions.
A one-eyed fetus could see groups of older women walking fast down the street, as if they were on their way somewhere.
But this walking circle is basically a kind of social activity.
The women surround the village area as they converse, and each proudly declares how many rounds around the village she managed to make that afternoon.
Also, the community shelter located under the school has also become a kind of community center.
"On evenings when the separatists shoot, the residents gather in a shelter, strangely painted in bright pink - perhaps to cheer up the locals - and cook together, eat, watch a movie and somehow, right there, manage to relax," says Quintseva.
It is no coincidence that the school's shelter has become a center for the villagers.
The school, under the scepter of Principal Milena, who was appointed to the post in 2014 after being promoted to the ranks of separatists, has become the balance point for the entire village.
The building, which was completely destroyed during the fighting in 2014, has since been renovated, and thanks to funds from the EU and donor countries today holds modern facilities, cozy classrooms, a well-equipped shelter and even a gym.
Loads at a gas station in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, Photo: AP
About 60 children of all ages study there, and the school is also the largest place of employment in the village.
"The children and boys there have almost nothing to do. There are no classes, no sports field, no youth activities, school is everything they have in the world," says Sprigina.
She fell in love with the place after she came to it by chance in 2016, for a singing concert designed to lift the spirits of the residents.
"I came to sing, and immediately after the performance the principal, Milena, approached me and told me that she knew I was an English teacher, and that they must have an English teacher, because otherwise no child here would learn the language. I agreed immediately, It was the most beautiful time of my life, "she says in the small apartment she received from a charity where she volunteers.
Sprigina has set up a volleyball club for boys and girls living in the village.
In fact, it is one of the first activities for youth since the outbreak of the Civil War.
"The children are so introverted and hurt that they do not say hello to each other outside of school. There is no psychological service to help them, and sports are one of the few ways to reach them. It is amazing to see how they open up slowly, both to me and to each other," she says. The young teacher, her eyes shining.
"There is nowhere to go"
The sense of community that the school brought to the village, which had almost lost hope, helped prevent many families from leaving the place.
This - until the current wave of tensions came.
This week a separatist shell hit the power line, and the place was cut off from the power supply.
In the freezing Ukrainian winter, residents are forced to rake in coal to heat their homes.
"The power company and local authorities are not willing to risk their workers in order to fix the power line," Sprigina says in despair.
Destruction in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Photo: IPI
Now that almost all the surrounding villages have been shelled during the escalation, many families are losing hope and leaving.
Some of the students of the school were sent to relatives in western Ukraine, others live with their families in hotels in nearby Sverdansk.
"They have no money to pay for the expensive hotels, but they also have no other place to go, it is heartbreaking," says Sprigina, who hosts some of her students who were forced to move out of the village.
The struggle of the inhabitants of Novotushkivska to survive in the shadow of impossible conditions is, in a sense, the story of Ukraine as a country.
While the Russian threat to the political independence of the neighbor to the west is growing, as the residents of the small village are pushed to the edge, it seems that the whole country is running out of choices.
One can only hope, for the residents of Novochkivskaya and the whole of Ukraine, that against all odds - common sense will prevail, and less tense days will indeed come.
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