A few kilometers from the hottest front, that of the Donbass, the locals do the stocks. There are one hour queues at petrol stationlong lines at pharmacy and there ATM. Everybody want withdraw cash because the bombing could put power lines out of order and send the counters haywire, but also internet and the telephony. A Severodonetskin that part of Ukraine Southeast trying to resist the Russian advance from Donetsk e Luhansk and where the artillery has hit hard, there is a mixture of anger and desolation. There are those who say ready to fightwho thinks of escape, who takes it out on the world that does not offer concrete help. Of course, no one is ready to welcome the invader with open arms.
“I’m 18 – he explains Andrey – and if they call me I’ll go fight. I don’t understand much about international issues but I am Ukrainian and I will do my duty“. Too many have stereotyped these Donbass populations as pro-Russian, but speaking the language of Moscow does not mean supporting its aggressive policy, on the contrary: “There is only one thing we want and that is peace”, he says Sergey, who looks like a little boy but already has a wife and children. “I don’t know if and when the Russians will arrive here, maybe even soon, and I haven’t decided yet what I will do. Maybe we will move with the family to western Ukraine, but if we stay here we will never be able to familiarize ourselves with those who have decided to invade us. Personally, I am not angry with the Russians, indeed, but with their rulers who have reduced us to these conditions ”.
A woman, Olga, does not like our request for an interview. “Where are you from? Italians? Almost all the newspapers there are pro-Russian and I don’t want to talk. Tell us why no one intervened, because Europe talks and does not help us and the Americans have made promises and have not kept them. It is everyone’s fault that Ukraine is in this state ”. A man perhaps altered by alcohol replies harshly, the lady replies and an altercation ensues. The tension is palpable and the two souls of the Donbass struggle to find a common language, but one thing is evident: the young people are almost all pro-Kiev while those few who openly show sympathy for Putin are the older ones, those who regret that ‘Soviet Union which guaranteed some extra security. Mikhail instead he is the most daring: he indulges in notebooks, amiably shows off his tattoos and his excellent English, he peremptorily maintains that “with the Russians in the house I will never live there and if they arrive here I will go”. Finally, smiling curiously, he asks us who will win the Scudetto in Italy and which team we are cheering for. Even in war there are those who manage to play down.