People live in half-destroyed houses next to shells on Donetsk outskirts, on the territory which is controlled by Ukraine

We arrived in Maryinka on July 18. Almost all fences and gates are damaged by shells and bullets. Thin rays of sun go through holes in metal. This is a usual picture here. We leave the residential area and go towards the centre past a shelled police department. First multi-story building appear on our way, a lot of windows are hammered with yellow plywood.



“Do many people still live here?”

“Yes, people live almost everywhere. At the beginning of the war, a lot of families left for some time, but then they run out of money and returned. In Kurakhove, for example (a neighbouring town), the worst flat costs two thousand hryvnyas a month now. People have no way out. They returned and had to adapt to the life here. We must live.”

My guide here is an eighteen-year-old guy. When first battles for Maryinka started in the summer of 2014, he was a school-leaver.



We walk along half-destroyed streets. People still live here. There are seniors discussing something near multy-story buildings. There is light in some windows which have not been broken. There is also a poster in half-communist style showing some celebration in Maryinka before the war.

“This is how Maryinka used to live before the hostilities broke out”, says my companion.

We go past a three-story building which is totally burnt and destroyed. On its corner, near collapsed balconies and soot-blackened windows one can see an inscription: “What for?”

A flat on the corner of the next five-story building was totally destroyed by a shell. A family died here. The woman’s corpse was found at once, but the man’s remains were found only in two years’ time. People still live in another part of the house.

There is a big sports ground with an artificial lawn near a school. Several children play there. A big shell crater can be seen practically in the middle of the pitch, it was hastily covered with some building materials.

“A “Grad” shell hit the pitch. There was a pit nearly one metre deep.” There are a lot of inscriptions made in black paint here as well. “Take me to my spring, to a field full of flowers. Take me there so that I shall never see war and grief.”

There is a big hole in the water tower.

“Something hit the tower but did not explode.”

“Is it still inside?”

“Yes, possibly.”

We go back to the residential area in the twilight. Skirmishes burst out on the outskirts of the village and gradually grow more intense. A man with a bucket of apricots is riding a bike along the road.

“Beware, the fun is starting."

First salvos follow the small arms on the outskirts. The dark sky is cut by bright-red tracers.

“We should wait a little now. They will calm down after some time”, says my guide.

We enter a local bar. A young girl-bartender curses and weeps as she pours beer to clients who drink it on the credit. When the evening cannonade starts, the bar is fool of loyal customers. Its owner says that recently all the windows of his flat were broken by a blast wave. He is not going to replace them.

“What for? By the way, a local newspaper has written that there is not a single house whose windows have not been broken in Maryinka”, says the man with sad sarcasm.

When the skirmishes calm down for a while we finally go back. It is already completely dark.

“Goodnight. Let’s hope it will be quiet. And we’ll see how it goes.”

Maryinka is one more locality which is situated in the “grey zone” according to Minsk Agreements. The town has been controlled by either “DPR” or Ukraine several times since the beginning of the war.

Maryinka has been shelled many times, residential houses have been destroyed or damaged.
The infrastructure of the town is half-destroyed. There is no gas and there are problems with water supply.

At the end of 2015 there were two schools working in the town. The court and the police department were relocated to neighbouring Kurakhove. There is a military and civil administration in Maryinka. The Ukrainian Armed Forces positions are located in the town as well and some servicemen live in abandoned houses. The distance between Ukrainian and militants’ positions is very short.
Sometimes Ukrainian servicemen have to return fire, but they say they use only the weapons which are not banned by the Minsk Agreements.

As any other “grey zone” locality, there are a lot of stray cats and dogs in the town. Very often they live close to the positions of Ukrainian servicemen.

The town and the entrance-exit checkpoint situated near it are regularly shelled by militants.

Volodymyr Shederega. Novy Region.

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