“The truce must persist”. This is the encouraging conclusion of the meeting, Wednesday at the Elysée, of representatives of the French, German, Russian and Ukrainian governments, who are trying to find a way out of the crisis. For weeks, Westerners have accused Russia of having gathered more than 100,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border, and Moscow is asking for guarantees that its neighbor will not join NATO.
But while diplomacy is at work, in Kiev, residents wait helplessly. Hundreds of portraits accompany passers-by. A few candles in the snow. A screen on which scroll images of the front, of the upturned earth, of the debris. Karina’s gaze, wrapped up in her twenties, is lost in the blue of the wall. “Perhaps this wall will be extended… It is frightening what is happening, the situation which is deteriorating so quickly”, she breathes.
“We have already lost so many lives”
Few of them say they are afraid. Youri repeats that he is living a peaceful retirement, that he does not believe in the possibility of a new war. Then he turns to the faces of the soldiers. “We’ve already lost so many lives… How do you get used to this, to this conflict? It’s impossible. The risk is present all the time.”
The first Ukrainian soldier to be killed by a Russian bullet in 2022: paratrooper Ihor Tychyna. He was shot by a sniper on Dec 27 & died from his injury on New Year’s Day. He was just 20, meaning he’d have been ~13 when the ongoing war in the Donbas began. https://t.co/vuf0gzNiqKpic.twitter.com/IAwOP1bcgr
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 3, 2022
“I am heartbroken,” sighs Aléna on her side. Tears silently flow down the cheeks of the young lawyer who adds. “Obviously it’s even harder to look at this wall at the moment, we are tired. We turned to Europe, we tried to develop democracy, to fight corruption and our attacker never left us alone. . If necessary we will fight until the end”, she assures. Like those, whose smile is frozen in the concrete of the memorial.