Day of silence

In the Ukrainian city of Avdeevka , after a week of shelling from the side of Donetsk controlled by the separatists, a lull came. Repair brigades managed to restore the supply of electricity to most areas, as well as to the Avdeevsky Koksochemical Plant, which provides the city with heat. Ukrainian authorities and volunteers summarize the results of a weekly nightmare: from three to eight dead civilians, one dead and three wounded employees of the Ministry of Emergencies, wounded British journalist, more than 170 destroyed and damaged houses, not counting military losses.

On the afternoon of February 2, the British photojournalist Christopher Nann was sitting in the kitchen in a regular apartment of a Soviet -building panel building. On the morning of the same day, along with his acquaintance, who played the role of a translator, as well as a driver named Vladimir Nann, he arrived in Avdeevka, who had been under intensive shelling from 20 kilometers of Donetsk for several days. The Briton got here to transfer medicines to the local hospital, walk around the city, talk with its inhabitants and, of course, take pictures. What happened later, NANN described on his Instagram, in a commentary on a photograph in which the very kitchen was shot:

“The city had lived without electricity and warmth for several days. Artillery shooting was heard on the outskirts, but there was nothing too serious. In the evening we went to visit Elena, good acquaintances, to see how she lives in the current conditions. We had a little snack and drank tea around the kitchen table. Gradually, the sounds of artillery fire were becoming increasingly frequent and were more and closer, as well as, as well as, as well as. The words of Elena, who lived in Avdeevka the whole war, there was nothing unusual in this.

Suddenly, a rocket hit the wall next to the kitchen window (later it turned out that it was a mortar shell. - RS) . At that moment I was already in the bedroom. The explosive wave threw the fragments of the window glass in my face, one of the fragments fell into my left eye. Vova, our driver, was in the corridor and was not injured. Unfortunately, Elena remained in the kitchen. She died of wounds. A few moments before that we sat in the kitchen all together, and if we had lingered there, then everyone would have died. ”

Now Christopher Nunn is recovering in the hospital after surgery to replace the lens in the damaged eye. Elena, the deceased owner of the apartment, became another victim of Avdeevka shelling among civilians.

Evgeny Kaplin , the head of the volunteer project "The Humanitarian Mission" of the Prost and compares the situation in Avdeevka with the events in Debaltsevo in January-February 2015, when, after a long siege by the detachments of the pro-Russian separatists, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were forced to pass the city, which had suffered the largest losses in the so-called "Debaltsevo boiler" . Donbass was the last time that reactive artillery was so massaged, in particular, the reactive systems of the Grad volley fire.

- What is the situation in Avdeevka now? Did the shelling stopped?

- Yesterday it was already a relatively quiet day. Today is also relatively quiet. Rifle weapons, some remote "bangs" in the area of the industrial zone-do not count, in such a situation Avdeevka has been living for 2.5 years. The massive shelling of residential quarters ceased. The supply of electricity to the central part of the city is resumed, about 80 percent. In the old part, which is as close as possible to the industrial zone, there are streets on which the wires simply lie on the asphalt, a huge number of cliffs. I believe that if it is quiet, then the electricians will restore electricity in areas close to the industrial zone for about a week.

- Did you manage to supplies electricity to Koksochim and to the filter station, the de -energization of which led to interruptions with water supply in Donetsk, Makeevka and other settlements of Donbass?

- Yes. Last night, electricity was restored in the places of breaks of power lines, high -voltage lines that spun the city from the side of Donetsk. Before the cliff, these high -voltage lines gave electricity to both the city and the "coke". Yesterday they were restored. The "coke" and the townspeople in the apartments were with the light. Accordingly, Koksochim started at full power and began to produce the heat that is supplied to people in batteries.

Director of the Avdeevsky Koksochemical Plant - on the situation at the enterprise on the morning of February 6:

High -rise houses today - with light and warmth. As for the private sector, the problem is already directly in street electrical systems. The wires are interrupted by fragments, they are on the asphalt, a lot of cliffs of wires inside the quarters. Electricians are working on elimination while silence is standing. In order to support people who live as close as possible to the industrial zone, our humanitarian mission handed over four electric generators to local street committees so that people can use them, for example, to charge mobile phones.

- How many people are left to live on those streets that are closest to the industrial zone, to the front line?

- In total, in the old Avdeevka in the sector adjacent to the industrial zone, about 6 thousand people lived at the beginning of the escalation (January 29. - RS) . Partly on some streets there is electricity, partially - no. Somewhere about 3-3.5 thousand people live in the part where there is no electricity at the moment.

- What information about the dead and wounded civilians do you have? Do you know about the history of the British photographer, who miraculously survived during the shelling, during which the owner of the apartment died, where he was?

- In total, according to official information and according to our data, which she approximately corresponds to her, for the entire escalation in Avdeevka, it is known about three dead citizens and nine wounded, another dead and two wounded employees of the Ministry of Emergencies, as well as this wounded British journalist ( Ukrainian Red Cross on Monday reported eight dead civilians from January 29 - RS ). The woman whose apartment was in the apartment really died. His translator and driver Vladimir remained alive. We were in touch with Vladimir yesterday. He at that moment (moment of the explosion. - RS) was in the corridor, so he was not affected by fragments, although he is now in a very poor psychological state. A mine flew into the wall in the kitchen area. The woman died, and the journalist was injured.

On February 1, during rocket fire from Grad on Krasnoarmeyskaya Street, I saw the body of a woman. She went home, and at that moment a blow from reactive artillery occurred. One rocket fell next to her. Locals asked us to inform the military, to the Ministry of Emergencies, to send a car from the morgue. About three hours the body lay at the intersection of Krasnoarmeyskaya street. This is the second dead woman.

And even a day before, there was another dead peaceful resident. Also, during an artillery strike on the night of February 2, an employee of the Ministry of Emergencies died from a mortar fragment, who was in the area of the heating point at the stadium. He was driving in the car and was killed in place. All day stood an ambulance with a broken window. There were human remains inside the ambulance. Two more employees of the Ministry of Emergencies during this Artudar were injured.

An ambulance in which an employee of the Ministry of Emergencies of Ukraine died:

- How can you evaluate the destruction in Avdeevka as a result of the escalation of the conflict?

- According to official information, as well as according to our data, this is the data received from street committees - as of yesterday evening there was information about 179 residential facilities that received destruction of varying severity. There were residential buildings in which direct hits occurred. They burned. For the most part, people moved from one part of Avdeevka to another. There were houses in which glazing was simply damaged or the roof was damaged. Somewhere about 50 apartments and houses are direct hits. In total 179, plus objects that are damaged by an explosive wave.

- Do people come back to these areas, those who preferred to evacuate at the very beginning, when there were the most intense shelling from Grad?

- Yes, from today, educational institutions have earned, some children who were evacuated to Slavyansk are returning. Some - no. A small number of people left using the state evacuation. A certain number of people left the city on their own on its vehicles. It is very difficult to calculate the number of such families. There are families who return.

- How much, according to your feelings, were the efforts of volunteers and the state to help people in Avdeevka? It feels that during the war, some experience has been gained in this regard?

Two years ago I saw Debaltseve. This time there was less panic

-I would like to say special thanks to the State Emergency Service and Engineering Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which provided generators, armored vehicles for clearing roads, field kitchens, military-civil cooperation service and a number of humanitarian missions, Christian churches that were with people at that moment. Two years ago, I saw Debaltseve, I was evacuated from there. And I can say that this time there were fewer panic. The work of all services and people was much more coordinated, much more coordinated, much more timely. The same heating points, field kitchens that appeared in the city. In Debaltsevoy there were problems with this. There were no heating points there, in principle,. There was only one place in the city where people loaded mobile phones. This time, the state provided a large number of vehicles for evacuation. There were few people who wanted to leave, but the state for its part provided these buses. From Debaltsev, only volunteers evacuated people for more than two weeks. The lessons are made, errors are taken into account, Debaltsev’s experience has been taken into account, so everyone has already come to this escalation more prepared.

- If you look back at this nightmare week, what day was the worst for Avdeevka?

-For me, since the 31st, when I appeared in the city, every day I was heavy in its own way, in its own way difficult. Each day had a little different specificity. If we talk about the 31st, 1st, 2nd number-it was a city standing completely without glass, without electricity, without water, partially without gas. This huge mass of people who came to our field kitchens. These are Emcheees, who prepared hot dinners from morning to night. These are volunteers who brought the products from which these dinners were prepared. Our mission purchased food for field kitchens for four days, there were other humanitarian organizations that helped with products. The 1st and 2nd was cold. We served thousands of people. It is very difficult to calculate the exact number, but somewhere, according to my estimates, up to 10 thousand people passed through field kitchens. Because people simply did not have the opportunity to cook hot dinners. The freezing elderly people from apartments came, in which the temperature was 7-8 degrees. All this was done in the cold. On the street there was a frost minus 19 degrees in the afternoon, at night it reached minus 27, Bachs were heard from different parts of the city. There was a very difficult psychological atmosphere.

Freezing elderly people from apartments came, in which the temperature was 7-8 degrees

If we talk about the 3rd number, then on February 3-4 we focused on the area close to the industrial zone on those elderly people who remained there. They could not even come to the central part of the city to the heating point. For us, these were also very difficult days. Our mission fell under the fire of artillery twice, distributing products in this part of the city. Psychologically, it was also very difficult. The bodies that lay on the streets, broken houses. When you arrive, and just half an hour ago or an hour, a grad shell fell into the house. These are the tears of people. Every day was heavy in its own way, just with different specifics.

- All this week, against the background of reports of the situation in Avdeevka, news about shelling in the Mariupol direction was received. What do your volunteers convey from there?

- Not only in the Mariupol direction. Now our mission covers the entire line of contact in the Donetsk region. Daily messages come from the Svetlodar arc. From the first of February, the situation has aggravated there. Now our employees are addressedly delivering coal provided by the UN Agency for Refugees. On the 1st and 2nd day there was a breakdown of coal along the Svetlodar arc, along the village of Lugansk, which stands on the contact line and stands under the fire of artillery. Every day we had information about 10-15 houses damaged there as a result of shelling. Also on the Svetlodar arc, the village of Renaissance was fired, which is located about 20 km in the rear of the line of contact. It was fired with the use of reactive artillery, a city volley fire systems. There are a number of villages in the Mariupol direction, from which information about shelling from heavy weapons came. The team also worked there, being in the center of all these events. There has been no such massive use of reactive artillery since the escalation of the conflict in Debaltsev. The last time, as I recall, Grads and Hurricanes were so massively used when fighting for Debaltsevo in February 2015. Since then, there were only some single shots from reactive artillery. This is one of the worst types of weapons. Over the past week, it was massively used throughout the demarcation line.

- The Internet flies around a piercing video from Avdeevka, in which a woman with tears in her eyes asks the Ukrainian military to "not take the city." The pro -Russian media together reported that this video is staged, and the woman in the video is a specially instructed official from Mariupol. According to their version, in all Avdeevka there was no person who could say such words that everyone there almost, without exception, support the “DPR”. What are your sensations from communication with local residents?

- This video was shot before my eyes, at a heating point at the Chemist stadium in Avdeevka. It was shot by the military correspondent Anna Dombrovskaya, who was also there all the time and helped to unload help, she brought candles to people. This is not a staged video. Indeed, this woman was. And the fact that now Russian propaganda is trying to say that this is not true ... This is a local resident who came to the heating point. As for people's moods - they are different. We, as a humanitarian organization, do not ask the wounded person, what views he is, but help everyone who needs help. People want peace. Now there is no longer any division into those people who support one side or another. People just want peace. People just want to end it all, finish shooting and the world will quickly come, ”says volunteer Yevgeny Kaplin .

The past day in the conflict zone in the east of Ukraine, according to the official information of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, were the first for a long time for a long time without casualties among the Ukrainian military. In total, more than ten Ukrainian soldiers died during the aggravation of the conflict, dozens were injured. The authorities of the self -proclaimed "Donetsk People’s Republic", who also accuse Ukraine of using "grades" for blows on the residential quarters of Donetsk, also report victims among their fighters and civilians. At the same time, a joint investigation of experts of two independent groups operating from open sources, Bellingcat and Conflict Intelligence Team showed that the separatists, like in previous years, are firing grades and mortars, placing them in residential quarters and next to social infrastructure facilities.

The Ukrainian side and pro-Russian separatists are still radically different versions about who "began the first" and provoked an aggravation of the situation in Avdeevka. The parties blame each other by tradition. The deputy head of the OSCE special mission in Ukraine, Alexander Khug, in a large interview with Ukrainian Pravda, said that neither he nor his subordinates are ready to answer this question. However, according to Hug, the main reason for what happened in Avdeevka is the extreme proximity of the positions of the warring parties to each other in the "Promka" area - the same Avdeevsky industrial zone, which allows the Ukrainian military to shoot a strategically important for the separatists the Donetsk -Gorlovka highway. В разговоре с украинскими журналистами Александр Хуг в очередной раз использовал осторожные формулировки в ответ на вопрос о присутствии в Донбассе российских военных: "В наших отчетах вы можете прочитать о некоторых случаях, когда мы зафиксировали людей, носивших российскую символику. Кроме этого, наши наблюдатели, включая меня самого, встречались с людьми, которые утверждают, что они являются членами подразделений Российской Федерации. Подчеркиваю: именно сами эти люди утверждали, что они являются частью этих подразделений. Наша миссия не уполномочена определять стороны конфликта".