Comment on Ukraine village hopes for chance to rebuild

Ukraine village hopes for chance to rebuild

Renovated and brightly decorated with money provided by German donors, its classrooms were opening the doors of education to 120 pupils at a time. Widespread, indiscriminate rocket attacks destroyed the school, many homes and the local hospital. Novosvitlivka's great misfortune was to lie next to a highway used by separatist rebels to supply their stronghold in the city of Luhansk. A cease-fire of sorts has taken partial effect in eastern Ukraine, offering some respite in an increasingly bitter conflict between pro-Russian separatists and government forces. Dozens of people at a time took refuge in the dank basement of the local kindergarten, a sturdy Soviet-era brick edifice. Sitting outside the kindergarten, Shevchenko's colleagues grumbled that rebel fighters told them to find other premises to teach the children, but suitable spaces are hard to find on the ground of this ravaged village. At a checkpoint outside the church, a rebel fighter was collecting damaged but unexploded grenades left behind by fighters with the volunteer pro-government Aidar Battalion. The remains of charred tanks parked behind defensive mounds of earth indicated that Ukrainian armed forces were using a spot right by the hospital as a checkpoint. "The military command did everything it could to ensure the artillery strikes did not hit the hospital," he said, while brandishing an automatic rifle.

 

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