AUDE OSNOWYCZ
UKRAINE | A YOUTH BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE
Ukraine is in the throes of an endless conflict between the Donbas territories and the government in Kyiv. Despite the ceasefire agreements, the war continues and is bogged down, profoundly transforming the whole of Ukrainian society and, above all, the youth.
"It is over 38° C on this Sunday in August in Donetsk, the streets are empty, a few kilometers away, it's the front line, sporadic detentions. nothing abnormal, it's routine here!" So explains Oleg, an impressive man in his forties, a former mercenary who once fought in Chechnya and Afghanistan. Oleg takes us to the scene of a "military game," a life-size war game around Donetsk. "Today, we will imitate the war in Syria!" He exclaims. We get into a military truck with a dozen pre-teens or young adults, five other trucks follow us, in all about sixty young people who have come like every Sunday to "play" at war, which has ravaged the region for four years. Running a whole day under the scorching sun, two teams will compete against each other by simulating scenarios inspired by military operations. They will be equipped with very similar replicas of real weapons, which shoot harmless balls 6 to 8 mm in diameter made of plastic or corn starch.
Players are outfitted head to toe with military gear and even use a real tank. They will play to hide behind the thickets, to fight against an enemy who wants to seize the area.
For the exercise, Sergei, just 18 years old and fully dressed in a camouflage suit, is one of the enemy troops: "We go inside buildings as if we were another army. Sometimes we trap them." These military games are sponsored and funded by the Ministry of Defense of the Donetsk People's Republic, but behind these games lies another reality, a real enlistment of the youth of the separatist province. Because the war in Donbas today is, above all, a war of minds, a war of propaganda, the conflict itself has become more of trench warfare where major offensives are rare.