Ukrainians in the firing line braced as bombs begin to fall
sides had allowed it to freeze amid the years-long diplomatic deadlock over implementation of the Minsk peace agreements.
Families and communities remained divided and the threat of war was always there.
But for a while it was possible to move back and forth as the line of contact slowly evolved into an unofficial border – and the heavily armed armies dug into opposing river banks tended to control their trigger fingers.
In the meantime, the people of Donbas – whatever their political sympathies – managed to rebuild something like a normal life.
Vladimir Putin has put an end to that. By recognising the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, he has deliberately ripped up the Minsk agreements and set the stage for renewed war.
This time, he seems determined to provoke a conflagration more violent than the catastrophes of the 2014-15 war.
In the south, troops, helicopters, and amphibious landing craft have been amassed in Crimea.
To the east, Russia’s First Guards Tanks Army is drawn up on the
‘How should we know why there has to be another war? That’s all decided by politicians’
border just 25 miles from Kharkiv, one of Ukraine’s most important industrial and cultural centres – and likely to be the first target of a Russian invasion, US officials warned last night.
Then to the north, in Belarus, another force is poised to strike south towards Kyiv itself.
Ukraine has at times seemed painfully slow to respond to the growing threat. But finally, its army seems to be getting ready for serious action.
The Daily Telegraph witnessed tanks and armoured vehicles being unloaded yesterday. Convoys of fighting vehicles and troop trucks have begun to move along the roads – but it still seems woefully inadequate to face the invasion force Mr Putin has amassed across the border.
The people of Donbas know about war.
They know how to prepare their basements with food and water, how to tell when fire is incoming or outgoing, and whether they need to hide or can stand in the street and talk because it is flying in another direction.
What they don’t comprehend is why there has to be another one.
“How should we know about that?” said Svetlana Dunayeva, a pensioner who lives in the block of flats above Andrei’s basement shelter during a pause in the shelling. “We used to be able to travel. But that’s all decided by politicians.”