SLAVYANSK, Ukraine
The Ukrainian minister of internal affairs said Wednesday that as long as the Kremlin continues to provide separatists with military equipment, the crisis in eastern Ukraine will never end.
The minister, Arsen Avakov, was observing the situation in Donetsk, where the conflict has become intense and daily life has become difficult.
“Today, we provided people with electricity and water,” said Avakov. “People have been living under abnormal conditions for almost three months. The Ukrainian Government is going to do whatever is necessary to meet their needs.”
Avakov held Russia responsible for the growing tension in eastern Ukraine. He said inhabitants of the region do not support the separatists and want to live in normal conditions.
“This conflict is not only between Russia and Ukraine," he said. "Unless the crisis ends soon, it will affect neighboring countries, too. European countries, including Poland, Romania, Moldova and Turkey, should make a decision to decrease the tension that Russia has been increasing.”
Despite Avakov's promise to return conditions to normal, people in significant numbers have started to leave places where the conflict has grown intense as clashes between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army increase in eastern Ukraine -- particularly in cities such as Donetsk and Lugansk, where separatists still hold sway.
Civilians living in these regions have started to abandon their homes. Ukrainians are gathering in designated centers in Donetsk with whatever few belongings they can take with them, and abandoning the city on buses. Aware that the normalization the minister promised may be long in coming, many Ukranians prefer to head for safe cities close to their hometowns.
Long queues of cars were seen on linking roads, especially on Mariupol road, which leads south out of Donetsk to the coastal city of Mariupol.
Civilians in Lugansk are trying to escape the clashes by crossing the Russian border.
At least six civilians were killed Sunday and 10 others injured during clashes in the Lugansk region, according to the Lugansk Municipality press service. Ukraine’s military and pro-Russia separatists have been engaged in constant fighting for more than two months in the country’s eastern provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, where pro-Russia sentiments run high among the ethnic Russian community.
The Ukrainian army has so far managed to retake control of four cities -- Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka, Konstantinovka and Artemovsk -- following clashes.
www.aa.com.tr/en
