B92 in Ukrainian village "destroyed by everyone"

B92 in Ukrainian village "destroyed by everyone"

Meanwhile, residents of the village of Stepanovka, one of the showdowns of the conflict before the ceasefire agreement, are attempting to resume living in their homes.

Last summer, 22 out of the village's 155 houses were destroyed during the fighting. The village of Stepanovka - or what is left of it - is located on the edges of the Donetsk region, near the border with Russia.

During the summer it changed hands between the warring sides - the Ukrainian army and the rebels - to become a stronghold of the former in late July. It was fiercely attacked and defended, and neither side spared it. During the same period, the small settlement lost 12of its inhabitants.

"Here lies my neighbor Lyosha. We should bury him again in the cemetery," villager Aleksei Pavlyuk showed our reported. Those who did not leave during the several months that the village was the frontline, hid in basements and sheds.

The greatest damage was done to Stepanovka on August 11, as the Ukrainian army lost control of it during a rebel offensive when heavy shelling was deployed.

"This is what they targeted us with. Here's a shell," Pavyuk says, holding a remnant of a shell that hit the village. November is bitterly cold here. The wind blows without respite. People are salvaging what they can from their ruined homes and yards, preparing for the winter.

"There was war here, and everything burned, including the coal shed. They promised we'd get coal for heating. But nobody's yet given us anything. The winter's coming. What should we do?," said an elderly woman that the B92 crew came across in a destroyed house. Much of the village has no electricity. The new authorities, those of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, are working to repair the grid - but that is just part of the problem.

Kiev has not been paying pensions to the citizens in the rebel-held territories for months now.

"It will be as God give us. I cannot swear on anyone anymore. We have been brought to a situation where we don't know who will rule, who will manage, who will pay our pensions," an elderly woman says. In order to receive pensions, welfare, and soon their salaries, residents in the rebel-held territories will have to register as displaced persons "somewhere outside" the territory of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic."

It is unclear who will pay compensation for their lost homes, and where they will spend the winter. In the meantime, the constant violations of the ceasefire suggest that perhaps the trouble is not over, and that new clashes could be on the horizon.