One of the sisters is in Russia while the other is in Ukraine. Their tragedy is that, while just a few months ago they could come close and touch each other, they now just stare at each other through the fence. “There is my sister. How are we going to talk? Through the fence?” says Valentina Boldyreva a Milove resident, adding “We are not even allowed to come closer. To pass piece of bread. Even after (a) funeral. They don’t let us to come closer.”
On the map Chertkovo and Milove are part of one village, and the familiar road, Druzhbi Narodiv street, otherwise known as the Friendship of Peoples Street is still there but the name is a misnomer now. Soviet guards patrol the street lending a grim atmosphere to it. Anatoliy Pilipey, a local says, “People from Milove work in Chertkovo, from Chertkovothe – in Milove. So we lived. And now Russians have set up the fence, barbed wire, divided in half the Druzhbi Narodiv street. I don’t know. We feel like little insects.”
People feel suffocated, constrained and they speak of the situation with pain and in a tone of resentment. “Our windows are facing the wire day and night, as if looking out at the prison,” says Valentina.
Vendors along the Friendship road sell their wares even today, only their sales have decreased for customers from the other side of the village cannot buy from them any more. “People used to come to our market from Chertkovo. We used to sell everything. We make our living with this. But now it’s impossible,” laments Luba Korneenko, a market vendor.
The recent standoff between Russia and Ukraine over the seizure of boats has further worsened the situation. About ten days back the Russian coast guard fired upon and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea. In retaliation Ukraine announced that all Russian males aged 16 to 60 will now be barred from entering the country.
The clouds of hostility are hovering over this small divided village too. Residents of both the villages who were once close neighbours or friends and many of whom are relatives are a tense lot these days. They do not know what is going to happen in the coming days. “What’s going on with our world?” Raisa Yakovleva, a local murmurs.
