TheCable

Residents of Debaltseve who have been on the receiving end of the separatist crisis between both countries say what is going on is worse than the Second World War.

According to CNN, the border town is “totally destroyed”, with residents vacating the town for an underground shelter provided by Ukrainian troops.

Antonina, a resident of Debaltseve, queried how she and her family were expected to live through the crisis, saying: “I wish they can feel like we did and their children, too.”

Government had said earlier that there were no people in the border town, as residents had been vacated to other towns or camps to keep them safe.

Another resident, Zoey, opposed that notion, saying; “The remaining of us here, and remember how they said they were no people in Debaltseve.”

A resident who witnessed the Second World War was quick to say “this is worse” than the Second World War.

The Crimean crisis, as the separatist crisis was dubbed, started in February 2014, after the escape and removal of former Ukrainian president, Vikthor Yanukoyvch, following the Ukrainian revolution.

A day after Yanukoyvch’s escape, the Ukrainian parliament officially removed him from power, appointing an interim President, Oleksandr Turchynov, who formed an interim government.

The interim government was recognised by the United States and the European Union, but was rejected by the Russian government as a government birth from a coup d’état.

On February 26, pro-Russian forces began to occupy strategic positions and infrastructure across the Crimean peninsula, leading to tensions that would be a year old in three days.

In the wake of deepening crisis in 2015, a British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, referred to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, as acting like a “mid-20th century tyrant”.

He added that “the world” would support Ukraine against Russia.