Three months of Russian offensive and still no diplomatic solution in sight in Ukraine. For many residents of Donbass, the invasion came as a shock. Report near Druzhkivka, 60,000 inhabitants where RFI met Valentina Sierikova, 90, half of whom worked in factories under the Soviet Union.
of our special correspondents in the region,
She only sees us with one eye. The other was eaten by cataracts. But 90-year-old Valentina Sierikova laughs, happy when visitors burst into her house. The old lady has lived alone since her husband died five years ago. And the departure of his two sons, an eternity ago.
His life was once fulfilled in this industrial region, at the time of the triumphant Soviet Union. In a factory in Druzhkivka, for 43 years, she climbed the ladder one by one.
” When I started, I was a young girl. I worked on tapping machines while pursuing my studies “, tells us the nonagenarian. ” I had a baccalaureate in a technical school and then I started in the department of the chief mechanic as a design engineer before obtaining the position of chief engineer in charge of equipment “, she explains.
In the dining room with antique wooden furniture, Valentina leafs through black and white photos from that era for us, and lets herself be won over by nostalgia. “ I liked my job, I had a good job. Very good. When I worked in a manufacturing room, I was a real Stakhanovist. I got a lot of bonuses », Enthuses the former engineer.
A collapsing world
The war, which has been raging in the region since 2014, had begun to shake up his certainties. With the invasion of Ukraine by the former Russian “Big Brother” last February, the “Babouchka” saw her whole world crumble.
” In 70 years of the USSR, how many Ukrainians have gone to live in Russia? How many Russians in Ukraine? ‘Cause it’s the same people, it’s the same nation “, proclaims the grandmother. ” Imagine having an arm or a leg ripped off, it’s still the same body. Why this war? It’s impossible to understand “, she continues.
► Also to listen: In the Donbass between sequels of the past and fear of the present
Isolated in her pretty house on the edge of Druzhkivka, Valentina Sierikova collects only snippets of information on this strange front which constantly advances and retreats. The distance that separates the Donbass from the capital kyiv seems to fuel the anger of the old lady, an anger against successive Ukrainian governments, all accused of being corrupt.
” I worked for 45 years at the factory and I did not earn enough to have a single car “, denounces Valentina. ” All I did was build a house and raise my children. That’s all. While their own children, at thirty, they have cars, palaces, yachts. Their children are abroad. Why don’t your children study in Ukraine? “, pretends to question the retiree, who still receives her small pension from kyiv.
Fear takes over
Valentina dives back into her photo album, her memories, those of the Soviet Union, an embellished period. On these pictures of the time, her two sons were still close to her. One has lived in Russia for thirty years, the other joined Crimea the year it was annexed by Moscow in 2014. She has not seen them since.
“ Since it started eight years ago, here, it shoots. It shoots constantly. That’s why they’re afraid to come. It’s dangerous, that’s all. My youngest son has a Russian passport, we won’t let him cross the border so easily explains the babushka.
Suddenly Valentina is silent, her face is closed. She said too much. Too much trouble on the rulers in kyiv. Too much good about the legacy of the USSR. With two fingers, she pulls the skin of her neck as if simulating an execution. After the laughter, fear reasserts itself in the little house on the edge of Druzhkivka.
► To read also: in Popasna, in the Donbass, the population is trying to survive