Residents return to Donetsk in anticipation of possible ceasefire, but Mariupol remains on alert
- 10 years ago
A checkpoint near the eastern Ukrainian rebel-stronghold, Donetsk.
Families who had had fled the city are now starting to come back...hoping for, even anticipating, a possible ceasefire after five months of war.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) DONETSK RESIDENTS, TATIANA VIKTOROVNA AND HER HUSBAND VALERY, SAYING:
"We are tired of wandering about. We want to go home. We want to live home. It is getting colder and we have no clothes."
Pro-Russian separatists want to break away and join neighboring Russia, which Ukraine and the West believes is funding the rebels.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a roadmap to end the violence and peace talks are scheduled for Friday in Minsk.
But diplomatic exchanges this week between Moscow and Ukraine's central government in Kiev had no immediate impact on the ground, with government forces shelling the outskirts of Donetsk overnight.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SELF-PROCLAIMED DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC MILITIA OFFICER,
Families who had had fled the city are now starting to come back...hoping for, even anticipating, a possible ceasefire after five months of war.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) DONETSK RESIDENTS, TATIANA VIKTOROVNA AND HER HUSBAND VALERY, SAYING:
"We are tired of wandering about. We want to go home. We want to live home. It is getting colder and we have no clothes."
Pro-Russian separatists want to break away and join neighboring Russia, which Ukraine and the West believes is funding the rebels.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a roadmap to end the violence and peace talks are scheduled for Friday in Minsk.
But diplomatic exchanges this week between Moscow and Ukraine's central government in Kiev had no immediate impact on the ground, with government forces shelling the outskirts of Donetsk overnight.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SELF-PROCLAIMED DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC MILITIA OFFICER,