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Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect identities.
Slovyansk, Eastern Ukraine – “I don’t want to live any longer,” says Olga, a Ukrainian “babushka” (grandmother) as she prepares to celebrate her 89th birthday.
“I will turn 89 on January 2, but I would rather be dead,” he told Al Jazeera, wrapping a traditional headscarf over his head.
Olga lives on the eastern front line of Ukraine, in the village of Marinka, near the Russian border.
It is a government-controlled territory close to the “line of contact” that separates it from the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
They have reported shootings here in recent weeks and, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, have documented machine gun fire and mortar fire in November and December in November and December.
Olga hears gunshots every night.
“I can’t sleep. The war has been going on for more than seven years. It calmed down, but now I hear bullets flying over my house every night. I wish my life was over.”
Olga’s house is surrounded by signs warning of snipers and mines.
The military gave Al Jazeera only 20 minutes to report to the area, given the danger.
Marinka school children go home after school [Sara Cincurova/Al Jazeera]The war that erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 has killed more than 14,000 people, according to Kyiv, and has caused a huge displacement crisis, leaving only the most vulnerable in the war zone.
According to Srdan Stojanovic, head of the EU’s EU Humanitarian Aid Office, 3.4 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021.
The conflict continues unabated, even in the middle high-level lecturesRussian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of gathering more than 100,000 troops near the Russian border with Ukraine.
He says it is Moscow’s right to place troops on Russian soil wherever he wants and denies allegations of a planned invasion. Russia, meanwhile, has accused NATO of expanding eastward and fears the alliance is getting closer to Ukraine.
As the allegations from the presidential office cross the border, security incidents have intensified since November.
On November 13, Masha *, a 15-year-old girl, was sleeping in her grandmother’s house in Nevelske, a government-controlled area, when she was awakened by the sound of shells.
“I found myself bombed again, just like when the war started in 2014. It felt the same way, ”Masha told Al Jazeera.
They destroyed the whole town. No deaths were reported, but dozens of people, including Masha and her grandmother, were evacuated.
The teenager now lives with relatives in a nearby village, a couple of miles away.
“But even now, I hear the bombings every night. It wakes me up. I come to school tired every morning. ‘
Paintings in a school teach children to play outside while playing outside [Sara Cincurova/Al Jazeera]The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Ukraine) told Al Jazeera that the settlements on both sides of the line of contact were hot spots.
Recently, security incidents have been reported in three locations visited by Al Jazeera: Marinka, Nevelske and Pisky.
For 16-year-old Nastya *, the battle she hears near Nevelsk brings back painful memories of the start of the war.
“I had a newborn sister in 2014 and I was not only afraid of my life, I was also afraid of her,” she told Al Jazeera.
“Now that we hear the bombings and the shootings, all the questions are: Will we survive? Will my little sister survive?”
Alyona Budagovska, a spokeswoman for People in Need, an NGO on the front line, told Al Jazeera that at least 54,000 children live in the government-controlled territory 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from the line of contact.
“Most of the children we help live within 5km (3.1 miles) of the contact line and hear the bombings on a weekly or daily basis,” he said.
“Children don’t feel safe while they are at home at night and when they go to school. During the competition, access to the underground shelters also varies in different settlements. ”
Tens of thousands of children live within 15 miles of the government-controlled territory alone, according to People in Need, an NGO in the area. [Sara Cincurova/Al Jazeera]In the village of Novomykhaivka, about an hour from Pervomaisk, the neighbors are accustomed to mines and shells.
Katya *, 16, told Al Jazeera she heard an explosion on December 21 on her way home from school, where volunteers recently painted drawings on the wall to teach younger children to play outside to avoid being mined.
Parents live in fear.
Alexandra and Ivan, aged 87 and 89, respectively, say they feel “broken-hearted” every time they hear the sound of howitzers.
They recalled an incident at the beginning of the war when their only son survived after their house was knocked down.
“These days, we hear heavy bombardment from the village of Pisky because we live on the other side of the same field,” Alexandra said.
Their home is located near the village of Vodiane, on the contact line.
In late November, Pisky was hit by shells and bullets. Ivan and Alexandra heard the attack from their home.
“Our friends’ houses were bombed; the toilets were also destroyed. People had to spend the night hidden in the basement. We remembered the day our son almost died, and we were terrified, ”they said.
“We are illiterate, surviving the Second World War and the 1947 Soviet famine. We thought we weren’t afraid.
“But right now, we pray every night before we go to bed, and we pray again in the morning because we’re alive.”
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