Colloborants
Just a few km from Pokrovsk, in the town of Rodynske, we stopped there to wait for our friends from Buche, who were to bring a Renault Traffic and a Nissan Primera, already repaired, to be handed over to the troops of the 66th Brigade, along with two others.
The given point leads to the centre of the town, where there's a barracks that hasn't even been destroyed by the war, and the usual small shops with the same cafés. We park our cars under the canopy of trees, not only against the heat of the sun, but also against the drones, which are certainly in the sky. The front is a few kilometres away. My friends are late, so we sit on the terrace of the café, and as always I talk to the soldiers who are also waiting for something. In front of us is an American RAM which our friends are taking in for repairs. We talk about the war, exchange contacts, everything has already happened. My ears begin to fail to hear the explosions of the artillery guns, with the constant howling of the air raid sirens. It's hot, and I see a woman come outside and ask who ordered the latte with ice.
I'm tempted and go to order. Three young girls are hanging around the bar, and as I am ordering my coffee, the older one, the one who had gone outside, says: speak Russian, you can still hear the accent, all the separatists are here, the normal people have already left. I am also leaving, I am moving my sports club equipment to Pavlograd. The girls at the bar were saying that they also wanted to play sports, but it is forbidden to go to sports clubs until 18. It's easy to guess who the customers are, because we often see soldiers running around in the suburbs.
You know, she says to me, there is a "whore" here who organised the referendum on the 14th, and she is also waiting for her own. I had turned her in to the SBU, but there was no evidence and they let her go. There are many of them here.
There are lots of military vehicles and men outside like everywhere else, but most of them are dressed like us, because there are traitors around every corner. Two days ago, in Druzhkivka, the commander of the brigade who came to the meeting also did not differ from ordinary soldiers. The separatists are waiting and conceding positions, which is why the war here is so similar to Afghanistan.
Friends, soldiers like us, come and take the cars. Short photo shoots. Somewhere in the east, the guns work tirelessly. Not ours, because there are not as many shells as promised.
