Ukrainian forces in Pisky want OSCE to stay put

Satalenko has spent six weeks on the frontline in the besieged town near what used to be the Donetsk Airport, but which remains a hotspot in the war.

Skirmishes continue each day between combined Russian-separatist forces despite the much lauded cease-fire achieved in mid-February.

“There’s your ceasefire,” he says, as an explosion rings out 100 meters away.

The fighting hasn’t ended in Pisky, about 1.5 kilometers from the obliterated Donetsk Airport, becoming yet another black hole in the year-long conflict, a Ukrainian stronghold against the advancement of insurgents who have already vowed to take control of all of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

The relentless fighting in Pisky has prompted Ukrainian officials and international monitors to suggest setting up an observation post in the area to record cease-fire violations, though it is unclear how soon such a post would be set up.

Troops on the ground said it was much too late to be thinking about simply recording further ceasefire violations, lamenting the fact that both Ukrainian and U.S. officials were tiptoeing around one rather inconvenient fact – that the ceasefire never took hold and peaceful means of resolving the conflict have become irrelevant.

“We can’t negotiate with terrorists,” Satalenko said. “More pressure needs to be put on the insurgents to stop. Diplomatic means simply aren’t effective with terrorists. You can’t negotiate with apes running around with automatic weapons.”

Salim, a Crimean Tatar fighting with the Dnipro Battalion, scoffed when hearing the word truce.
“We had one wounded here today and four yesterday. It never stops,” he said. “It’s easy for people in Kyiv to not see the war, to look the other way. But here we are.”

A Ukrainian soldier pets a dog near a bridge in government-held Pisky village in Donetsk Oblast on April 23.

Another fighter who goes by the nom de guerre Cherniy described utter chaos in the neighboring Russian-separatist controlled territory.

“There are other armed groups there who live by their own laws, and the representatives of the separatist republics have no influence over them. They answer to no one, only to someone who is interested in prolonging the conflict. The so-called government of rebel-controlled Donetsk is in no condition to deal with these groups. They just can’t,” he said.

Two days earlier, a Ukrainian commander in Shyrokyne, who goes by the name of Sobol, issued a similar warning, saying the positions of both the insurgents and Ukrainian forces had been coming under attack by an unidentified group seeking to stir up the conflict.

Cherniy said it was likely Russians who didn’t want to stop fighting who were responsible for these attacks.

“We see how they fight among themselves, these groups. You can hear these gun battles on their territory, and it becomes clear that they are battling each other. On one side you have the Vostok Battalion, on the other, Motorola (of Spartak Battalion) and his group, and they are shooting at each other, fighting for control over parts of the territory, for strategic locations or the areas that are more profitable for them.”

When asked whether an increased presence by international monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, — there are 444 currently in-country — might calm things down, Cherniy laughed.

“The OSCE has never helped us. Sure, when they come, the attacks stop. They record the fact that everything is calm. Then they leave and it all starts up again. I have a proposal for them: How about they stop living in hotels and spend a few days in Pisky? We can set up a little makeshift camp for them in the center of town, we’ll fit it out with heating and water. Live here and see what life is like.”

Michael Bociurkuw, a spokesman for the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, said there were plans to set up an observation post in Pisky but no deadline had been set yet.

“We do conduct patrols in Pisky and frequently report on what is happening there,” he said.
As for Cherniy’s invitation to spend the night in Pisky, Bociurkuw said it wasn’t that simple.

“Our monitors did spend a night in Shyrokyne, and we are focusing on that to see if it can be replicated elsewhere. But that is a pilot project, there are safety precautions and a lot of logistics involved, and we have to consider that,” Bociurkiuw said.