Kurakhove, a Ukrainian-controlled city 10 kilometers from the war front, is on edge with residents divided

“All cars coming from the east have crossed from the terrorist-held territory to our land. They could be traitors and gather information on our side,” explained a 21-year old Ukrainian soldier, Dima, as he drank coffee outside a small kiosk. He didn’t want to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the press.

His approach to his duties? “Nobody can be trusted,” he said. “Nothing is what it seems.”

Suddenly, Dima chased after two young men, both wearing sunglasses and baseball caps.

“Documents please!” he shouted.

They handed over their Ukrainian passports and took off their sunglasses and caps. They turned out to be regular teenagers from the city just hanging out on the streets because they had nothing else to do.

“Go back to your parents,” Dima told them, but they refused.

“It’s hot and we just want to walk outside,” 17-year-old Zakhar Antonova said.

“Remember that it’s dangerous on the streets,” Dima warned as they walked away.

The city had a pre-war population of 20,000 people but many fled at the Ukrainian army took up positions to attack the Russian-separatist locations in the occupied east.

Just five kilometers to the east lies Maryinka, where on June 3 a Russian-separatist led offensive inflicted heavy damage against the Ukrainian army.

A large line of cars waits to gas up and go east into the Kremlin-occupied territory, but Ukrainian checkpoints are closed becaue of the heightened danger of fighting.

“I’ve been traveling for more than five days. I needed to pick up a package in Dnipropetrovsk,” said 28-year-old Vitaliy Piatkovskiy.

He lives with his girlfriend in Donetsk, although he occasionally leaves Russian-held Donetsk for Ukraine.

“I don’t say I fully support (the separatists), but if I had to choose between living in Donetsk or Kyiv, it would definitely be Donetsk,” he said. “If I say the Ukrainians started the war, they will treat me as a terrorist. If I say our people or Russia started it, I will be treated as a fascist in” the Russian-controlled territories.

City officials in Kurakhove have ordered the statue of Vladimir Lenin removed.

Dima, the soldier on patrol, has reason to be fear the presence of traitors and those who favor the Russian-separatist forces.

A man named Ivan, too afraid of Ukrainian army retribution to be quoted by name, said he hopes that the Kremlin liberates the city. He only defended his position by saying that “if I say why you will probably write in your newspaper that I’m a terrorist!”

Many in Kurakhove are divided.

A young woman named Angelina, also too afraid to give her last name, used to take the bus every week to deliver food to the Russian-separatist checkpoint. Now, the road is closed amid fighting, but she is determined to continue supporting the Kremlin fighters.

“I support because they fight against Europe. I never asked to become part of Europe. Nobody in this country did, except some idiots in Kyiv!” Angelina said. “Expressing your support to what some see as the enemy is in this country an act of terrorism. But I stand against it. The only terrorism I see are those Ukrainian soldiers from the west wanting to invade our cities.”