"Who are we supposed to fight against? Our relatives?"

That night, the shooting started, says Svetlana, who declined to give her family name out of concern – shared by many – that doing so could create difficulties. There are a number of indications that the video announcement, which immediately preceded Russia’s official recognition of the separatist areas, had been planned for some time. According to the metadata associated with the videos, they were filmed several days prior to broadcast.

“None of the men want to fight.” They’re all just sitting at home in Donetsk waiting to see what happens, she says. “Who are we supposed to fight against? Our relatives?” Svetlana doesn’t just have family in the nearby southern Russian town of Rostov-on-Don, but also in areas still under the control of the Ukrainian government.

Will Russia’s recognition of the “people’s republics” will change anything? Svetlana shakes her head, but adds that the people can’t change anything anyway. It all depends on the government. When asked who she is talking about, she says Putin. What happens next is completely up to him, she says. “But we want to finally have peace in our homeland.”