Stanytsia Luganska (Ukraine) (AFP)

As long as the Ukrainian troops were stationed in her village, Anna felt safe. But since they began withdrawing from Stanytsia Luganska, on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, she fears a return of the separatists.

"We are afraid they will cross the border by night and occupy our village," sighs Anna, 53. "Then life will be over," she adds, shaking her head in a bemused way.

Until spring 2014, she lived with her husband in Lugansk. When the war broke out and this industrial city of 400,000 people passed on the side of the pro-Russian rebels, who made it one of their strongholds, they took refuge a handful of kilometers further north, in Stanytsia Luganska, remained under control of Kiev forces.

Today, the small town of 13,000 souls is on the front line of this now largely frozen war, which has left nearly 13,000 dead since its outbreak.

Stanytsia Luganska is above all a strategic place: the only open crossing point between Ukraine and the Lugansk People's Republic (LNR), one of the two self-proclaimed separatist territories, is here.

Every day, 11,000 people cross the "border" via a bridge partially destroyed by the fighting and still today unusable for vehicles.

To get to the other side, you have to cross a kilometer of no man's land, the elderly or handicapped to pay if they want to be transported in a wheelchair.

In May, Stanytsia Luganska was the first city in the east of the country visited by the new Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, after his inauguration.

He returned there with European Council President Donald Tusk on 7 July, about ten days after the "disengagement" of Ukrainian troops and separatists, each of whom moved back a few hundred meters under a signed agreement. in 2016 but then not applied.

Hailed by the Westerners, this disengagement, which concerns only Stanytsia Luganska, was also by Volodymyr Zelensky, elected with the promise to end the war and who said he saw it as "a first step towards a ceasefire. lasting fire "and" the hope of seeing the end of the intense phase of the war ".

- Rebuild the bridge -

Other signs of good will may come. In late July, separatist and Ukrainian emissaries, who meet regularly in Minsk, Belarus, reached an agreement to demine the area and repair the bridge for vehicles.

Svetlana, who grows vegetables in the town, wants the work to begin as soon as possible. "Stanytsia Luganska has always fed Lugansk and we lived with that money," she says, placing her vegetables at a market stall in the city.

"We were one and now we are separated, divided into two parts," she regrets.

But Tatiana, who runs once a month to the line of contact to visit her daughter and grandchildren in separatist territory, does not want to see the bridge repaired. This could be "very dangerous" because it would allow the rebels to move their equipment into Ukrainian territory, she feared.

"When we had the army here, we slept well at night but now, we do not know who could walk around our house," said the woman who, like all residents interviewed by AFP, wished to keep anonymity.

Tatiana is certain: if former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, a supporter of a hard line against the separatists, was still in power, he "would not have abandoned us".

But this confidence has faded since the arrival of Volodymyr Zelensky, a former political novice until his triumphal election in April: "Now we are afraid they will get rid of us".

© 2019 AFP