And what happens there? Is the war still going on? "- Americans invariably ask Alisa Sopova, having learned that she is from the east of Ukraine. "It's a sign that the press covers this topic insufficiently.". We write in detail about some things while they are new and exciting, and we throw them, as soon as they become boring, "commented Sopova, a Ukrainian independent journalist, at the moment - a research associate at the Davis Research Center Russia and Eurasia at Harvard University.

"The war in Ukraine has become boring. And so I say: Well, the war is still killing people - an average of one or two every day. However, it has become so static that even somehow strange. The armies sit opposite, sometimes at a distance of only 100 feet. Fascinated by the Minsk agreements on armistice from 2014 and 2015, they can not really fight among themselves. But in the absence of a political solution, they can not leave, "the author writes. The journalist reports that recently the intensity of hostilities has increased, "but the world almost did not notice it". The periods of intense fighting in Eastern Ukraine usually do not entail changes.

According to Sopova, there are about 4 million people living on the territory that has split from Ukraine. "Opportunistic separatist authorities hold them hostage, and the Ukrainian government simultaneously portrays them as people outlawed - as disgruntled citizens sympathizing with the separatists, whose guilt lies in the fact that they were taken hostage. Even when they, like me, leave, they are prosecuted for treason and collaborating. As a result, these people have difficulties in obtaining pensions, entering the "main territory" of Ukraine and returning back, obtaining passports, working and voting. They are locked in a quasi-state, turned into a ghetto, and are torn between the indistinct, repressive rules of both sides, "reads the article.

The author gives an example from life: her unnamed friend recently died grandmother, and he tried to get a Ukrainian certificate of her death. However, there is no proper legal mechanism for persons residing in the territory beyond the control of the authorities.. The Ukrainian court requested evidence: the testimony of three witnesses to the death of my grandmother or a video of a funeral.

Americans ask Sopova, for whom local residents - for the separatists or for the government? "My answer is disappointing: most do not support anyone. When you watch a conflict on TV, especially if Russia is involved in it, it's tempting to root for good people against villains. But, when soldiers dig trenches in your yard, you suddenly become all the same, whether they are good or bad. I just want them to leave, "Sopova writes..

"The conflict is in the geopolitical stalemate, when everyone seems to be more comfortable with the status quo than any proposed solutions. All, except for those people who are forced to pay for what is happening, "- the author believes..

Recently, an American interlocutor Sopova ended the conversation this way: "To be honest, the US is tired of hearing about this chronic conflict in Ukraine, poisoned by corruption and a lack of political will to move forward".

"If you are tired, imagine how tired we are," Sopova replied..