Sloviansk, Ukraine – When pro-Russian rebels seized the southeastern Ukrainian town of Sloviansk 11 years ago, Raisa said she and her neighbours “treated them well”.On April 12, 2014, hundreds of armed men led by former Russian intelligence officer Igor Girkin snuck into Sloviansk, making it the first Ukrainian town to be taken over by Moscow-backed separatists.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThey fought with police, flew a Russian flag over the town hall, built barricades and roadblocks, and handed out firearms and grenade launchers to jubilant local men who wanted Moscow to annex their region of Donbas.Russia had just annexed Crimea during a chaotic interregnum that followed the removal of pro-Russian President and Donbas native Viktor Yanukovych after a months-long popular uprising in Kyiv.“Under Yanukovych, Donbas had lots of privileges, lots of perks,” Raisa, a 72-year-old retired sales manager, said while holding her bike outside a grocery store in Sloviansk.But 10 weeks of separatist occupation and 11 years of war later, her views – and those of many here – have undergone a U-turn.Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began in 2022, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian servicemen have been killed as millions of civilians have suffered displacement and been rendere …
