Echoes of the past at Ukraine's rebel-held WWII monument
Snizhne (Ukraine) (AFP) - The Savur-Mohyla memorial in east Ukraine, commemorating thousands of Russian and German soldiers who perished in World War II, stood for decades as testament to the strategic hill's bloodstained history.
Seventy years later, fighting between pro-Moscow rebels and Kiev's army has made the site in the hotspot Donetsk region, nine kilometres (6 miles) from the Russian border, a potent symbol once again.
The 300 metre (980 feet) high hill has changed hands between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army several times as each has clawed back territory from the other before being taken by the rebels late last month.
"History repeats itself," said Oleksandr, a 32-year-old Ukrainian separatist who came to pay respects at the site with friends, some in camouflage and some in civilian clothing, though many still carrying their AK-47s.
Now the imposing 30-metre obelisk at the top of the hill, along with the cast iron Soviet soldier raising his rifle triumphantly over his head, has been reduced to a stump.
Faces of the metal Soviet soldiers on pillars around it are now missing eyes and show damage on their chests and arms, while nearby fields are still littered with debris and trees torn down by the vicious fighting in July and August.
The memorial, built in the 1960s, depicts episodes from a series of long and bloody battles for the height in August 1943, in which Russian troops beat off soldiers from Nazi Germany.
For pro-Russian rebels, the historic parallels at the site build on the widespread notion that their insurgency is directed against "fascist" invaders from Kiev.
Separatists have begun burying their own dead at the site, where shells of various calibres litter the ground along with remains of anti-aircraft guns, now scrap metal.
"There are eight crosses, but we actually don't know for sure how many people are there," said a young rebel, his neck and face covered with scars, who was attending a religious service held by two priests over several fresh graves.
"They were cut into pieces. We don't know how many of ours died for this hill, this sacred hill."
Dates on the wooden crosses that mark the graves read July 28th and August 7th.
- 'Heroes died here' -
Remnants of firing positions can still be seen behind some walls surrounding the monument, while others have been obliterated.
"For six weeks it was hell here," said the young man, who gave only his nom de guerre, "Thirteenth".
"Twice the Ukrainians claimed to have retaken the hill. But it was not true; five of our heros were here, hidden in the ground," he said.
One photo on the Internet dated August 9 show nine Ukrainian paratroopers at the foot of the obelisk, damaged but standing.
Where they once stood there is now graffiti: one in Russian dated from July 8, another in Ukrainian dated from August 11.
Near the memorial wall commemorating 2,000 names of some of the soldiers killed here during WWII stand three Soviet tanks painted turquoise.
"To Kiev," a recent graffiti sign says on one of them, a direct reference to the words scrawled on the same tanks in 1945: "To Berlin."
"Our heros have died here," said Oleksandr. "For us, Savur-Mohyla was always a symbol of death and the heroism of our grandfathers. Their victory over the German army."
"But for Ukrainians, these Nazis and sons of Nazis, it was the opposite. That's why they went out of their way to destroy it," he said.
"We will rebuild it," his younger friend Oleg chimed in.
"We'll complete it with a wing for our heroes from this summer. It's the same fight. They have died in the same place as their grandfathers, for the same cause."
