LUKOVE: As winter approaches in Ukraine's eastern countryside, pro-Russian rebels and Kiev forces eye each other uneasily across a ragged frontline. Despite signing a truce, both seem to be digging in for the long haul.
"We are repairing this tank after it was hit by mortar shells yesterday. The war will be long. If Kiev wanted peace it would have finished a long time ago," a rebel commander of a checkpoint near the village of Lukove said.
The commander, who calls himself Starshina (Sergeant) points across the harvested sunflower fields to Ukrainian positions three kilometres away, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of the rebel hub Donetsk.
"You can see their tanks and mortar launchers to the right, and to the left are the Grad multiple rocket launchers. And everywhere, they are digging shelters and reinforcing their positions," he said.
In the no-man's land between the rebel and Ukrainian lines lie fields and a small river. A boy of five shows off a chunk of mortar, as big as his hand, which he found in the fields.
"There are plenty others there," he said.
"There is firing every day. Today it began in the morning. I don't see why we signed a ceasefire," bemoaned Starshina, eyeing the Ukrainians based near the village of Chermalyk.
Behind him, two soldiers are busy repairing the tank's broken turret. A little further out, two armoured vehicles stand hidden in the bushes.
"We took it all from the Ukrainian army," Starshina claims.
He and several members of his unit are originally from Slavyansk, a former rebel hub of the Donetsk region which the army took over in July, forcing the rebel command to relocate to Donetsk.
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