- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
- Lebanon doctors tell of horror after pager blasts
- McIlroy eyes Wentworth glory after Irish Open collapse
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ |
Russians split from family in Ukraine strive to maintain ties
Before conflict broke out, visiting her brother and sister was easy for Alla Lavrova, who could drive from her home in Russia and across the border to Ukraine in just one hour.
But with tensions soaring after Western leaders accused Moscow of amassing tens of thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine, Lavrova, 56, doesn't know when she'll see her siblings again.
"I haven't seen them for two-three years," she says, wiping the counter of her cafe in the town of Oktyabrsky in southwestern Russia.
"It has become more difficult to cross the border because of the political situation," she tells AFP.
Many residents of this small town have had to adapt to keep in touch with loved ones since 2014, after an insurgency of Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Crossing the border to work, shop or visit family used to be easy but now the process has become a headache with further restrictions introduced with the coronavirus pandemic.
And the situation is unlikely to change soon with Washington warning of an imminent Russian invasion into Ukraine.
"I am sorry that Russia and Ukraine have developed such relations," Lavrova says, casting a disapproving glance at the muddy footsteps her customers left.
"We ordinary people have warm, human relationships. But at the highest level -- it's different," she adds.
- Easier to visit Peru -
Like Lavrova, many families in this region have relatives in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city just 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border with Russia.
Her brother and sister studied and eventually settled there during Soviet times, taking up Ukrainian citizenship after the USSR collapse in 1991.
Until 2014, the siblings would see each other regularly, especially at Easter -- an important holiday in both Orthodox Russia and Ukraine.
Now they only speak by phone.
"They can't even come and say a prayer at our parents' grave," Lavrova says.
Crossing the border is still possible for Russians but it comes with tedious administrative procedures that discourage many to even try.
Sofia Vinakova, a 22-year-old student, says she missed her grandmother's funeral in Ukraine's capital Kyiv last September.
"Only my mother could go," she says, taking a sip of her strawberry vodka.
Dmitry Popov tells AFP he tried to visit his cousins in Kharkiv in 2019, but Ukrainian authorities refused him entry.
Young men are often subject to extensive checks with Kyiv authorities fearing the infiltration of Russian soldiers.
"It's easier to visit Peru," says 22-year-old Popov, who keeps in touch with his relatives in Ukraine by playing online video games together.
- Avoid politics -
Vinakova says she remains in contact with her aunt in Ukraine through video calls, but they don't mention the conflict.
"In Ukraine they say it's Russia's fault. Here, it's the opposite. We came to the conclusion that talking about it would be useless," Vinakova says. "Politics is politics. We are family".
While most of the residents in the border region who spoke to AFP said they do not believe there will be a military confrontation, some are concerned for their relatives in Ukraine.
Vladimir Sidletsky, a 70-year-old retired electrician, says he has an older sister living in Lugansk, one of the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatists.
"We are worried about her. We told her to come and join us because of the situation there," Sidletsky tells AFP as he puts down his heavy shopping bag and pulls up the collar of the jacket to shield himself from the cold.
"But she doesn't want to," he says.
"We'll hold on. We survived 1941. We'll get through this too" is what his sister says.
Despite the difficulties, Vinakova remains positive and certain that she will see her Ukrainian aunt again.
If necessary, "we'll meet in a third country," she says.
P.Anderson--BTB