Kiev (AFP) - Kiev resident Anna Okhrimenko stopped speaking Russian after Moscow annexed Crimea last year, and does not think much of her pro-Russian compatriots caught up in the year-long war raging in Ukraine's east.

"I don't like them," said the 42-year-old, referring to people from the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

"They are poorly educated, they are stuck in the USSR and instil this mindset in their children.

"They love Russia, but most of them have never been there," she told AFP.

For decades historic, cultural and linguistic faultlines divided the country into the pro-Russian east and the pro-European, Ukrainian-speaking west.

Now the tensions that simmered below the surface have split the ex-Soviet nation of 45 million, with fighting in the east undoing bonds between family and friends, pitting colleagues against each other, and stigmatising Ukrainians from the rebel-held east.

Displaced civilians from the separatist east have been hard hit, many unable to secure jobs in the capital, some even having a hard time finding apartments.

Okhrimenko is one of many Ukrainians helping those worst affected by the conflict in the east, despite her misgivings about their loyalties.

The employee of a small business sends warm clothing to Ukrainian soldiers, but also to those seeking refuge from the fighting which has already claimed over 6,000 lives since April 2014.

She rents her spare Kiev apartment to tenants from the separatist region of Donetsk.

"One day we will reconcile," said Okhrimenko.

Okhrimenko was one of hundreds of thousands of people who took over Kiev's Independence Square to protest against Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych's decision in November 2013 to scrap a key political and trade pact with the European Union.

The three-month protests eventually brought down Yanukovych, but not before a bloody crackdown resulted in scores of deaths.

Angered by Yanukovych's ouster, pro-Russian separatists in the east declared their own "republics".

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Ukraine and the West have repeatedly accused Moscow of sending arms and troops to support the rebels, a claim Russia denies.

- Consolidating the nation -





Before the war, Okhrimenko made business trips to Donetsk and welcomed to her Kiev home a colleague who now supports the separatists.

"When she told me that we deserved to lose Crimea and the Donbass (eastern region), it was like a knife in the back."

Okhrimenko's pain is shared across the country, but she believes the current tumult will help forge a stronger Ukrainian identity.

"There will not be a Ukrainian nation without such upheaval."

Fellow Kiev resident Oksana Sukhorukova shared that sentiment, saying Russia's actions and the crucible of war could help "consolidate the Ukrainian people".

"I cried after the annexation of Crimea, and was shocked by the secession of Donbass", Sukhorukova, financial director at a construction firm, told AFP.

Having cut ties with relatives in Russia and Crimea, she now seeks solace helping those fleeing from the violence.

She is one of a dozen volunteers spending her weekends at an aid centre in central Kiev, sifting through the huge piles of donations.

"My life is here," said the 40-year-old brunette, noting she tried to spend every free moment at the centre.

- 'Open wound' -





The mother of two also helps register the refugees and manages the centre's accounts.

Sukhorukova admitted to feeling "offence, pain and misunderstanding" after hearing that loved and respected acquaintances had backed the rebels.

She barely speaks to her ex-husband, who supports separatists in his native Donetsk, but believes that some form of cooperation is possible.

"There are radicals on both sides, but they are a minority," she said.

"For the most part, there is no hostility. Look how volunteers are helping refugees and soldiers, this is unheard of!"

Initially, Sukhorukova believed pro-Russian supporters were "getting what they deserved" when the fighting ravaged the east.

She now thinks pro-Western Ukrainians should talk to those "who were against the new authorities in Kiev, but who were not for war."

"Everybody is tired," she added. "The war has not improved the economic situation and people are unhappy."

Psychologist Alevtyna Shevchenko said that the Ukrainians "did not accept the loss of Donbass or Crimea", adding that people's views on the status of these two regions had become a reliable indicator of their allegiances.

"This is an open wound that hurts," she said. "Many families are divided around it".

In the more nationalist west, Russia is increasingly being branded as the "enemy," she added.

But despite the hardship supporters of a united Ukraine are not about to give in, added sociologist Iryna Bekeshkina.

"There's definitely fatigue, as in every war," she told AFP. "But the Ukrainians are not going to capitulate without either a victory or a reasonable compromise."