by ZACK BADDORF

Crossing the border into the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic is a pain in the ass.

I must have gone through 30 checkpoints on both the Ukrainian and separatist sides of the border, despite only being in the country for about a week. I waited nearly two hours at one checkpoint alone.

The guards aren’t friendly and the process is tedious. But once you get through the borders and into the cities, life is pretty normal.

Well, unless you count the near constant shelling and small arms fire at the Donetsk International Airport — which lies in ruins just five miles from the center of the city. That’s one of the hotspots in the war. The fighting there has gone on for months.