“Finally, the people here have been liberated from the terror that they’ve been experiencing the last eight years.” – Journalist Alina Lipp When war broke out in Ukraine, German-Russian freelance journalist Alina Lipp was reporting from the center of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Lipp, whose father is Russian and mother is German, moved to Donetsk several years ago. On the day Russian President Putin announced the special military operation in Ukraine, it was very quiet in Donetsk, reports Lipp. She explains that explosions could be heard in the area, but residents are used to this. “People here really want to belong to Russia, and they are celebrating the current situation.”