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From:
Donetsk, Ukraine
Lives in:
Kyiv, Ukraine
Interests:
journalism, education, foreign languages, religion
Status:
When they held the referendum, I was one of three in my school who were in favor of Ukraine. But they started to pick on Donetsk in Kyiv, so I had to defend our region. They didn’t understand what I’ve been through.
I went to a few classes at school in the morning. Then mom called: «Where are you? Come home right now. War’s started.» I freaked out.
Dad came to pick me up. We drove past the elementary school. There was a huge crater from a bomb in front of it and all the windows were broken. I saw airplanes overhead with flames shooting out of them. Dad parked in the garage and locked all the locks. My little sisters were already at home. They were shaking. Mom was in shock, my brother was coming back from the university. The bombing started. I watched television, and I wouldn’t have known it was Donetsk Airport they were showing if it weren’t written there.
I was supposed to play piano in a school concert in two days and graduate from tenth grade…
I was sitting in my pajamas in my brother’s room leafing through dispatches, and he runs by with a suitcase. I ask mom what happened. «I don’t know where we’re going, but we’re leaving now. Pack your things.»
I packed in half an hour, left wearing shorts and a T-shirt. I looked back at the house and thought, «I’ll be back soon.»
I saw a woman explode in front of my eyes. We were heading out of the city. We told the little ones to close their eyes, but I looked out the window and saw a missile fall right on a house. A woman ran out in a nightgown, and a second missile fell right on her.
The media is reporting on what is happening in Eastern Ukraine. I have decided that I want to become a journalist so I can tell people the truth about what is happening here. That we are not separatists. What they show on television and say about us is not true. That’s why there is such a bad attitude toward people from Donetsk in Ukraine. Half of the people who boycotted the referendum went to Kyiv because they didn’t want secession.
They don’t want to rent us an apartment in Kyiv. They don’t take people from Donetsk and Luhansk at all. We don’t show them our Donetsk papers. Their attitude is: Our people are fighting there, and you’re here cooling your heels. Go back where you came from.
One family helped us find an apartment in the military settlement outside Kyiv. We stayed there two months. Then a man died around there who had fought in Donbass, and they started to ask why my brother wasn’t fighting in the war. The landlord came. She knew we were from Donetsk. «They won’t leave you alone,» she said. «Go.»
We went back to Kyiv. Mom said that I would go to school there. For me, it was like being the kid they threw into the water to teach him to swim. I learned.
It’s raining hard. I mixed schools up and went to the wrong one first. I don’t know my way around in Kiev. I am in tenth grade. There are ten other new students. They are from Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.
It’s hard to get along with the kids from Kyiv, because they don’t know what I went through. On history class, the subject of the Donbass comes up. My classmate who is also from Donetsk says,
«When people come from Donetsk to Kyiv, they change Kyiv for the better.»
A Kyiv kid answers,
«Why the hell should we change Kyiv? Go change your Donetsk.»
«I’d be happy to if you’d give it back.»
«I don’t give a damn about Donetsk.»
They don’t even try to look at this from our perspective. They call us cows in Adidas, separatists and lots of worse things. It hurts my feelings. I want to tell them it’s not so. That’s why I started to write an essay for a competition held by the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences on war through the eyes of a child.
Theу hated me in Donetsk because I supported Ukraine: you’re from Donetsk and you are selling Donetsk out. I told them to flake off. I’m Ukrainian. But in Kyiv, when they start to pick on Donetsk, I had to protect my region. They started bullying me.
I liked a boy at school. I texted him lots of personal things. Today at the graduation rehearsal, he went up to the microphone and started reading my messages to the whole school. I got up and left without saying a word. Now it’s all they talk about.
I tell the teacher they are bullying me, and they say, «Think about yourself. You are prejudiced against them. It’s pathetic. Change your attitude.» LOL. The fact that I don’t like their jokes doesn’t mean I don’t like them. It means I am different from them. They say, «Just because you’re from Donetsk doesn’t mean you can get away with things.»
They broke the windows on mother’s car. It has Donetsk plates. My parents were only just able to get an apartment in Kyiv...
Now they’re saying they’re spoiling people from Donetsk. They think we get everything just handed to us. It’s not true! Dad had to start his own business because no one would give him a job. I really don’t know how they got my sister and me into school without proper documents. We have moved six times in Kyiv. The landlords keep raising the rent.
The operation to transfer Crimea to Moscow’s control in March 2014 was carried out by Polite Russian soldiers in masks and unmarked uniforms. The operation began on the night of February 27, 2014, when they took control of the Crimean Parliament and the Government building. Officials in Moscow did not acknowledge the participation of the Russian military in the so-called Crimean Spring for a long time.
On the anniversary of the events in March 2015, the president said openly in the film Crimea: The Way Home, «I gave instructions and instructions to the Defense Ministry to transfer special forces of the main intelligence department and the marine force and paratroopers there hidden under the guise of beefing up protection for our military facilities in the Crimea.»
In April 2014, military clashes between the Ukrainian Army and the militia began in the southeast of Ukraine. Kiev and Western countries have repeatedly accused Russia of supplying weapons to the rebel regions and providing direct military assistance. Moscow’s official position is that it is not a party to the conflict, and there are no Russian troops in Ukraine. The participation of Russian volunteers, including former military, in the hostilities is not denied. Former Prime Minister of the DPR Alexander Borodai said in the summer of 2015 that 30,000-50,000 people from Russia passed through the Donbass. It is not known how many of them died.
In August 2014, the Ukrainian military detained ten soldiers of the 331th Regiment of the 98th Svirsky Division of airborne troops (military unit 71211) in Donetsk Region. The Russian Defense Ministry said the paratroopers had crossed the border by accident, getting lost during exercises in Rostov Region. In June 2015, Russians Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeev were detained in Luhansk Region, whom Ukrainian intelligence identified as servicemen of the 3rd Separate special forces guards brigade of the Military Intelligence General Staff of the Russian Federation. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that they were no longer active military personnel.
In Russia, information about the secret burial of paratroopers of the 76th Chernigov Division of the Airborne Forces, who may have died during the hostilities in Ukraine, elicited the greatest reaction when it was published in the newspaper Pskov Gubernia in August and September 2014. The Defense Ministry called these reports rumors. Later, the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the paratroopers had died “outside their places of permanent deployment,” without specifying where and how it happened.
Ukraine gave various estimates of the presence of Russian troops. In September 2014, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov stated that Russia had introduced “six to seven tactical battalions, which could be from 4,000 to 7,000 [military personnel]. And a few hundred pieces of equipment.” In April 2015, Colonel General Viktor Muzhenko, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stated that, in February, regular Russian troops took part in the battles of Debaltsevo, Chernukhino and Logvinovo. Kiev has repeatedly claimed an invasion by Russian tank columns and the massing of Russian troops on the border. According to Ukrainian authorities, Russia delivered armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery mounts, and other equipment across the border. The militiamen claim that their weapons are mainly trophies from captured warehouses and military units, as well as those left by Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield.
I spent my 16th birthday alone at home wrapped up in a blanket. I am counting the days until school ends. I don’t talk to anyone. I see the sun and think why does it bother to shine if I’m not at home. I don’t understand why I am still alive when people I know are dying. My body is in one place and my soul is in another, so to speak. It’s hard to breathe the unfamiliar air.
I understand the price we paid to live in this country. When everyone was voting in the referendum and you say, «Not me.» And they stick a gun to your heard and say, «you, or we’ll throw you and your whole family out of here.» The people fighting are a bunch of nobodie, school kids and security guards. What do they stand for? They were told it would be better with Russia, and they believed it. Everything was fine before Russia got involved.
They give my parents 20,000 hryvnia a month in displacement benefits for a family of six. We use that money to pay the rent and pay for my sister’s ballroom dancing. She’s a European champion. That’s her future, and my parents can’t let that slip away.
We are refugees. We fled, literally, and didn’t know we wouldn’t be coming back. We ran away. There was no other choice. We made it out with only hours to spare. Then they leveled the neighborhood to the ground.
Children who grow up in wartime have different values. When I left Donetsk, I understood how much I love my home. My classmates say, «I have a ticket home,» and I think, «Damn, I’ll never get a ticket home again.» The trains don’t go there anymore. I won’t fly into the airport, take the train or ride my bike there, and I won’t play soccer in the schoolyard never again.
All of my friends were killed in the tragedy outside of Volnovakha, when they blew up a bus. Every day I look through the news and see a bombed out landscape where I grew up.
Mom won’t let us say we’re refugees. She says, «Stop moping. You have to get ready to go to university. Think about that.» Everything has to be started all over again here.
As of April 15, 2019, the Ukrainian database of internally displaced persons contained 1,374,806 migrants from Donetsk and Luhansk Regions and Crimea. All of them can obtain a «resettlement certificate» (at their place of residence, with a Ukrainian passport), which guarantees cash payments, free food (but for not more than a month), medical treatment and employment. Migrants up to the age of 23 may receive long-term education loans.
Monthly payments (for no more than six months) for children and pensioners are 884 hryvnia, and people with disabilities receive 1,074 hryvnia. Working citizens receive 442 hryvnia. The state also promises to help migrants acquire land and housing and to build houses for them. In practice, however, free housing is allocated for immigrants for temporary use, you only need to pay for utilities. According to the Ukrainian media, many displaced people have difficulty obtaining temporary housing. According to a survey by the International Organization for Migration, 20% of internally displaced persons consider living conditions their biggest problem.
Special rules apply to combatants in the antiterrorism operations zone. Under a Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers decision in 2014, they should receive a number of medical, labor and housing benefits. The disabled (depending on their category) should receive lifelong assistance. For participation in an antiterrorism operation, military personnel are paid a 100% premium on their monthly pay, and not less than 3,000 hryvnia per month. For participation in hostilities after the issuance of a combat order, servicemen are paid an additional 1,000 hryvnia per day. The list of benefits has remained practically unchanged since 2014.
Ukraine usually tries detained militiamen under Article 258-3 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code «Creating a Terrorist Group or a Terrorist Organization.» The creation of a terrorist group or terrorist organization, the management of such a group or organization or participation in one, as well as material, organizational or other assistance for the creation or activity of a terrorist group or terrorist organization is punishable by imprisonment from 8 to 15 years. Sometimes article 437 («Planning, Preparing, Initiating and Waging a War of Aggressive») also appears in cases. The penalty under this article is imprisonment from 10 to 15 years.
I have a best friend now. We do things together. She makes me go out with her and meet people. I am really grateful to her for that. Finally I am seeing the city not like a refugee, but like a resident. I have come to love the sun. I see the point of living again.
I am going to media school. I want to study journalism. I have to prepare for exams, but I am always distracted. Mom’s health has become very bad. I don’t get along with anybody at school. We were supposed to go back to Donetsk, and I was dreaming of home. But they called and said don’t go, because they hunt down people who supported Ukraine.
I did badly on the exams and didn’t get into the journalism program. I feel hopeless.
I got into the translator’s program. I don’t know how I did it. It was just good luck. I had the minimum marks and I was at the bottom of the list for admittance.
The first time I went there, I was afraid that it would be like school all over again. I was worried they wouldn’t take me. I’m a bad student because I am studying something other than what I really want.
All of our deans are from Donbass. When I went with dad to turn in my papers, the deputy dean saw that we are from Donetsk and said «When will be ever go back?» Being from Donetsk actually helped me.
I work off the books teaching English and music at a kindergarten.
This is the melody I was supposed to play at the school concert, but we fled.
Donetsk before the war
According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, population of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2013 was 6.58 million people. According to ukrainian data, the population of the Donetsk region by January 1, 2019 has decreased by more than 180 thousand (to 4.16 million people), Lugansk — by almost 90 thousand (to 2.15 million people). Population of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic by the end of 2014 was estimated at 3.83 million people. As of January 1, 2019, 3.73 million people permanently lived in the unrecognized Donetsk and Lugansk republics.
I was on my way to work in the metro. The loud sound of the train approaching suddenly reminded me of a siren. I started to shake. Last year, my friend and I were walking by Lesnoi Station. They were set off some fireworks somewhere and I nearly fell to the ground. When a plane flies over, I look to see if it is a military. Still. This is my present. It will only become my past when the war ends.
I want to tell people not to take the places they live for granted. Let Donbass be an example for you. We don’t choose our homes. You have to love and cherish the place where you were born because it may be gone someday. I am proud to be a native of Donetsk. I still have it stamped in my passport as a matter of principle. I love my country but hate the government and Donetsk is the heart of my country. Donbass is Ukraine and Crimea is Ukraine.
I learned Ukrainian at school, but I don’t like to speak it. It’s a foreign language to me. I speak it when I have to, at work or school. But nationality is more than the language you speak. It is where you live, the culture you grow up in. I’m Ukrainian. Ukrainian from Donetsk.
I wrote a letter to myself that I will open in five years. By then I will be studying in Canada and getting ready to return to my home in Ukraine to develop the country. I want to work for BBC News Ukraine and become a politician. The future of Ukraine belongs to our generation.
From:
Yasinovataya, Donetsk Region, Ukraine
Lives in:
Sochi, Russia
Interests:
English, education and personal growth, film
Status:
When the war started, I asked my Magic 8 Ball if we should flee. It said yes. I was born in Russia and I thought I would receive a passport fast, enroll in university, learn English and go to America. But it took nine months for me to get a Russian passport in Belgorod, and so I didn’t go to university. So I had to grow up fast.
From:
Gorlovka, Donetsk Region, Ukraine
Lives in:
Gornozavodsk, Sakhalin Region, Russia
Interests:
cars, racing, technology, fishing, snowboarding
Status:
I have dreamed of being a racecar driver since I was little. In reality, I had to help my parents with money. I was 16, and had just finished my first year of technical school, when the war started and my parents decided to flee to Sakhalin. My mom is from here. But if you don’t have a Russian passport, too bad for you. And I didn’t have one.
From:
Yasinovataya, Donetsk Region, Ukraine
Lives in:
Donetsk, Donetsk People’s Republic
Interests:
sewing, fashion, drawing, animals
Status:
I returned to Donetsk a year and a half ago. Everyone was against it. But let it be an unrecognized republic, or any other kind, let there be war. I’m still going home.
Creator and executive editor: Marina Bocharova
Designer: Alexei Dubinin
Sound engineer: Anastasia Dushina
Composer: Anton Khristenko
Layout: Alexei Shabrov
Programming: Anton Zhukov, Andrei Ponomarev
Editor: Oleg Skorikov
Photography: Irina Buzhor, Sergei Belous, Reuters, AP, RIA Novosti
Video: Irina Buzhor, Sergei Belous, Dmitry Nazarov
Photo editor: Dmitry Kuchev
Project manager: Yulia Gadas
Translation: Derek Andersen
The following people also contributed to this work: Evgeny Fedunenko, Evgeny Kozichev, Artem Kosenok, Nikolay Zubov
The author would like to thank the following for their assistance: Ilya Kizirov for the storytelling consultation, Vladimir Solovyev, Svetlana Gannushkina, Elena Burtina, the Civic Assistance Committee, Galina Pyrkh, Tatyana Kotlyar, Mariam Kocharyan, Evdokia Sheremetyeva, Slava Volkov and Arina Mesnyankina
© Kommersant. All rights reserved
Commentary
242 days of fighting at Donetsk Airport
242 days of fighting at Donetsk Airport
On May 26, 2014, the first battle for Donetsk Airport took place between militia and the Ukrainian military guarding it. In 2012, $875 million had been invested in its renovation for the European Football Championship. The airport was defended for 242 days, until the Ukrainian military abandoned the airport on the night of January 22, 2015. The facility was completely destroyed during the siege.
According to Ukraine, 200 Ukrainian military personnel were killed in the battles for the airport, about 500 were injured. Deputy commander of the self-proclaimed DPR militia headquarters Eduard Basurin said that the Ukrainian army had lost 597 people. About 800 people were killed by the militia, and 1,500-2,000 were injured. The exact death toll is unknown.
On February 12, 2015, after the escalation of the conflict (the battles for Donetsk Airport and Debaltsevo), the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine in the Normandy Format signed the second Minsk Agreement, which provided for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of heavy weapons and confirmed all political points from the Minsk Protocol. However, the agreements were not honored.
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