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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.
A guy gave me a Magic 8 Ball for my 16th birthday. Ever since then, I’ve asked its advice when I have to make an important decision. I have just finished 9th grade. Mom and I have decided to move to Belgorod next year, after I finish school.
Until then, we’re here. The stores are closed. Curfew begins at 8:00 and they turn off the electricity. When it’s really loud, I go into the cellar and watch How I Met Your Mother.
The missile fell by the house and the shock wave broke all the windows. We covered them with blankets to keep warm.
Everyone says there’s about to be an offensive. We don’t have any money, but mom said, «Here take what there is and go». My friend and I went to her grandmother’s house in a village where they weren’t shooting. I packed a little backpack for two days — shorts and T-shirts…
There was an offensive. The buses stopped running and I couldn’t get out of the village for more than a month. I just got back now. I get off the bus and there are no people. Electric lines are down, there are holes in houses, there are holes in roads made by tanks. The only people I saw on the road were soldiers with machine guns. There’s a burned-out car, like in GTA… Very scary, but I’m still glad to be home.
We all came to Belgorod together — mom and I, my friend Yana and her mother, who is my godmother. I was born in Russia, so I plan to get a Russian passport quickly and study in the foreign language department of the university. I had practiced for the standardized test at home and was just imagining student life: I would join the talent show and find new friends! I can’t wait to set eyes on a big city where’s there’s no war.
We came and went to the shopping center right away. It’s open!
There are lots of cars in Belgorod. I’m not used to having cars everywhere! But people live peacefully here. There’s no curfew. Planes fly overhead. They make us cringe. The only time I saw them at home was during bombings.
I’m afraid a war will start between Russia and Ukraine and Belgorod will be caught up in it. It’s close to the border. We sent my older brother to Novokuznetsk when the war started. Mom and I will go there too if we have to.
We have a very small apartment. Four of us live in one room. Two beds and a fold-out sofa fit in one room. The landlord doesn’t know we are from Yasinovataya. My grandmother’s friend rented the place for us.
The locals think that Donetsk people are useless and cause nothing but problems. If you take a taxi, the driver complains about «intruders». But all we did was move to another city. We’re not refugees. We’re just plain people. Why do they have to call us that?
Mom and I went to the university. Belgorod State University is really pretty! We went to the dean and asked how to be admitted with aid. I had my birth certificate and school diploma from the DPR with me, but I haven’t received a passport yet. The dean said, «Without a Russian or Ukrainian passport, you cannot be admitted.» So we left. I was really upset. I had been getting ready for the university. That was the reason we came to Belgorod. I was going to be the first person in my family to get a higher education. Everybody’s hopes were on me.
At least I’ll be able to work and help mom out with money. Not be dependent on her. I will get my passport and I will go to university next year.
We went to the Federal Migration Service (FMS) today. They said to wait. As long as it takes. They won’t issue any other form of ID. «I’m sick of you. Why do you keep asking questions? I have nothing to do with you!» the woman told us there.
I found a job. There are trampolines in the city park that have to be inflated, then children are let in, and in the evening you let the air out again. I got 500 rubles for a 12-hour shift.
There was a frightening and embarrassing moment once. On the city holiday, they shoot fireworks from cannons in Belgorod. One of those cannons went off ten meters from me. I understood that it was fireworks and not war. That I was safe. But as soon as I heard it — the shot, the explosion — I panicked. I hid behind a trampoline crying and waited for it all to end.
That shaking ground. That quivering air. You never get over it. I still jump at every loud noise. My first reaction is a flashback, a memory of war.
According to the law «On Citizenship of the Russian Federation», you must obtain a temporary residence permit (TRP) before applying for a passport under the general procedure. First you need to apply to be included in the quotas for the TRP in a specific subject of the Russian Federation, which is not easy to get, and only then can you begin to apply: obtaining a medical certificate and passing an exam in the Russian language, history and law.
You are also required to register your place of residence, which is rather difficult without owning your own home, since landlords do not like formal leases. Thus, an applicant for Russian citizenship can go for years with only a temporary residence permit. One year after registration your TRP, you can apply for a residence permit, stay in Russia for another five years, and only then apply for citizenship. Document processing takes a year. The total waiting time for a Russian passport may be eight years or more.
When applying for Russian citizenship under the simplified procedure, a foreign citizen or stateless person does not need to comply with the residence conditions of the general procedure (living in Russia continuously from when you receive a residence permit five years until you apply for citizenship). Ukrainian citizens who receive citizenship as native speakers of Russian do not need to receive confirmation from Ukraine of loss of Ukrainian citizenship. The categories of persons who can obtain citizenship under the simplified procedure are listed in Article 14 of the federal law «On Citizenship.»
According to official statistics, about half of the more than 1 million Ukrainian citizens who came to Russia sought temporary asylum. As of January 1, 2019, 75,000 people had temporary asylum (compared to 91,000 in 2018). According to the Interior Ministry, from March 2014 to November 2018, 416,917 people received temporary asylum.
According to Svetlana Gannushkina, chairperson of the Civic Assistance Committee, they stopped granting citizens of Ukraine temporary asylum in 2016, and were no longer renewing their status, and participants in the hostilities on the side of the separatists were being deported to Ukraine.
«We started seeing the first expulsions from Russia to Ukraine under Article 18.8 of the Code of Administrative Violations (violation of the rules of stay in the country) in 2017. When it concerned those who fought against Ukrainian troops, society was divided into critics from two sides. Some said, ‘Who are you defending? They betrayed Ukraine, fought against the regular army.’ Others said, ‘Let them go and fight for their Donbass.’ In Ukraine, they’ll be put on trial. Few people want to go back to the militia. We’re talking about people who did not want to fight. They fought in the militia while the Ukrainian army shelled their homes. A person does not decide for himself which side he will be on in a civil war. When they shoot at your home, you defend it, and you are not interested in the shooters’ ideology. And civilians always die in a war. One of those we defended went to war after a pregnant neighbor died. He was captured, he was exchanged, he did not want to go into the militia again. He came to Russia and applied for asylum. He was refused, and the court decided to expel him to Ukraine.
It makes sense. The people who decide whether or not to provide temporary asylum may have relatives in the military serving in the Interior Ministry troops in Donbass. They couldn’t get out of it. One migration service employee asked me personally—not in his official capacity, “Why should I help him get temporary asylum if my brother is fighting there? Is this young man going to sit here while we fight for his land?” In this immoral situation, it is impossible to take an unambiguously moral position. The only thing I can answer is, ‘If it were my brother, I wouldn’t let him fight in Ukraine’.»
The Interior Ministry responded to a Kommersant enquiry about the expulsion of Ukrainian citizens, «In accordance with the provisions of Federal Law No. 4528-I ‘On Refugees,’ of February 19, 1993, persons granted asylum in the territory of the Russian Federation are not subject to expulsion (deportation) from the Russian Federation.»
It takes nine months to get a passport. We wrote a letter to the president complaining about the FMS. I am 18 and I don’t have a passport yet!
I got my passport! I went out to buy beer. Really wanted them to card me, but they didn’t...
I am trying to get into the university again. Now I have to take the standardized test. The aid was only good for the first year after arrival, and it’s too late for me. I know I won’t pass.
I met a guy today! I think he likes me...
My classmate Dasha’s moved to Belgorod. We go to a board games club once a week, to acoustic night at the New York café, to the movies and to karaoke. I meet people easily. When I start to talk to people, they ask,
«Where do you go to school?»
«Nowhere,» I answer. «I just moved here.»
«Where’re you from? Why’d you move here?»
«There’s actually a war going on there.»
They don’t even know there’s a war in Donetsk. I show them pictures of ruins and they’re in shock that it’s so close to them, you can drive there in ten hours. Some ask more, but not with much interest — it’s not their problem. If it doesn’t happen to you, you can’t understand.
The war had become the topic of jokes for me, but they don’t understand that. I tell them, «This one time, there were Grad rockets flying overhead, explosions going on. I grabbed my laptop and ran for the cellar and I yelled out, «Mom, we gotta take the cat! Where’s Gina?» I laugh and they get bent out of shape over it. «Jeez, Mash. How can you laugh about that? Is everything all right with you?!»
I want to tell about it not so people will feel sorry for me, but because it’s the story of my life. Can you imagine? Here’s a girl who’s been through a war.
I’m getting the feeling that I’ve stopped developing. In Yasinovataya, I jogged every morning and worked out in the evenings. I painted, studied English, tried to do things. In Belgorod, I never have time for anything because of work. And I’m lonely. I want to go back to my own people.
Mom and I went to Novokuznetsk to be closer to my brother and start a new life. All my friends at work quit, Mom wasn’t doing great. Before we left, I broke up with my boyfriend.
Tonight I got a shock. It seems I’m pregnant. So I screwed up my courage and sent him a message. I wake up the next morning all calm and this is his reply: «I’ll be in Novokuznetsk tomorrow. Bought the ticket. Wait for me.» I was like what?! It was a dumb thing to do.
He came and rented a room, and insisted that I go back to Belgorod with him. He said he can help me to get to the university, so I agreed to go. I think it was his plan all along. The deciding factor was not him, but finally going to university. Mom is hoping for that too.
We came back to Belgorod and are living together. I did not get to the university. My aid has expired, so he suggested that I study at a private technical school for pay. His family paid my tuition, but I promised to return all the money.
After two weeks of school, I understood how much I like to study. But the money ran out, and I got a job in a food court. I don’t have time for studying. I work all the time to pay off debts, and my guy sits at home.
In December, I told my guy that we were breaking up. He locked me in the apartment, saying, «You’re not going anywhere. I’ll sue you.» I was frightened. I lied and said that I had changed my mind and we’ll stay together. Mom was in Novokuznetsk, I had nowhere to go. That night, I caught a bus and went back to my grandmother in Yasinovataya.
I’ve been living here for two months already. Mom went to Belgorod and is trying to talk me into returning too. She knows I want to keep studying. But there is no money for full-time studying, so I enrolled in correspondence courses in Donetsk. I’ll go in person for four weeks a year. I know I have to leave everything behind. To the people in Donetsk, I am just a nice girl who sometimes visits.
So I went back to Belgorod. Became a waitress at a Japanese restaurant. A colleague suggested I work in Sochi during the soccer World Cup. I asked the 8 Ball and it said yes. It was hard to leave Belgorod. I was afraid to leave my mother. She works a lot too, and she forgets to eat. I often took her food from work.
I started a new job in Sochi. I have never been happier. The restaurant is on the embankment and I see the sea every day.
Now I want to move to Kazan or Moscow. It’s a challenge for me — to move by myself, without friends or help from anyone, find work myself, find an apartment.
In October 2018, the Donetsk business portal DNR LIVE asked residents of Donetsk and Makeyevka when, in their opinion, the war would end. Among the respondents, 12.5% believed that the conflict in Eastern Ukraine would last more than ten years, 50.6% had trouble answering, and 22.3% thought the war would never end.
Russia has changed me. It’s everyone for themselves here. I have become more serious in the last five years. I feel confident in Sochi because I am dealing with my problems and living on my own. Back there I was under mother’s wing. We decided that, if we move to Russia, we won’t go back, no matter what.
Before the war, I never asked myself if I was Russian or Ukrainian. I’m just from Donetsk. I’m a patriot of my region, not of a country. Decide anything you like about who we will belong to and what we’ll be called, just leave us in peace. I want to walk down the street and not think a missile is about to fall on us and we’re all going to die.
I had thought the war was over resources, but most of the mines have closed. Donetsk’s only resource is iron, and they’re not producing it, and no one is taking over territory. It’s just military action. This war isn’t like the ones they tell about in books and show on television. This war has no purpose, and so it will keep going for a very long time.
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.
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
How the war in Donbass began
How the war in Donbass began
In late March and early April 2014, protests broke out in Eastern Ukraine against the new government in Kiev. Activists seized administrative buildings. The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) were created.
On April 12, 2014, armed supporters of the DPR under the command of Igor Strelkov seized the city of Slavyansk, and on the next day they fired on a column of Ukrainian forces. On April 14, acting Ukrainian President Alexander Turchinov signed an order authorizing an antiterrorist operation in Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv Regions.
On May 11, a referendum was held in the eastern part of Ukraine on the status of the region. In Luhansk Region 96.2% of the population voted to become an independent state, 3.8% were opposed. In Donetsk Region, 89.07% were for, 10.19% against. According to the election commissions, voter turnout was 74.87% in both regions. Leaders of the republics declared their sovereignty and requested to become part of Russia. On May 24, the DPR and LPR announced their unification into a single state known as Novorossiya.
On July 17, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger liner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over Donbass and 298 people were killed. Each side in the conflict blamed the other. An international investigation concluded that the airplane was brought down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system supplied by Russia. Russia denies this.
In August, antiterrorist forces suffered a defeat outside Ilovaisky. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office stated that 366 military personnel were killed and 150 were missing. Ukrainian military officials said that regular Russian troops took part in the fighting. Russia denies this.
In September, Russia and Ukraine, through the intervention of the OSCE, signed the Minsk Protocol, agreeing to a ceasefire, amnesty for participants in the conflict, the granting of special status to certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions and the holding of elections there. However, the ceasefire is hardly observed. In January 2015, fighting broke out again around the Donetsk airport, they fired on Mariupol and there was fighting near Debaltsevo.
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