2023-11-29 21:20:37
VD is Ukrainian. An engineer by training, he was born in Makiïvka in the Donbass region, now Donetsk People’s Republic, and studied at the Odessa Polytechnic University. He has been experiencing the conflict in Ukraine not since February 2022, but for more than nine years. And nine years is a very long time when you fear seeing your loved ones, your friends, die every day under bombs. Installed in Russia in 1994, V. agreed to bear witness for our readers to the reality of what he is experiencing and what the Russian-speaking people of Donbass have been experiencing since 2014. Let us not forget, moreover, that France is was a guarantor of the Minsk agreements and betrayed its commitment… For obvious security reasons, we cannot give you the name of the man interviewed, nor that of the journalist who carried out this interview.
You were born in Ukraine and now live in Russia. Can you explain your background to our readers?
I am 73 years old. I was born in Makiïvka, in what was Ukrainian Donbass at the time. I studied engineering at the Polytechnic University of Odessa, a city established by Tsarina Catherine II. I started working in Vladivostok as an electronics engineer. The factory manufactured components for Russian nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers and warships. Ships which were then assembled in a factory near Odessa.
Have you returned to Ukraine regularly?
Yes. That’s where I grew up and I still had a lot of friends there. This is my land, the place where my ancestors, and now my parents, are buried. Additionally, in the Orthodox religion we have a tradition: on the ninth day after Easter, we pay homage to our dead by visiting the cemetery in which they are buried. We talk to them. It’s a way of reconnecting with our roots, our ancestors, of honoring them.
Did you have problems getting to the cemetery this year?
Yes. Last April, there was heavy fighting in this part of Donbass and we could not come to honor our dead, it was too dangerous. I was arrested at the border of the Donetsk Republic due to the bombings. Fortunately, this part of Donbass became Russian, so I was able to take the risk of going there since to visit the family grave. My childhood friends, who still live there, took care of the burial. I owe them thanks because after the bombings, they had to restore the monuments. They sent me photos of the graves that they were trying to restore to their original state.
“People died under bombs supplied by NATO”
Did you risk your life without hesitation to return to the city of your birth?
It was a risk, certainly. The cemetery was prohibited due to the presence of Russian bases right next to it and, above all, the incessant bombings. But it is a duty to pay homage to our ancestors. It is important. If you neglect to take care of the graves of your ancestors, then your compatriots no longer respect you. You will be judged badly…
Did the Banderists do a lot of damage to the city?
Enormously. There are a lot of empty houses because people died from NATO-supplied bombs. Houses are destroyed. There are many stray dogs whose owners have died, so the residents who remain try to feed them as best they can. Next to the cemetery, there is a school where I myself studied as a child, which was bombed, as was the hospital…
The bombings obviously came from Avdiivka. It was the Banderists who bombed schools and hospitals. We didn’t understand why they were bombing neighborhoods where there were only civilians. With modern warfare techniques, we can know to the nearest meter where the missiles will land. We therefore knew that the shots were targeted at residential areas, hospitals and schools, even kindergartens! There were never any Russian soldiers where the missiles fell. The Russian armies were on the hills behind the city, where before there were orchards. But the Banderists were trying to kill as many civilians as possible, so they targeted kindergartens, markets…
The house of my childhood friends in Yassynouvata was bombed. The balcony and windows were destroyed. In the next apartment, there was a 20-year-old student who was killed while working on her computer at home…
When I was there, there were no windows. The windows had been closed with films, although the town hall gave residents free windows to replace those that had been broken. But what would have been the point of replacing them a fourth time? We waited for the cold to arrive to do it. No need to start over and over again.
“Most of my former friends who live in the West, under Banderism, consider me a traitor to Ukraine because my ancestors come from Zaporizhia”
You, who were born Ukrainian and who live today in Russia, how do you explain this hatred that has appeared between two brother peoples?
When I was studying at Odessa Polytechnic University I had many friends who today are scattered all over Ukraine. If some tell me that I was right to settle in Russia, most who live in the West under Banderism consider me a traitor to Ukraine because my ancestors come from Cossacks from Zaporizhia.
This attitude is not new. We have a tradition in Russia of getting together every five years between alumni of university schools. Before 2014, there had never been a problem, but in 2017 we were told: “SIf you come from Russia, you are not welcome.”
In fact, it is clear that a foreign power manipulated the Ukrainians to turn them against the Russians. It got to the point where some families were torn apart. I know a family in which both brothers joined the army, the other the Ukrainian army. They both have the rank of colonel. When they meet at the cemetery for Easter, they find themselves face to face, as enemies.
Even the history books in Ukraine have been rewritten. For example, about the Great Patriotic War, we can read that it was a war aimed at saving Ukraine because it was Ukraine that was attacked and destroyed. They rewrite history as it suits them and make fun of the truth. This is pure madness.
“During bombings, most people don’t even go down to the shelters”
How did you and the people when you were there manage to live under the almost constant bombardments?
The people of Donbass hope that this conflict will end soon because nine years is too long! We must not forget that, for us, this war started in 2014. We are very tired of this conflict, especially the elderly. During bombings, most people don’t even go down to the shelters! They stay at home. They stand along the load-bearing walls and far from the windows and wait for it to pass… There are too many bombings throughout the day. For locals, it’s exhausting to have to go down all the time. Even if the shelters are well secured. There is food, stocks of medicine, water. Likewise, we have problems with the supply of drinking water. We are forced to use non-potable water and even then, we only have it for a few hours a day, and every other day. Fortunately, the Russians installed cisterns with drinking water near the schools, and when the latter were bombed, they moved the cisterns near the stores. The canal that supplied the city with drinking water from the Severski Donets River was built a hundred years ago. It was destroyed by bombing. As is the water tank. Everything was almost destroyed by the Banderists.
We manage to have gas, water as best we can, electricity… it is Russia which provides what allows us to live. Fortunately, Russia’s Chelyabinsk region in the Urals is helping Donbass immensely. We were able to rebuild hospitals, schools and kindergartens. On the other hand, for residential buildings, it is the residents who manage to rebuild what they can. But every time something is rebuilt, it is destroyed again by bombing. It’s a vicious circle, a very complicated life. People are careful not to go where there are too many people. No one goes out without a good reason. Currently, the real heroes in the city are the postmen. They are the ones who provide cash pensions to the elderly. They cannot go to the ATM with their bank card to get money, it is too dangerous. The postmen also bring food products. They are not afraid. They are very courageous. Most people who were born in Donbass don’t want to leave anyway. It’s their home. It’s the land of their ancestors, they don’t want to leave it. The youngest certainly go to Russia to work, but they often end up returning to their land.
Some Ukrainians who lived in Donbas left when that part became Russian, but they are a minority. Many others, however, came from different regions of Ukraine to settle there because it had become Russia and they could, in this region, have a better future, even if it was necessary suffer the bombings…
The hardest part is for young children who were born with war and who hear the bombings night and day. They can’t stand it anymore. They can’t live with that. This is no life for a kid. There is never a break. Many people sent their children to boarding schools in the Rostov region of Russia to protect them from the war.
Find the rest and the end of this interview tomorrow.
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