The Donbass has found a way to deal with it. One day, the local crowd comes to sing along to the cover of ‘Kukushka,’ a song written by popular Russian rock star Viktor Tsoi, who died two decades ago in a motorbike crash. ‘Kukushka’ (‘cuckoo bird’ in Russian) has become a favorite wartime song in the Donbass. And the next night, people slamdance to the sounds of the American nu metal band Korn, performed by local guys. The lead singer intentionally sings and talks in English, trying to provide the audience with an authentic experience so that for one hour the fans could feel like they are watching Korn perform live for them. This couldn’t be real of course, because Korn would never end up on stage in the Donbass for all sorts of reasons: because the world is on lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, because there is a war going on in the Donbass, and because Korn is already history, and that history didn’t include Covid-19 or the Donbass war. But if young people here want to listen to Korn, they will listen to Korn. They create their own reality to the best of their ability.
The same can be said about other arts in the Donbass, including cinematography. Anton Gorokhov is 28. Eight years ago, he came here as a volunteer and soon was in charge of a group of drone pilots. As time went by, he realized that life was bigger than action on the battlefield. Today, Anton is shooting movies about people. Among other things, he produced the Donbass’ first film about war, ‘Opolchenochka’ (Russian for ‘militia girl’).
© Denis Grigoryuk
Anton soon became deputy head of the Union of Donbass Cinematographers after the non-profit organization was registered in the LPR. Right now, the Union has big plans discussing joint projects with Russian filmmakers. The Union represents Lugansk’s People’s Cinema Studios and Lugafilm studios, as well as Shakhtersk-based Donfilm studios, which produced the philosophical film ‘Zamysel’ (Russian for ‘conception’). The cinematographers of the Donbass want to spearhead development of the industry, and they do have a rich source of war-related stories to tap into. In this regard, they beat any Russian or post-Soviet cinema studios to the chase. The Union of Donbass Cinematographers is planning to run two film festivals in Donetsk and Lugansk in February and March this year.
“Will an escalation change our plans? No, it won’t. We’ve been working for eight years now here, in the war-stricken breakaway republics, and we’ve dealt with many escalations. Even if a full-scale war breaks out we will respond by making more movies. We will sleep less and work more. But of course, I can’t wait for Russia to finally take the plunge and claim its southern territories. In any case, I will keep doing what I’m doing, i.e. my military duty and making films, telling the stories.”
Anton also runs another project, the Young Diplomatic Corps of the Unrecognized States. It aims to encourage and facilitate contacts between the young people of Russia and the Donbass, as well as to promote acceptance of sovereignty of the Donbass breakaway republics by civil society. Anton believes it’s of critical importance to provide the platform to those who live in the unrecognized republics so they can voice their disagreements with the international community. He believes that “neither the UN nor any other international organization are capable of dealing with the challenges facing them, which is why we propose looking for new ways to build a new balanced world order.”
Among the young people Anton is trying to give the platform to are 24-year-old Alexander and his 25-year-old girlfriend Irina. Both have bachelor’s degrees in history from Donetsk National University. Irina is now working on her MA degree at her alma mater, while Alexander decided to get his from the St. Petersburg State University. Due to the pandemic, however, he is still in Donetsk, completing his course of studies remotely.
Although the young people have Russian passports, Irina doesn’t feel like she is a citizen of Russia. She would welcome an escalation in the Donbass. “War takes people’s lives, which is a very bad thing, but at the same time it gives us hope that the Ukrainian issue will be finally resolved,” she says. “In the long-term perspective, a full-scale war is less dangerous than a low-intensity conflict lasting for decades.”
Irina is aware that a political settlement always implies bargaining. She believes that bargaining is justified if the conflicting parties have something in common and can offer things to each other. “We are focused on global players, projecting the situation onto Russia and the US, which have a lot to offer each other,” she says. “A political settlement is justified in this case. But here, in a smaller arena, other kinds of players are involved – the Russians of the Donbass and the Ukrainian government. There can be no bargaining in our case.”
“We have disagreements over the agrarian issue,” Irina quotes a famous phrase by a Russian Civil War general. “They want to bury us in this land and we don’t want them to walk on our land. It’s just that this land is ours. I was born and raised here. This means that the only possible scenario is war. Besides, we know from history that there have been no examples of a conflict being successfully resolved through a peaceful settlement, it’s always just mediation. And this policy is only effective temporarily, until it all explodes once again.”
“I will pray for Novorossiya,” Irina jokes in response to the question of what she is going to do in case of an escalation. “Speaking in earnest, everything depends on how the military campaign goes. I will have to postpone my plans of moving to St. Petersburg indefinitely. With my current professional training, I will do what I can to help the civilians. The situation is aggravated by the fact that someone near and dear to me lives in Kharkov. So, if you want me to be completely frank, I am prepared to take even more radical actions if I need to.”
Alexander, on the contrary, identifies as a Russian citizen. “I am concerned about the current escalation of the conflict, but I’ve pinned my hopes on military and political assistance from Russia. As a Russian national, I want to be sure that the question of recognizing the DPR/LPR as independent states will be positively resolved in February.”
Alexander believes that a political settlement within the framework of the Minsk agreements in their current form will be the worst outcome. He describes himself as “a vehement opponent of the Donbass’ reintegration into Ukraine.” The only political settlement scenario he deems acceptable is for the DPR/LPR to be recognized as independent by Russia and subsequently be integrated into Russia. Otherwise, the only option is to get back to the frozen conflict stage.
At present, Alexander is in his final year at a Russian university. He is studying online and, irrespective of how the situation plays out, he is going to move to St. Petersburg and enroll in a post-graduate program. He does not see a future for himself in the Donbass. “Even if the DPR/LPR come under Russia’s jurisdiction, it will take decades to bring the quality of local political and economic management to the average level of the Russian regions. We can see this in Crimea,” he says.
© Denis Grigoryuk
Vladimir is not happy with the current political and economic management of the Donbass, either. For several years now, the 24 year-old has been providing humanitarian support to the locals who suffer from the ongoing military conflict.
“There is a house somewhere in Yasinovataya or the Kievsky district of Donetsk, owned by an old woman,” he recounts. “In 2016, or maybe 2017, her house was hit by artillery fire and the windows were broken. If she has any relatives and they are normal, sensible people, they will probably fix a window for her, even if not at once. But if there is no one to help, she will have to cover the holes with whatever comes to hand or some material she gets from her neighbors. She does not have money to buy new windows. So she will be living in a dark and damp house all this time – this dampness will get in through small cracks and gaps around the covered windows, resulting in black mold all over the walls and the ceiling of the house. It will kill her, eventually.”
Vladimir’s job is to help his fellow citizens who got in a similar situation. He is surprised that in the five years of relative calm on the front line, the DPR’s government has done absolutely nothing to remedy the consequences of combat activity. No emergency measures were implemented to help the people living close to the front line move further inland, or to support internally displaced people (IDPs) from the towns seized by Ukraine who had to take shelter in overcrowded recreation facilities or dilapidated dormitories.
“It takes time to replace a window. First, they take the measurements and then you have to wait for the window to be made. If we’re talking about just one window, everything will be done more or less fast, but a bulk order, for several families, takes more time to process, coordination takes time. We have had several cases when the customer did not live to receive the promised support. Sometimes, when we finally arrive at an old woman’s house to install a window, it is already too late. She has died, they tell us. It happened on several occasions. Once we were even treated with pastries at a funeral repast.”
Vladimir does not attach much importance to the present-day escalation, nor does he believe the status of the Donbass republics is going to change. He thinks that any offensive, limited to the Donbass – no matter if it comes from Ukraine, or the Donbass republics, or the Russians – will only bring more destruction and take more human lives. “This is an urbanized area, where both conflicting sides spent eight years in the trenches. Debaltsevo was destroyed and, after seven years, it is still in ruins. Why lose more lives, tens of thousands of lives? If Ukraine wins, it will have to address the Crimean issue and the need to restore the Donbass region it has destroyed with its own hands. If the republics get the upper hand, the war will continue, but the frontline will be moved to Mariupol and Slavyansk, instead of Gorlovka and Donetsk,” he says.
“Only the Russian peacekeepers can bring this war to a close by launching a massive attack against the rear parts of the Ukrainian armed forces. This is what can help end the war in Donetsk and Gorlovka, in Mariupol and Slavyansk, and in Kharkov, in Odessa, in Kiev. And this is when Crimea will finally get enough fresh water. [Ukraine has blocked almost 90% of the water supplies flowing into Crimea, after the republic joined Russia – RT.] And I will be able to finally ask this bunch of scum, our public officials – where is the money that was supposed to stop civilian losses? Where has it all gone, I will ask them, and I don’t care if this will make them think that I’m siding with Ukraine.”
These people, who fell victim to a geopolitical conflict, do not fool themselves. They do not insist that the path they have chosen is perfect and beyond reproach. The rasputitsa that we witnessed in September 2014 when the first Minsk Protocol was signed, then again in February 2015 with Minsk II, has diverted the Donbass and the rest of Novorossiya from their path of rejoining Russia. Dirty politics has almost succeeded in confusing millions of people, in persuading them that everything they have gone through – fighting, hardships, friends and family members killed in the war, all the defeats and victories – everything was done for the sake of something entirely different.
However, every nation has a special legend they turn to in times of hardships. The Russians of the Donbass are no exception. They go on living in their native land, hoping that this period of rasputitsa triggered by hybrid politics will be over one day, and all the foul and mean things that are happening now will freeze along with the mud of the steppes. And then these people, living in the constant fear that tomorrow may never come for them, will finally get a chance to liberate their towns and themselves. Are they afraid of the “Russian invasion” ? No, they are hoping for one. And they call it “humanitarian intervention.”
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this report are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
By Vladislav Ugolny, a freelance reporter based in Donetsk
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