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"People in Donbass have been living under fire for eight years now"

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"People in Donbass have been living under fire for eight years now"

30.03.2022

Helge Buttkereit

Gifts for the children in Donbass. Photo credit: AK ZukunftDonbass e. V.

Iwana Steinigk is a co-founder of the Alliance for the Future of Donbass, a non-profit organization from Thuringia that raises and ships humanitarian aid to Eastern Ukraine. She shared about their efforts and her perception of the situation in the region.

– What activities is the Alliance for the Future of Donbass engaged in?

– We are a free association of Thuringian residents who want to be involved in humanitarian activities and help the victims of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. It was founded in 2016. After the Maidan, the declaration of independence of the LPR (Lugansk People's Republic) and the DPR (Donetsk People's Republic) was issued. Then Oleksandr Turchynov as the interim president of Ukraine declared the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation, which actually was the commencement of military operations in 2014. It started with aerial bombing. After that the AFU, the Ukrainian ground troops, advanced into the region. There were very heavy military clashes with the people's militia (of Donbass, Russkiy Mir (hereinafter referred to as RM)). There were many civilian objects damaged, such as kindergartens, schools, residential buildings, and, obviously, hospitals. So we wondered about what could be done in this situation. Our desire was to help the innocent civilians affected by this conflict. We have been raising and shipping donations ever since.

– What specifically do you deliver to Eastern Ukraine?

– We arrange medical furniture, ultrasound, sonography, and other essential equipment, defibrillators, medical supplies, such as cannulas, syringes, and bandages. We receive financial contributions, which we donate to various social institutions, such as schools, hostels for internally displaced persons, orphanages, and other facilities.

Next, when we have sufficient donations to fill out a truck and trailer, as well as funds to cover the transportation costs, the truck and the trailer are loaded up and sent on to their destination.

– You go to a war zone, don't you? Isn't it dangerous?

– There were military collisions back in 2014/15. A relative cease-fire was established after the first Minsk agreement (the Minsk Protocol, RM). It was respected more or less. During the period from 2016 to Christmas 2021, our supplies were not affected by active clashes. Everything was rather quiet with the exception of 2021. Actually, the escalation that we are witnessing now started much earlier.

– What is the current situation? When is your next delivery scheduled?

– We have two trucks ready to go as there are enough donations. Basically, deliveries of humanitarian aid are exempt from sanctions. Currently, we are checking whether it's even possible to reach Eastern Ukraine since there is a risk of ending up in a zone of active hostilities. However, we can't just sit back and wait. How long will that take? Right now there is an obvious and urgent need for our help. So, we're doing our best to dispatch the shipment there in the shortest possible time. Up to now, we partnered with a Belarusian freight forwarder. We used to order them to pick up this donation delivery from us. German forwarders have not been going to Eastern Ukraine since 2015 or even 2014.

– How exactly are your shipments delivered? What routes do you use?

– So far we used to go through Belarus and Russia. We first brought donations to the LPR. It was relatively easy. It was not possible to go through Ukraine delivering donations for the self-proclaimed republics. They would probably have been confiscated or at least blocked on the front lines.

– Why was Donbass selected as a destination for your deliveries?

– That's due to the fact that foreign donations for those regions of conflict tended to be minimal. Just take a look at the UN reports. The last one dates back to 2019. It has the distribution of international donations being listed there with the ratio of at least 70 to 30 percent. It means that the self-proclaimed republics received up to 30% of the total, while the territories under Ukraine's control received at least 70%.

– Doesn't that ratio reflect the proportions of the republics' territories to the rest of Ukraine?

– Please take a closer look at the implications of the conflict. Thus, there is a tremendous disproportion between 2014/15 and 2022. That is due to the fact that the damage caused by hostilities in the Donbass republics has been much more severe. It means that up to 70 to 80 percent of the losses were actually incurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The conflict did not affect all of Ukraine but these regions only. After 2015, the republics' territories were reduced to about one-third (of the size of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions as part of Ukraine, RM). The armistice border runs along the demarcation line (a corridor that is 12.5 to 18.5 miles wide and about 261 miles long. It is this zone of conflict that should be the bases for the number of casualties to be counted. These numbers are terrifying.

– We're experiencing a tremendous willingness to help in Germany right now. Donations are being collected everywhere, there are people who want to go and help. What do you think of this in terms of your experience in the past years?

– People want to go to Poland or other regions and take care of Ukrainian refugees. This is great. It's the right thing to do and it's important. Of course, they need to be looked after in some way. People who are currently in those border regions and need help don't necessarily want to go to Germany or other EU countries. Perhaps they will just stay there through current events in their country.


A humanitarian shipment from Germany was delivered to the Luhansk People's Republic. Photo credit: AK ZukunftDonbass e. V.

At the same time, the majority of people who are now fleeing Ukraine used to have a very peaceful life for eight years as opposed to residents of Donbass who had to survive under fire being surrounded by dead, wounded, and neverending fear. Many people in Germany were not even aware of this.

– Do you hear anything about the people in Donbass? How is their life now after Russia's recognition of the people's republics and the beginning of the war?

– We used to deliver supplies to hospitals very close to the front lines. These regions were affected very badly. There is a large contingent of Ukrainian troops right to the northwest of the two republics that now has been now recognized by Russia.

Those Ukrainian troops are being surrounded by people's militia forces and the Russian military advancing from the north and south. At this very moment, this is the area where severe fights are taking place. For instance, our contacts in Pervomaisk located about four miles from the demarcation line reported to be attacked by shells of 4.8 to 6 in. caliber since the beginning of March. Such shells make huge holes in the buildings. According to Minsk 2 (the Second Minsk Agreement, RM), shells of such calibers shall not be used there. Other towns and cities that we keep in touch with have also been exposed to massive shelling. The damage caused so far is enormous. People are still living in fear.

– How did you personally join the Donbass aid campaign?

– My mom is Ukrainian, and we have relatives in the Kiev area. I used to work there for some time. I speak both Russian and Ukrainian. I follow up and read what has been reported about the Maidan and its aftermath since 2014. I was rather shocked by the way those events were judged here in Germany and compared it to reports in media for Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking people. Also, if you can talk to people who live there, you get a completely different idea of what is going on.

– What would you expect in the region in the near future?

– I do hope that Ukraine will not suffer the fate of the people of Donbass who have been living under war conditions for eight years. It is my sincere hope that the hostilities on both sides would cease and the number of civilian casualties will be as minimal as possible.

– Most Ukrainians are just as innocent of the situation they are currently exposed to like the people in Donbass.

It is obvious. It has always annoyed me that the terms "separatist" and "terrorist" were used simultaneously in the Western European or even German narrative. Being aware that there are 3.7 million residents in the two republics, and most of them are women, children, and elderly people, I wonder: who are the terrorists and separatists we are talking about? The same applies to the rest of Ukraine. They are mostly civilians who are not concerned with politics.

– How are you and the Alliance dealing with the current situation?

– More people have noticed us now. They visit our website and see that we have delivered 32 trucks of aid since 2016. They become convinced that our activities are real, so they offer us their help. We have always been very open about our efforts for Donbass.

I myself used to go there on a regular basis because I want to know where the donations are used and whether they are used for the purposes that we sent them for. So I keep in touch with the local volunteers and the recipients of our aid.

– When was the last time that you visited the region?

– It was June 2021.

Volunteers from the Future of Donbass Iwana Steinigk is on the far right. Photo credit: AK ZukunftDonbass e. V.

– Was the situation already tense back then?

– Let us recall that back in February 2021, the Russian Federation held military exercises in that region. Western press was talking about projecting power and attacking plans at the time. In January 2021, several highly controversial laws were enacted in Ukraine, including the language law meant to expel the Russian language that came into force earlier this year. Another example is the law on internment intended to regulate the resettlement of Russian-speaking people after the republics return to Ukraine. Both laws fueled the tensions in Eastern Ukraine where mostly Russian-speaking Ukrainians live. Furthermore, we can see an extreme rise in ceasefire violations in the OSCE reports for January, February, and March 2021. It was relatively quiet in June when I was there. Nevertheless, the spring of 2021 was a forerunner to the events of September and October 2021.

I also keep wondering whether Russia might have responded in a different way after eight years of failed diplomatic negotiations on the Donbass issue. For eight years they insisted on the implementation of Minsk 1 and 2. For eight years Kiev used to absolve itself of responsibility. At first, they silently refused to implement Minsk 2. Then they declared that they would not implement Minsk 2. It happened in the fall of 2021. Zelensky said this, as well as Danilov, the head of the Security Council, and other members of the government.

– What have the Russians done to ensure the implementation of Minsk-2? Have they really fulfilled the agreement?

– The Russian Federation has not been a party to the conflict. However, not many people are aware of this, or they are confused. Russia, just like Germany and France, is a guarantor of its implementation. The Minsk Agreement features Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk republics as the parties involved in the conflict that shall negotiate or implement the points of the Minsk agreements. There are the so-called guarantors that guarantee that the parties to the conflict implement the agreement. So the fact is that the Russian Federation has no authority to enforce the agreement. It is only a guarantor. We can also ask what France and Germany have done or omitted to implement it.

The second Minsk agreement was reinforced by UN resolution No. 2202 dated February 17, 2015. The Russian Federation saw no alternative to Minsk 2 and kept repeating it until February 21 of this year when the self-proclaimed republics were recognized. The negotiations were resumed in the renewed Normandy format in 2019. That year Zelensky was elected with 74 percent of the vote. The Ukrainians gave him a huge credit of trust. His first campaign pledge was to end the war in Donbass. However, he did not deliver on that promise.

– So if war is not an answer from the standpoint of the people both in Donbass and all of Ukraine, what might the outcome of negotiations look like?

– It's really hard to say. It is my personal opinion that there is no way to get back to the negotiations on the status of the republics and the security requirements of the Russian Federation. We will see the issues to be discussed based on the results of this military intervention by the Russian Federation or the reaction from Western European countries and the United States.

I think all the possibilities for a peaceful resolution of this conflict have been lost.

The Ukrainian population, I mean ordinary people both in Donbass and in other parts of the country, have neither resentment nor hatred for each other, and at the moment they are just pawns of the nationalistic forces and geopolitical interests.

Translation from German by Svetlana Solovyova

Source: Hintergrund

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