Now that the war in Donbass has become a low-intensity conflict and media attention is focused elsewhere, residents of the self-proclaimed republics are left to their fate. Meanwhile, the separatists have barred all foreign NGOs, shuth down the local ones and arrested a number of volunteers.
A few days ago a post on Facebook from a friend of mine in Donetsk who manages humanitarian organization has made me squirm. «Some of our volunteers have been arrested. Our vehicles seized. We have to stop our activities».
Evgeny Shibalov and his brother Dmitry are the founders of Otvesvennje Grazhdane, Responsible citizens. Evgeny is certainly no secret of his sympathies for Ukraine, but his is a humanitarian organization has no political ties. During my last visit in the breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine, I have been with them for two days. I saw them and the other volunteers Olga Kosse and Marina Cherenkova going with their white Doblò around the most dangerous neighborhoods of Donetsk and the most remote villages, only to bring clothes and food.
Arrests
Those were the days when war at its height and mortar shells were falling everywhere. I saw them bring warm clothes and toys at an orphanage where the children slept in the canteen with sandbags at the windows because the bedrooms were exposed to artillery fire. I saw them bring food and medicine to the babushkas in Amvrosiivka, one step away from Russia, and never say no to anyone.
«Let us do the dirty work», said Evgeny once. «Let us in the most dangerous places, where foreign NGOs do not go». Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, UNHCR gave them parcels with aid because they take them from house to house.
Now no more. The separatist authorities have banned all international organizations from the territory and forced Otvesvennje Grazhdane to close. Marina Cherenkova was arrested and no information on her fate are available. Even Olga Kosse was arrested and later released and forced to leave Donetsk. Yet Evgeny has been banned by DNR. The organization’s vehicles, which are actually the volunteers’ cars, have been seized.
Evgeny appealed to the EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, ECHO, and even the UN, to intercede for the release of Marina and help them resume their activities, but hasn’t had any concrete response yet.
Isolation
The so-called Ministry of State Security of the Donetsk republic does not allow anyone to see Marina. Of course there is no legal defense. Nor it was given any explanation of why the arrests and expulsions.
As I wrote in another article, the dominant feeling walking through the streets of Donetsk is to be in a sort of Soviet Orthodox Caliphate. The Soviet iconography is omnipresent, often with a modern twist. The flags with the image of the Moscow Patriarchate – a face of Christ portrait with Orthodox solemnity – waves on top of public buildings. And one of the militias who first appeared in the city is named Russkaya pravoslavnaja armia, Russian Orthodox Army.
Among the local administration warhorses are the nationalization of enterprises and turning the closed McDonald’s in soup kitchens. While the paranoia of foreign spies is everywhere and the work for independent journalists is increasingly difficult.
The banning of NGOs and the arrests of volunteers are not only a threat for Evgeny’s team, but for the entire population of the separatist Donbass.
@daniloeliatweet
