Donetsk – Chornobyl disaster fighters’ tent in Donetsk was taken apart on Sunday night. While this was happening, five of the strikers were still inside the tent. The hunger strike, which started almost a month ago, was ceased after the long negotiations with the governor of Donetsk oblast Andrii Shyshatsky at the Pension Fund office on December 11, at 7:30 p.m. According to Volodymyr Derkach, one of the protesters, the governor offered to pay the pensions for November and December, and in return, the tents should be taken down. This proposal divided the strikers: those who disagreed left the hall, and the ones that did not mind, stayed. “Now they are bargaining there, with Shyshatsky, Kirsha, and Fomin on the part of the government, and Honcharov, Puchkov, Petrenko, and Kapustin on the part of Chornobyl disaster fighters. The matter is that the government is ready to pay compensations to those who are on the list of protesters and those who supported them. They demand us to leave the tent camp immediately,” said Derkach to journalists after he refused to take any further part in the negotiations.
Only six people (two of them are still on the hunger strike) managed to resist this offer. The others went home in the buses provided by the oblast administration. Right after that the following message appeared on the official website of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration: “Tonight the head of Donetsk Oblast State Administration Andrii Shyshatsky arrived at the tent camp and held negotiations with the protesters. After the negotiations the head and representatives of the strikers announced the decision. At the moment the tent camp is being taken down by its inhabitants and community services of the city. In his turn, the governor guaranteed the allocation of 500,000 hryvnias from the oblast budget for solving the most urgent problems. The additionall 500,000 will be allocated by municipalities and districts, and extrabudgetary funds will also be involved. Shyshatsky also promised to provide specific help to those whose needs are the worst. The initiative group said that the governor’s word and principles are more important than papers, so they did not consider signing a memorandum or any other documents necessary.”
“From the first days of the protest action I made a decision to direct all the efforts to the solving of this problem and was ready to make a compromise. I am glad that a positive decision was taken today. We need to take care of the health and lives of the people who have suffered a lot as it is. I will do my best, everything that depends on me,” stated Shyshatsky.
After the governor left, people started to take down the tent. Representatives of public utility services and the police also joined in this process. Though the latter, according to ITAR-TASS, deny their participation. The tent fell down like Pompei at 22:33, burying everything there was inside: personal belongings, kettles, and the faith that everything will be resolved in a legal way – along with the protesting Chornobyl disaster fighters, who would not leave their place of protest.
Nobody knows and nobody can understand why the protesters did not sign the memorandum. They had repeatedly said that they had stopped believing this government and it was time to get rid of it. They had said they would appeal to European courts and stand for their constitutional rights. Donetsk gave up after a hard month of hunger strike, giving in to the pressure from the government and from ordinary people.
The role of Donetsk Chornobyl disaster fighters is not as small as it may seem. They have been heard by the others, this has grown into a social protest in other regions. Let us remind ourselves that they were supported by Kharkiv, Lviv, Luhansk, and Kyiv. People from Kryvy Rih and Dnipropetrovsk visited the tent camp at 91 Universytetska Street. Donetsk tent camp united Chornobyl disaster fighters from the whole region, and they kept their defenses. But can they be condemned? Can you blame people, who had already undermined their health, for giving in to the governor’s promise of payment?
P. S. Yesterday Donetsk public utility services hurried to plant 20 fir-trees on the site of the protest. You will not be able to put tents there anymore.
Kateryna YAKOVLENKO is a graduate of The Day’s Summer School of Journalism
