In late February, we received a good friend in our office; it was Starobilsk civic activist Volodymyr Hryhorenko who now serves with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and had got to know us due to... the war. In the summer of 2014, when the defenders of Ukraine needed greatest financial and moral support, NGO Volia, based in the city of Starobilsk, Luhansk region, was the first to volunteer to help with the delivery of Den to the frontlines.
Soldiers of the Aidar Battalion, which was stationed in the region at the time, were the first to receive our newspaper, while soldiers from other units joined them later on. Hryhorenko and Volia’s chairwoman Natalia Ponomariova have guided our work in this field ever since.
“IT IS SCARY TO SEE EVERYONE GETTING USED TO THE SITUATION”
Six months ago, Hryhorenko changed his status from a civic activist to a mobilized soldier, so he now enjoys the double-focus perspective on the situation in Ukraine’s east. “Unfortunately, I have not seen any significant improvements in the civilian-administered area,” our interlocutor admitted.
“It applies to the population as well as the leadership. It is indicated, for instance, by the fact that our head of the raion administration is now the same official who presided over the May 7, 2014 attempt to surrender our raion to the separatists. We submitted video and photo proofs of it to the security forces. The question is why they have not taken any measures. A few criminal cases have been opened in connection with these events, but they claim they lack evidence required to formally notify any named individuals of suspicions.”
The Starobilsk resident is most upset about people “getting used” to the situation. “People in the occupied areas are getting used to it too. They say, ‘it cannot be helped. Will we join Russia or not, that is another matter. We have lights on and running water...’ And people living in the Ukrainian-controlled territory think like this. All are tired. They say, ‘let it continue that way, as long as we have peace.’ This is really scary,” Hryhorenko said. He continued: “People’s mood is the most troubling issue. I mean that neutral, indifferent group. When you hear people saying that 70 to 80 percent of locals are pro-Russian, it is necessary to qualify it: they are pro-Russian because they are gullible. When a person is not interested in anything, they absorb any lie with utmost ease. They are ‘pro-Russian’ due to the circumstances they could not resist. They are indifferent to all things of higher nature, their interests are limited to their refrigerator, bed, toilet, TV, and kitchen. That is all. They have no convictions and no need for development.”
Hryhorenko is greatly concerned with the situation in the army as well. He stressed: “I am neither the commander-in-chief, nor the chief of the General Staff nor a brigade commander, so what I will now say is only my subjective opinion. I do not know the plans of our leadership, but a look inside shows the unreasonableness of the existing way and method of army recruitment. Total mobilization gets us totally unsatisfying quality of servicemen. In my subjective opinion, should the government let go that half of recently mobilized men who, I think, serve less than fully well, the military would only benefit.”
Hryhorenko himself joined the army as a volunteer aiming to liberate our soil with troops of the A sector. However, he has not been assigned to frontline service yet. “I have been touring training grounds for six months already,” the patriot noted sadly, “while I want to do my duty as a soldier.”
However, the Starobilsk resident remains optimistic: “Whatever happens, we still have a certain percentage of patriots. They will go through despite it all. In the end, the victory will be ours. It is unclear only when it will come and at what price. Nonetheless, we keep hoping.”
“THE PRINTED WORD WILL PLAY A GREAT ROLE FOR A LONG TIME YET”
“When we just learned about this newspaper, we first tried to deliver as many copies as possible directly to the frontlines,” Hryhorenko said as our conversation moved to the theme of media. “With growing experience, it then became evident that it was better to leave newspapers in the immediate rear areas, where soldiers go on short-distance rotations. Also, they should be sent to checkpoints, where soldiers have more time and opportunity to read. And we must look for opportunities to provide a few copies of each issue to local civilians as well, and we did so. In my opinion, it has a greater effect this way, because northern districts of Luhansk region are populated, to simplify things, with ‘children and retirees.’ Sometimes, they lack Internet access and cannot understand useful thoughts that make fleeting appearance on TV. Elderly people re-read newspapers a few times, which helps them to achieve a deeper understanding of the situation. The printed word will play a great role for years.”
Volia NGO’s chairwoman Ponomariova shares his opinion. “For soldiers, Den is like a breath of fresh air. Thank you very much for providing our boys with this information source which reached them even in the most remote postings,” we heard from this woman who actually signed the letter of gratitude which we received via Hryhorenko. “This symbolic gesture comes as a joint decision of our NGO and soldiers serving in Starobilsk and neighboring raions,” Ponomariova emphasized in a telephone conversation with Den.
The dubious “ceasefire” still leaves Volia with a great deal of work. “We are helping mothers with identification of fallen soldiers’ bodies. We have also got a request from Vinnytsia region where a mother is looking for a son: since he is absent from killed-in-action lists, she thinks he may have been taken prisoner. We also help displaced persons, establish live connections between soldiers and their families in other regions, including by recording video greetings for holidays. Also, our organization is currently participating in the Justice for Peace in the Donbas coalition, which records violations of human rights in the anti-terrorist operation area, with regard to civilians as well as soldiers,” Ponomariova briefly described “her own war.”
“Our boys are waiting for Den. They want to be aware of all developments. Even if they get the newspaper with a short delay, they still need to have this well-balanced and objective information,” Ponomariova said as she conveyed soldiers’ opinion. We have good news for them, then, since the Ministry of Defense agreed to additional deliveries of our Friday edition’s copies to Kramatorsk, Bakhmut, and Starobilsk, starting in February. And we know that our Starobilsk friends will certainly help us to deliver these copies.
