People are dying while the DPR “elite” quarrels

A letter from occupied Donetsk, conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, about life so-called Donetsk People Republic (DPR), new orders and terrible reality for the ordinary citizens.

By Mykola Mykolaienko, Engineer from Horlivka for radiosvoboda.org.

There are two types of DPR militants: those who are cannon fodder and those who are crooks. The first group gives their life to indulge the objectives of the others.

If you look closely at “lawmaking” as it is conducted by the “people’s councils” in Donetsk and Luhansk you won’t be able to resist a smirk: alright, you say, so they’re trying to mimic a real parliament, good. But really, can what they are doing, writing crude copies of Russian laws (including the grammatical errors) be considered lawmaking? And after the “laws” are written the so-called authorities apply themselves to learn those “laws” and then to try to “implement” them.

Backstage the true face of the “deputies” and “ministers” is sometimes revealed, inducing glee and horror.

In Donetsk drunk militants from the “Oplot” unit [of separatists] rammed into the car of Roman Manekin, who serves as “executive advisor” to the DPR “officials.” The woman who was in the car with Manekin was injured in the incident and required medical attention. Roman Manekin wrote about this on his Facebook page.

“Unfortunately it was impossible to ‘hush up’ the story. About an hour ago the car with drunk (as it looked to me) ‘separatists’ rammed into my relative’s car in the center of Donetsk. I went to ‘file a complaint.’ The ‘separatists’ admitted that it was their fault and promised to pay for the damages. At first I was going to ‘pull on the brakes’ – life is complicated, and anything can happen. The woman, my relative’s friend, felt so bad after the shock had worn off that we had to summon an ambulance. Steel is steel and a human is a human. We decided to press forward with the complaint. Too bad!” Manekin wrote in his post.

So why should we be surprised about what the less important “figures” in Donetsk are up to?

They say that one of the “deputies” had arranged the release of a beverage, “Coca Cola.” And yes, a beverage labeled “Real Cola” appeared in markets within the occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast. The design of the bottle was an exact copy of the real “Coca Cola.” Except that those fake Coke bottles had the “Novorosia” logo on them.

The “Novorosia Project” has the leadership of the DNR in disagreement. One of the disagreements involves the “advisor,” Manekin. A conflict exists between this “advisor to the government of the DNR” and Oleksandr Kofman, the “official Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPR.”

Recently Kofman was reprimanded for an interview he had given in which he stated that the “Novorosia Project” was closed. He tried to explain it all in a very convoluted way. Possibly the incident would have been ignored if Manekin hadn’t pointed a finger at Kofman saying that because he was a Jew his presence in the DNR was not wanted.

“Once Oleksandr Kofman has stated that the ‘Novorosia Project’ should be ‘frozen,’ then what is he doing in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DNR? The young man was appointed to the position not for his stellar performance as a career diplomat but as the result of sharing ministerial responsibilities among Oleg Tsarev’s people as an act of protest against Gubariev’s followers and the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ movement and against those who are for the ‘Novorosia Project’ in general. Keep in mind that at one time Kofman had broken off with the Gubariev bunch to join Tsarev’s bunch. That was the only ‘helpful action’ he had performed in his diplomatic career,” Manekin wrote.

The morgues in Horlivka and Ienakieva are full of corpses. Just in the last few days 25 militants’ corpses were brought to the Ienakieva morgue. The morgues in Novoazovsk and Starobeshev are similarly full of corpses. The dead are the victims of battles with the Ukrainian forces as well as the infighting among the warlords and gangs.

The crooks who are in leadership positions in the DNR and the LPR represent the interests of the Kremlin oligarchs. Their chief role is to pretend that they are “ministers” and “deputies,” puffing themselves up to look important and to give the impression that their job is central and decisive.

They cannot and do not want to be bothered with the real condition the so-called “Novorosia” is in. I will cite an example to demonstrate how things have deteriorated.

In the town of Anthrasyt the coal miners who work in the “Komsomolska” mine began to strike. The miners brought a simple demand to the “government” of the so-called LPR: to pay the wage arrears for their labor. They say the strike is still going on. Before the occupation the “Komsomolska” mine was part of the “Anthrasytvuhillia” corporation and was considered to be among the most promising in Ukraine.

Another promising mine, this one in my native Horlivka, has been dismantled. The dismantled parts were shipped out to Russia as scrap metal. And in Avdiivka the coke plant has been demolished. The coke plant was the city’s lifeblood. Avdiivka cannot survive without it.

A big thank you goes out to the “DPR,” the real patriots of the Donbas!

EMPR, O. R. contributed to this publication

Original article in Russian is available on radiosvoboda.org