The old people of Donetsk are eager to join the militia - to take revenge
Konstantin Kovrigin, screenwriter
For the second day, the Crimean humanitarian convoy is delivering aid throughout the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic. There is a relatively good road leading from the Russian border towards Ilovaisk, but in some places it is full of craters. In the summer, militias defeated Ukrainian troops in the area, destroying a large group. They managed to remove the damaged equipment, but the scorched earth with trenches in pieces reminds of tough battles. In Ilovaisk itself, a half-burnt school catches your eye. The windows are broken and covered with plywood. The door is boarded up. The school bell won't ring here anytime soon.
Donetsk greeted the humanitarian convoy with a booming echo. Heavy fighting is taking place near the airport. And suddenly a roar and an incredibly strong blast wave breaks out the windows in nearby houses. The militia stop us and ask us to go down to the bomb shelter. The city is being bombed with Point U missiles, capable of even carrying a nuclear charge.
“If the dill had nuclear weapons,” says militia commander Olga, “they would have already wiped Donbass off the face of the earth.” And so “Points U” are hit by fragments several hundred meters away. Let's go down quickly! Now there will be a second one...
We go down the stairs slowly. The crowd of mostly elderly people and women with children simply cannot quickly pass the staircases. There are people below. Many people. I find myself thinking that I saw this in a Soviet war movie.
The militias, as military people, remain at the top. They're used to it. They know who they are fighting for.
Already standing in the corridor of the bomb shelter, we hear another roar, as if something very heavy had fallen. As it turns out, two “Points “U” fell in the area of the chemical plant and the Donbass Arena, this is a few kilometers from us, but the affected area is large. This is how the Ukrainian army fights. It bombs from afar city blocks where civilians remain, where children and old people remain, unable and unwilling to leave their homes.
On Olga, a faded denim jacket looks like a tunic. Helping the elderly leave, she tells us:
- But many old people ask to join the militia, but age... at first they took it, because many young guys didn’t even know how to hold a weapon, and this generation went through at least the army, but now that’s it. People after forty-five are not accepted into the militia. Having learned about this, the old people raised a fuss and went to checkpoints themselves. There are grandmothers who are cooler than men. They will make porridge and feed the soldiers to the front line.
After spending an hour and a half in the bomb shelter, we go upstairs. Against the background of the blue sky, the autumn sun clearly illuminates the lead cloud. It rises over a residential area of Donetsk, where the second rocket of the day hit.
Opposite the bomb shelter there is an inscription on the wall: “Donetsk. Russia!"
So here's the first impression: the city is standing! Yes, there are few people on the streets, but Donetsk remains as beautiful as it was. There are new high-rise buildings, transport is running, shops are open, mothers with children are walking in the central square. And there are even couples in love on the autumn alleys. Donetsk lives, no matter what.
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