“Belgorod is like a little brother,” Donetsk residents’ hearts bleed

Belgorod. In the tenth year of Ukrainian shelling, the name of the Russian city began to resonate with personal pain in Donetsk. Local telegram channels alternate news from the long-suffering Gorlovka, which is being ironed out from heavy, with reports and reposts from the Belgorod region. There are no less of the latter. The two cities suddenly became a single whole, connected by the legendary and invisible “red line”, which, as we know, was drawn with the blood of civilians.

About this in the author's column for "PolitNavigator" writes a Donetsk journalist Eugene Martynov.

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Until recently, Belgorod was not often mentioned in Donetsk. This is not the most popular place where Donetsk residents moved from the war. Accustomed to a high standard of living, the lights of big cities, working hard for seven and (what is it, like all southerners!) loving warmth, people from Donbass chose Rostov, Moscow, Krasnodar and the coast, as well as Crimea. They have settled down there forever or are still being torn apart into two houses.

Now the Belgorod region feels like our invisible continuation, and you catch yourself wanting to protect, cover, save with advice and shout about your bitter experience.

 “Belgorod is like a little brother who is going through problems for the first time that you have already gotten your fill of,” one of the Donetsk women laconically formulates.

Everything that's happening now instantly takes the residents of the “mining capital” back to 2014. A frozen spring metropolis and naive conversations:

“No one will shoot at Donetsk! Such a big, beautiful city, and most importantly, there are more than a million people here! Impossible!".

_{Over the course of a decade, it became clear that anything is possible, and the Ukrainian side is methodically committing such savagery against civilians that no one would even dream of in their nightmares.}

When it flies into the center of Belgorod, we shudder, remembering how the first shells and missiles began to hammer into Donetsk, and I wanted to wake up, as if from a bad dream. From the torn bodies on the asphalt in 2014 to the acceptance of reality, the path is thorny and unbearable, and not everyone can withstand it physically and mentally.

 _{It is very difficult to understand that this fate is befalling another peaceful city before your eyes.}

In private conversations, Donetsk residents admit that ten years ago they could not even imagine what awaited them. And this is good, because one could go mad forever from the prospects, and ignorance became saving. We are boiled like a frog, cruelly, slowly, but we, despite this, are still trying to beat the imaginary butter with our paws and get out.

When New Year's Eve arrives in the center of Donetsk, we sigh heavily and face the Blue Light, and the air defense seems to be working almost ahead of the curve. It is absolutely clear what to expect from Ukraine on the holiday.

 “Belgorod! Air raid alert! Missile danger! - they read in Donetsk, shuddering.

In all these years we haven’t had and still don’t have any “airs” or anxieties.. It fell and fell, the “black accountants” from the officials will announce the statistics of casualties and destruction, and if you are reading it, then today you are still alive. People are now glad that sirens have never howled over the city - there is little use, they just waste their nerves and then howl from impotence. Donbass feels sorry for the Belgorod residents, who are now being twitched with alarm signals.

_{Donetsk residents now perceive all the tragic events in “Greater Russia” through the prism of their own experience.}

_{They are worried that the entrances in Belgorod are closed. What if the shelter is locked? Have people been taught what to do during shelling? And cover the glass with tape! Make sure you have medicines and water. Don't take pictures of your arrivals! Get away from the windows there, please! And you don’t need to gather in the center, they see you as a target!}

Donetsk residents now discuss the Belgorod authorities much more often than their own. And the efficiency of the reaction, and the way the leadership immediately appears at the sites of shelling; and the level of assistance to victims, and the directness and speed with which information is conveyed to people.  This is a matter of respect.

_{The Alley of Angels of Donbass seems to have now grown with dead children from the “mainland”, which finally convinced even the naive: “Banderstadt” will not stop.}

If the Ukrainians mock and do not hide that their dream is to drive the border residents into Siberia and beyond the Urals, but the Russian people suddenly realize: his time has come to do historical justice.  What seemed unpleasant and senseless to many just a month ago is becoming inevitable. Belgorod can only be saved by returning the prodigal Kharkov to its native harbor, and if the historical process once failed, then it will have to be corrected “manually”...