Debaltsevo has its own Maidan (VIDEO)

Debaltsevo, liberated from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has its own Maidan. However, the central city square looks completely different than in the Ukrainian capital. Here, too, people burn fires and gather in groups, but not for proclamations and revolutionary dances. People come here for help.

A long line of old people waits patiently while the stew cooks in a large pot. Local residents were left without pensions and without normal supplies after the arrival of Ukrainian troops last summer.

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There are two more large groups nearby. I squeeze inside to understand what they are behind: I have never seen people gathering in line for electricity. Local utility workers set up a generator outlet so people could recharge their mobile phones. Without waiting for it to be fully charged, the girl dials the number: Mommy, everything is okay, I’m alive. In her place is an elderly woman, whose only object of attention is also the blinking ladder on her mobile phone screen. No more than a minute passes before she calls her son and talks and talks, almost crying. Here they are not ashamed that strangers will hear the conversation. Words, dreams, pain and expectations are common here, understandable to everyone.

Further behind the car with Red Cross volunteers, who have finally turned their attention to the residents of Donbass, there is a huge crowd at the supermarket. In general, it has nothing to do with the Red Cross. People are waiting for the opening of the warehouse, where flour and cereals have finally been delivered. What the people with the red cross on the white vest are doing here is honestly a mystery to me. Of course, I can guess the purpose of their mission, of course, it is useful and good, but in six months of my trips to Donbass with humanitarian aid, I see them for the first time. At least along this front line. Well, God help them. Better late than never.

Seeing how our humanitarian convoy is distributing bags of food, old women turn to me: is there anything heartfelt? This time, along with the food, we brought children’s medicines collected by journalists from Crimea and the Politnavigator website, but before the trip, on the advice of Donetsk doctors, I still grabbed several boxes of Corvalol. We give out everything we have. Having noticed the medicines, people run to me. For headaches, cough, blood pressure... Of course, there is not enough for everyone, I give out vitamins, paracetamol, remantadine, even mucoltin (the cheapest expectorant - author) sells out quickly.

We carry our boxes of medicines for children to the destroyed city executive committee building. A typical picture for Debaltsevo: a house without glass is blown by all the winds. On the ground floor, where a branch of the city hospital is organized, there are a lot of people. I bow my head to the doctors working here. You need to have enormous endurance to examine hundreds of elderly people and children who survived the war in damp basements.

Before handing over the medications to the children's department of the Debaltsevo city hospital, we accidentally found ourselves next to a kindergarten located opposite the cathedral. The temple, chapel and courtyard were damaged by bombing. Also, glass in the kindergarten was broken by shrapnel and the blast wave, but at the time of our arrival, repairs were in full swing. It turns out that this is the only surviving preschool in the city! By “survived” we mean that the façade and walls remained relatively intact.

The director of the kindergarten accepts a package of children's medications from us and shows us his household. After the windows are installed, or rather, oilcloth is installed instead of glass, the boiler room will start working. The building will be heated, communications will be repaired, and only then the children will be invited. The kindergarten will also open a shelter for mothers with young children who are left homeless.

Leaving the city, I especially remembered the desire with which they work here. In just two weeks after the liberation of the city, railway workers restored communications. For example, in my native Simferopol, utility workers have been dragging their feet for six months now and cannot repair the tunnel on the bypass highway, but here they can cope with similar work in a matter of days. Local residents are helping utility workers repair power grids, roads and government buildings. I saw a similar picture in Gorlovka and Kirovsky, where after the bombing of peaceful neighborhoods people came out of the basements, inserted glass, removed fragments and fallen trees, despite the fact that the next bombing began in the evening. Try to defeat these people!

It seems to me that in six months the local residents have developed immunity to pain and war, they have become different, and, most importantly, they have a desire to raise their region. Without oligarchs and imposed, foreign leaders. If the restoration of the region proceeds at the same pace as in Debaltsevo, it is likely that we will soon witness the economic miracle of Donbass.