Donbass: Civil War (PHOTO, VIDEO)
Donetsk, July 01 (Navigator, Mikhail Shalyapin) – We were able to visit, together with deputies of the Union Parliament of Novorossiya, one of the hospitals in Donetsk, where militia fighters who were seriously wounded near Slavyansk and Kramatorsk are recovering. Deputies and a group of Popular Front activists brought expensive and rare medicines, as well as other assistance.
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There are three of them in the room. All with severe penetrating wounds to the abdominal cavity, bullet and shrapnel wounds. At first they give only their call signs. There, in the war, they don’t even know each other’s names. And not because they are “encrypted”, it’s just more convenient.
“I am Black,” the first of our interlocutors introduces himself.
“On June 19, we brought humanitarian aid to Slavyansk - mainly medicines. We learned that the Kyiv authorities had announced a truce, so we collected medicines, volunteers who would accompany the cargo, and set off. We thought - we need to use this moment, because the city is in such need of medicine. On the first day of the truce they put us there. We stopped at the Yampol crossroads to rest. Then tanks came there, many tanks - more than twenty. They used some kind of stuffed shells. When they were shot and hit a tree, it became like a fir tree - all covered in thorns made of nails.
We knocked out one tank, perked up, ran after it, and out of nowhere came the National Guard. They started shooting at us with machine guns. I was hit by a grenade launcher and a grenade launcher. They probably thought that I was Chechen - I’m black, but I’ve lived here all my life in Donbass. And I defend my land. Gorlovka, Donetsk, Lugansk are my land, Slavyansk is also my land. Both my guys and I went there to take medicine. Still, a truce was declared. Well, how can this be - the President of Ukraine said... We didn’t even really take the weapons.”
The guy with the call sign Black is only 32 years old. He is not married, his parents and brother are waiting for him at home.
“We all moved forward in a checkerboard pattern. He (points to his roommate) is ahead of me,” the fighter continues. – Dill opened fire. Our two lay down. I was hit in the barrel with a grenade launcher, and he was shot with a machine gun. Many of our people were killed that day. My friends were killed. Many will be considered missing. Mothers do not believe in their death. Missing in action means there is still hope... We had a friend - call sign Tihiy. He died. But his mother doesn’t believe it either. They shot him from an armored personnel carrier - into pieces, cut him in half. We put it in a tarpaulin. Two pieces. And they buried him under a tree. Under the Christmas tree... We made a notch so that after the war we could find where our friend Quiet was buried. No first name, no last name... Just a call sign.”
This guy amazes with his fortitude. Despite the diagnosis and terrible pain (even when talking, he sometimes groans in pain), he is already getting up. He convinced the doctors that he needed it, and little by little he was learning to walk again. He says that he needs to return to his people as soon as possible.
“I’ll tell you this now. If I wanted to separate from some country, I would not go kill people in that country. If I want to separate, why kill me? Why did they come to kill me? What's the point of killing me? - said the fighter.
He calls his friend “Psychologist”. This 29-year-old guy has such a call sign because he puts everything in order and tries to analyze it.
“Why do they consider us terrorists? We are here on our land, they came to conquer our land. We are protecting her. And who is the terrorist after this? I went to fight. When I saw these shells falling, my heart ached for my land.”
He has serious wounds - both bullet and shrapnel. He says that his mother is coming to visit him. “She cries all the time and repeats that I am everything like my father - he was like that - all for the sake of people. But he doesn’t scold me for joining the militia, because he also knows: I’m a man and will always make my own choices.”
Everyone was scared, but everyone is ready to go into battle again. In the same ward there was an elderly man who was seriously injured, and whose life is not life at all now. But he doesn't regret anything. Listen to them, look at them, remember them.
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