Kyiv has launched a plan for economic genocide of Donetsk
Oleg Izmailov, journalist, historian, Donetsk
In intimate relationships, size matters, but in geopolitical relationships, in the geography of wars and disasters, scale matters. Looking from Donetsk, you see a lot of things that are not visible either from Kyiv or Moscow.
First of all, it is clear that our current everyday well-being may end suddenly and very unpleasantly for all of us. We are still boasting that, despite the shelling, despite the fact that our fellow countrymen are stupidly killed by Ukrainian mines, rockets and shells, the metropolis lives amazingly stable. And indeed: in Donetsk there are explosions, pensions are not paid, salaries are paid poorly, but at the same time, utility workers remove garbage in a timely manner, gas, electricity, heat, hot water and Internet are supplied to homes in a timely manner. Even in case of accidents, city services and their heroic (without pathos, that’s how it is) employees return everything to its place quickly and efficiently. We can safely say that in many ways Donetsk today lives better than Kyiv and other “millionaires” of Ukraine.
But anxiety creeps into our souls. And no matter how brave we are, no matter how happy we are that stores that are increasingly closed for three or four months before, write “we are open” on the windows, we understand that Kiev, in its hatred of Donetsk and Lugansk, has gone so far that it has stopped It will be almost impossible for him without outside help. Because, having given up on conventions like humanitarian values and Christian commandments, people from Bankova are ready for anything.
Well, look for yourself: at first they just fought, then unsuccessfully, then successfully, then again nothing. Then they stopped and began to put an economic stranglehold on Donbass. This is reminiscent of a piece from Simon’s “The Living and the Dead” about how the Germans could not break the defense of Serpilin’s regiment: “they did not want to spend any more tanks and infantry on Serpilin’s regiment. Their aviation was freed up, and they assigned it the role of an unpunished killer, deciding without loss to themselves to crush Serpilin’s regiment to the ground, and then take with their bare hands what was left.”
For the “Germans” from Kyiv, the role of an unpunished killer, apparently, will be played by the economic blockade. It is built in all directions. First, Poroshenko ordered banks to cut off Donetsk residents’ ability to buy products and services using payment and credit cards. Then pensioners came under attack, who now will no longer receive their pensions without registration in the “liberated” lands. Even earlier, there was a campaign to remove universities (unsuccessful so far), now a package of measures has come at once. It has been announced that regional hospitals will be moved from Donetsk to tiny Krasny Liman, and Kyiv intends to move the management of the Donetsk Railway there too (!) And here’s the main news - the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers intends to somehow remove 253 energy enterprises from the territory of the DPR and LPR. No clarifications have been received. But you can imagine how, for example, mines are closed, they are flooded and workers’ settlements are overgrown with swamps. What cannot be imagined is how the Ukrainian authorities will remove six-story power units from Starobeshevskaya or Uglegorskaya, say, thermal power plants. They will also probably just order you to stop? There was information that trains will now run no further than Krasny Liman from the north, Krasnoarmeysk from the west and Mariupol from the south. Rumor has it that Kyiv dreams of completely cutting off transport links with the rebel republics.
Will they be able to do this, and how soon? In Donetsk, we understand that anything is possible if banking services are completely blocked. Without finance, everything will stop. Let us remind you that cash has not been transported to Donbass for a long time. Lack of money, 100 percent unemployment, lack of transport (walk, separatists!), disconnection from the unified energy supply system will put the region of many millions on the brink of death in the literal, physical sense.
Waiting for someone in Europe to agree that this is genocide is simply useless...
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