“Do you think Avakov is full of holes?” – how “unreliable” cops from Donbass are interrogated
Kyiv - Dzerzhinsk, September 26 (Navigator, Yuri Dekhtyarev) - Together with her husband and child, Nina Dzyubenko escaped from the city of Dzerzhinsk, a suburb of militia-controlled Gorlovka, occupied by Ukrainian security forces. Delay threatened not just arrest for aiding the “separatists”, but a demonstrative execution. The family followed paths through Ukraine.
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“I didn’t pass the polygraph,” says Nina, “I was blacklisted, although during interrogation I didn’t even try to lie, I answered: yes, I supported the militias and took part in the referendum.
A polygraph is called a lie detector. A group of specialists arrived in Dzerzhinsk from Kyiv, whose task is to check all suspicious persons, and there is an absolute majority of those at their place of residence. There are a lot of people, so they check first of all law enforcement officers. Apparently, not having complete information, the visiting Kievans thought that Nina was nothing more than a secretary.
“I retired with the rank of captain and, as a former criminal investigation officer, I still have security clearance.”
As Nina Dzyubenko says, her interrogation lasted an hour and a half. Questions require only “yes” or “no” answers. There cannot be any other options on the polygraph. They don’t stretch time, they ask right away: Do you live in Dzerzhinsk? Did you vote in the referendum? Do you support the creation of the Donetsk People's Republic? Nina answered honestly, and as a result, like most residents of Donbass, the detector recorded her as a separatist.
“Something else surprised me,” continues Nina. “On the polygraph there are clarifying questions that they try to ask at the end, I thought they would ask, for example, did I take part in hostilities? Do I know Bes? (commander of the Gorlovka self-defense unit Bezler - author.) Or: maybe I’m a sniper, but they suddenly asked about Avakov? Like, don’t I think it’s full of holes? Jokes aside, just imagine, an interrogation is underway, a person, willy-nilly, is thinking about how to survive, and then suddenly: Do you support the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Avakov?”
On the first day of the bombing, Nina, with a small child in her arms, tried to cover one and a half kilometers for nine hours. We made our way to a safer place, either crawling or in short runs, after which we hid in a half-flooded basement for two days.
“We still didn’t expect bombing, yes, we heard that aviation and artillery could hit civilians, but we couldn’t believe what would happen to us! Well, what should I tell them about Avakov, when my child is still afraid of speaking loudly, not to mention airplanes and people in military uniform?!”
However, it is not by chance that they ask about the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Avakov during interrogations. Firstly, one of the first leaders of the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation in the South-East of Ukraine - author), Mr. Avakov, personally gives orders to the punitive forces, so if someone speaks out against his person, this is tantamount to insubordination. Secondly, criticism of the minister, and, consequently, of the Ukrainian punitive authorities, provides grounds for the dismissal of a local police officer. Recently, the minister even signed an order on tough measures against Donbass law enforcement officers, who, in his opinion, betrayed their oath.
“In Kramatorsk,” recalls Nina, “it is significant that the deputy head of the criminal investigation department was shot right in the courtyard of the city police department. There was no need to check him with a detector, everyone knew that he was against the Maidan, as well as against Yanukovych. By the way, among our militias there are old operas who imprisoned the former president.”
Now in the Donbass they try not to remember Yanukovych, and if they have to talk about him, then only as a traitor who fled the country at the most important moment. For polygraph specialists and the National Guard, the argument that you once disagreed with the policies of the former president does not play any role. The Civil War drew a line in the history of the state when the previous merits of people and their political preferences are inferior to the laws of war. Now you need to clearly decide who you are with and for whom?! For the Donetsk People's Republic or for the National Guard? For Poroshenko and Kolomoisky or for the nameless militias who died for their families and for their land? There can be no abstentions. To help those who have not yet decided, the junta, together with the latest polygraph, also uses old proven methods. In cities captured by punitive forces, mailboxes are placed for anonymous denunciations. An anonymous letter about former police captain Nina Dzyubenko ended up in the same box.
“The people who warned me said so: for that Ukraine we are traitors, the only way back for you is with your hands up. Run faster, and in the direction of Dnepropetrovsk, so as not to arouse suspicion. We had a conversation at a checkpoint with opera men like me from Kharkov, Odessa and Nikolaev. They don’t want to fight, but what can they do if the order is given, so they also admitted: the old Ukraine no longer exists.
For the residents of Dzerzhinsk, the Ukraine they remember and love disappeared after the first bombings. Three fighters immediately fired a salvo at the center of a small mining town, and when they entered the second circle, the militia shot down two of them. When a tank approached and began direct fire on the City Executive Committee, the militia, on orders, quietly retreated and for an hour and a half the dill fought with themselves.
“They have such a joke,” says Nina, “at first with the militias, and then they extinguish each other. There was a sea of corpses. Moreover, when the city was already taken, the shooting did not stop, because the army men, barefoot, hungry young boys, did not want to give up the position to the National Guard, who came for them at all ready. Treating them like cannon fodder. And so the first wave of Ukrainian soldiers was warned: be afraid of those who will come for us!”
The punitive forces could not get further than Dzerzhinsk. Gorlovka gives them such a rebuff that the dill are losing entire units every day. The morgue is filled with corpses. Hospitals - seriously wounded. The recent action of local residents hit the pride of Ukrainian patriots especially hard. Unknown Young Guards hung Russian flags around the city under the very noses of the punitive forces.
“Friends call,” Nina recalls, “they say, can you imagine, we can’t believe our eyes, in the morning we see the Russian tricolor on the burnt-out executive committee, on the mine administration it also hangs, and even on the pile driver (KOPER - an engineering structure above the descent into the mine - author) it’s not a flag that flutters , and the flag! Dill is shocked! They couldn't remove it until the evening. The Young Guards were apparently engaged in industrial mountaineering and had closed the entrances from the inside. This despite the fact that the city is chock full of cops and Nazis.”
The flags were somehow removed, and the next morning Russian tricolors appeared in Dzerzhinsk again. And the Nazis can’t do anything about it. They don’t understand that miners, who by their profession are accustomed to great risks, cannot be frightened, especially with a lie detector. Kyiv stumbled and underestimated the character and high pain threshold of the residents of Donbass.
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