Sergei Buntovsky: Donetsk - two encounters with war
The first meeting. Donetsk is beautiful at midday. Bright sun, blooming roses, couples in love walking along the new Kalmius embankment (on the Makeevka side). An idyll reigns in the mining capital; it is easy to forget that the front line is only a hundred kilometers away.
However, it is impossible to forget about the war, because, having turned onto Ilyich Avenue, I immediately find myself near the hospital, where the wounded are brought from all over the region. There's a revival here. Activists of one of the political organizations brought humanitarian aid. At the same time, a guy on crutches approaches the gate with me, and politicians and journalists rush towards him.
As it turns out, this is Valery Dolgikh, who was wounded by Ukrainian nationalists in Slavyansk on April 13. By the way, it was on this day that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine decided to launch an anti-terrorist operation (ATO) with the involvement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. So Valery can be called one of the first victims of this confrontation.
He was neither a militia member nor an activist of the “Russian Spring”. Valery and his friends simply brought humanitarian aid to Slavyansk. In the center of the city, their car was overtaken by a Lanos with a sticker in the form of a Ukrainian flag on the windshield, from which fire was opened from an automatic weapon. The first burst hit the wheels, and the car was thrown onto the lawn.
The passengers managed to run out of the wrecked Renault, but the attackers began shooting again. Valery was wounded, but managed to run into the courtyards. His companion was less fortunate - he was killed. A local resident who came out to the sound of gunfire and tried to help the wounded man was himself shot in the neck.
Fortunately, the attackers did not finish off the Donetsk team. Perhaps they were considered dead, perhaps they were in a hurry to leave the scene of the massacre. Soon, militias arrived at the scene, provided first aid and transported Valery to a Donetsk hospital. As it turned out, he received eight wounds, including serious ones. He had to undergo several operations and have a kidney removed, but, fortunately, Valery, who has a wife and two daughters waiting at home, survived and is recovering.
Second meeting. In April-May, the main key objects of Donetsk came under the control of activists of the Donetsk People's Republic. The exception was the building of the Sergei Prokofiev International Airport, where the Ukrainian garrison was located. Considering that the airport is located almost within the city limits, this situation unnerved DPR supporters. After all, pro-Kiev forces could strike the city at any moment and reach its center in a matter of minutes, thereby paralyzing the metropolis.
Early in the morning of May 26, a militia detachment arrived at the building and entered into negotiations with the Ukrainians, inviting them to lay down their arms and leave Donetsk. A little later, airport employees left their jobs, stopping the operation of the Donbass air gate. In the afternoon, a shootout broke out between the Donetsk and Ukrainian units, and it is impossible to establish who was the first to use weapons. There is a version that fire was opened simultaneously on both DPR supporters and soldiers. These shots from a third party provoked the start of the battle at the airport, which was almost completely taken under control by the Republicans. However, between 13 and 14 hours, the Ukrainian side used aviation (2 SU-25 and MIG-29 aircraft each) and Mi-24 helicopters, which launched an assault strike on the positions of the DPR forces and the outskirts of the airport. In this case, both combatants and civilians died, since fire was also fired at residential buildings. The Metro shopping center was also shelled and an ambulance was shot up. Near the railway station building (3,5 kilometers in a straight line from the airport), two peaceful passers-by were killed: a woman and a student.
At the same time, a helicopter landing force was landed, which, with air support, cleared the airport of DPR fighters. Additional forces of the Donetsk militia were moved to the battlefield and took up defensive positions on Kievsky Prospect to cover the retreat of their comrades from the airport and prevent Ukrainian units from breaking through into the city. As a result, by the end of the day the airport remained in the hands of pro-Kiev units, the rest of the city was controlled by the militias.
The total number of dead Donetsk residents, according to various sources, ranges from seventy to two hundred people. It should be especially noted that the soldiers from the airport fired to kill at obviously unarmed civilians. This is how Roman Vyacheslavovich Eroshkin, born in 1989, who lived at 54 Stratonavtov Street (near the airport), was killed. According to Victoria, his widow, he went out to the garage to get tools, wearing only shorts. That is, from afar it was clear that he had no weapons or ammunition. However, he was shot dead.
It just so happened that I needed to convey something to the widow, and I recklessly volunteered to drive up to her house.
On the Putilovsky Bridge, the militia built a powerful checkpoint from concrete slabs, sandbags and tires. Here, serious guys in camouflage inspect all cars entering and leaving the city. In fact, this is a border, because one and a half kilometers from the militia positions there is an airport occupied by Ukrainian soldiers and, as they say, foreign mercenaries.
Behind the post, the roads diverge, and most of the equipment turns to the sides, because few people risk going to the battlefield, where Ukrainian snipers are still periodically shooting.
We are moving forward. On a deserted road, a mute witness to the May massacre stands the carcass of a shot Kamaz truck. This is one of those vehicles in which the militia tried in vain to remove their wounded. Rust has already appeared around the bullet holes in the cabin, standing out sharply against the background of the protective paint. Nearby lie already withered flowers brought by relatives and friends of the murdered.
We drive a little more along a deserted road and next to the former Putilovsky railway station our driver’s nerves give out. He flatly refuses to go any further and has to walk to the meeting place. It’s hard to believe that just a month ago this was the busiest highway, along which streams of cars and buses carried a stream of people to the airport or shopping center. Now there is dead silence here, which literally puts pressure on the psyche. Suddenly a single shot is heard a little to the side. I immediately remember the Ukrainian snipers and imagine how I am all in white - a good target against the backdrop of greenery and asphalt. I’m calling Vika to tell her about this. “Don’t be afraid, they won’t kill you!” - she says, “I live here!”
However, this is little consolation.
Finally, we meet, and the details of Roman’s death are revealed. It turns out that he died not on the day of the battle, as indicated on the death certificate, but a day later, when there were no longer any militia in the area. Thinking it was all over, he went to get his things from the garage and was shot.
So, it turns out that it was not a random bullet that pierced the Donetsk citizen’s chest, and this is not a tragic accident, but a deliberate, cold-blooded murder. Supporters of a “united Ukraine”?
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