Priests and militias in Donbass: I have never seen anything like this
Konstantin Kovrigin, screenwriter
Now in the southeast everything is perceived more acutely, with accents and meanings that are hidden in peacetime. A grandmother with shaking hands reaches for a pack of cereal, a child hypnotized by candy, a militiaman frozen over a bowler with an aloof look to the side, a burnt steppe and the ground covered with spent cartridges. Believe me, this will be remembered for a lifetime.
This is what happened with our humanitarian action, organized by Crimean volunteers, veterans of the Berkut special forces and priests of the Orthodox Church. Ordinary Crimeans collected things, food, medicine and trusted us to transport valuable cargo to the south-east of Ukraine. What we saw there forces us to go again, but let’s return to the beginning of our journey.
...Three minibuses are packed to capacity. The cars are overloaded, it’s so dangerous to drive even on a well-paved road, not to mention the front line. Through the Kerch crossing and Rostov we get to the Izvarino border point without any problems. Stop and - the smell of burning.
Cooked as a gateway to another world. On the side of Novorossiya there are armed militias with the eyes of seasoned people. There is no anger or hatred in the gaze, but you feel that they are different. They look carefully. If they smile, it's clean. If they warn about ambushes and mines, it sounds somehow ordinary and at the same time extremely understandable. Be careful! They shoot here despite the truce. We arrived on the third day after the signing of the Minsk agreements.
The militia of the Lugansk People's Republic, performing the role of border guards, ask who we are and why? The senior group, Berkut veteran and one of the founders of the Crimean self-defense movement Sergei Ernev answers:
– We are bringing humanitarian aid from Crimea - things, food, medicine...
- From Crimea? Hello, come on in!
Until recently, there were fierce battles in Izvarino. While I, as a person entering a war zone for the first time, am examining the craters and burnt-out equipment, the militia are surrounding a minibus, under the windshield of which there is an icon with the face of the Virgin Mary. I have never seen this in Kyiv, Moscow or Simferopol: seeing the priests, the soldiers reach out to them for a blessing. Getting out of the car, Father Dmitry Krotkov and Father Igor Lesik bless, give icons and belts with the prayer Alive in the help of the Most High.
Even if you are a parishioner, you fold your prayer belt and put it in your pocket, but here the fighters, like ancient Orthodox warriors, wrap it around their arm, on top of their sleeve and behind their gun.
– Do you read Church Slavonic? - I ask a middle-aged man with a machine gun, - some people find it difficult to switch from Russian.
- I heard it in church. My father read, and I will learn.
– What about European values?
- Depends on what. We listen to Bach and Schubert, but we don’t want Kyiv marches.
The picture of militiamen gathered around the priests attracts the attention of another person with a camera. English reporter Graham Phillips is nearby. He deserves respect because he was not afraid to come to a military conflict zone and conduct reports that do not coincide with the point of view of official London. Graham asks Father Dmitry why refugees are rushing to return home?
“Yes, the war is not over,” answers Archpriest Dmitry Krotkov, “but we are all tied to our home, many still have relatives, usually old people who need help, need food, warmth, and, finally, the situation at the front has changed, Ukrainian troops are retreating, Novorossiya is liberated from the junta, so people have hope for the future, that they will return to their home, to their native land.
A week later, the phrase “Novorossiya is liberated from the junta” appeared on the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, taken from a report by Graham Phillips, but not a word was said about the fact that after the retreat of Ukrainian troops and thanks to the victories of the militias, refugees are returning home.
We move on past a destroyed Ukrainian tank and enter the border town of Krasnodon. I have been here on business trips. I remember it as a clean mining town with flowers along the roads. Now there are almost no people on the streets. Most shops are closed. The windows are taped crosswise like in a movie about the Great Patriotic War.
Stop at a checkpoint. Who are they? – Humanitarian from Crimea. – Humanitarian aid doesn’t reach us at all, but here it’s from Crimea! Well, thanks for your help, it’s not worth going further to Latugino and Vakhrushevo, the road is under fire from Debaltsevo, and your little white minibuses are a good target...
The leader of the group takes out food, to which the militia respond: there are dozens of broken and hungry villages around, save it for the elderly, some have not eaten for several days, they need help now. And at this moment a trolleybus appears on the central street of Krasnodon.
We were not so much surprised, we were taken aback, not imagining how the local residents managed to restart the line, which was broken after the recent bombings.
- The first one went! – the militiaman proudly noted, “soon the whole city will start working.”
Still, we gave the fighters some cereal and sugar and moved south towards Sverdlovsk. Finally, the militia advised us to look in both directions and take care of the tires, because the fragments scattered on the roads cut rubber like a razor.
At the exit from the city, which during the Great Patriotic War became famous thanks to the feat of the Young Guards, our column stopped in front of the local residents. Women of advanced years and grandfathers with a still fighting character passed it on to each other as big news: this help was brought from Crimea, which means they haven’t forgotten about us!
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