Street roots., April 17, 2015, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • April 17-23, 2015
News
Page 5
Ukraine: The
second cease-fire
The region’s war rages on, and the
situation is changing every day
BY ANDREY KURKOV
C O N T R IB U T IN G W RITER
ust 10 years ago, many Europeans would have had
trouble finding Ukraine on a map. Now practically
everyone knows where it is, but no one can predict the
country’s future; How and when will the Russia-Ukraine
conflict end? To clarify, this “conflict” refers not only to the
situation in the war-torn Donbas region, still partially under
the control of pro-Russian separatists and Russian “military
volunteers,” but also to the annexation of Crimea and the
terrorist acts organized by pro-Russian forces in other parts
of the country. Almost every morning there are news
reports of yet another explosion in one of the major cities
of Ukraine. There was an explosion in the
center of Odessa the night before 1 wrote
this article.
These are troubled times for Ukraine.
The country’s economy is in dire straits,
and people are worried about their
future. The double impact of war and the
economic crisis has knocked two-thirds
Andrey Kurkov
off the value of the national currency, the
is the author o f
hryvnia. But Ukrainians are considerably
“Ukraine
more worried about the situation in
Diaries.”
Donbas than the financial crisis. Despite
.
the second “Minsk cease-fire,” war in the
Donbas region rages on., No longer the entire length of the
frontline — which stretches for hundreds of kilometers - .
but at certain points that hold strategic significance for
Russia and the separatists. Ukrainian troops are still
coming under fire outside the ciiy of Mariupol on the Sea
of Azov. This port city is seen as a key target by separatists
because it could enable Russia to secure a crucial land
corridor to Crimea. Military operations are also continuing
elsewhere in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, where the
separatists are attempting to “straighten out” the border­
less euphemistically, to seize more territory.
I had a phone call last week from an Italian friend, whose
wife is Ukrainian. He asked my advice on how dangerous it
would be to drive to the Kherson region, which borders
Crimea. His wife’s mother lives there, and she wants to
visit her. I told him that things were reasonably calm there,
but the following day I read in the news that there had
been an exchange of fire at a checkpoint near Kherson. The
situation is changing, and it’s changing every day. While the
leaders of European countries express “cautious optimism”
and maintain that the situation in. Donbas is improving,
Russia continues to supply arms and military equipment to
the separatists via the 409 km (about 250 miles) of the
Ukrainian-Russian border that is out at Ukrainian control.
Nobody knows what news tomorrow will bring.
I was in Donbas myself recently and spent three days
talking to military personnel and civilians in Slavyansk,
Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk. AH three cities have been
liberated from separatist and Russian forces, yet people
there still have less of a sense of stability than those living
farther from the frontline. Many people in Severodonetsk
and Slavyansk are not actually opposed to the idea of
Russian occupation. They are reluctant to talk about it
. openly, but the fact is that they don’t feel any particular
loyalty to Ukraine either. Sociologists visiting these and
other cities in the Donbas region have noticed an
interesting pattern. There are often as many pro-Russian
I
P H O T O B Y JOE G LO D E
Mikhail Mitkov-Baklanovsky and his wife, Tatyana Putra, at their home in Southwest Portland. Mitkov-Baklanovsky is
holding a chest seal from SAM Medical Products, designed to allow airflow to a punctured lung. The couple has been
sending supplies to the Ukrainian army since September.
everyone together. I’ve never seen it in Portland
before.”
Giving Hope is also sending aid to help with the
evacuation of people stranded in war-torn areas.
“Most of the people left in the cities are elders and
women with small children. Everyone who was able-
bodied left, either to Russia or to fight, or they left a
long time ago,” Mishchuck says. “Many people are
stuck living in basem ents. There are mothers and
children whose husbands abandoned them. We are
helping to evacuate people who are willing to evacuate.”
For those who have already fled war-torn areas, there
are other problems.
“People are sleeping in railroad cars. Local and
official governments can’t do anything for them because
of their lack of preparedness,” he says. “There are areas
where they have no electricity, no water, no heat — and
it’s still freezing over there.”
He says his organization is not taking sides.
“The goal is to help people in need, and both sides
are suffering,” he says.
“People need to understand the peace agreement is
on paper, but it’s not being upheld. There is shooting on
an hourly basis, and people are living in constant fear.
The humanitarian crisis is growing as we speak. Many
people in the Ukraine grow their own food, and they
can’t do that when there is shelling and bombing,” he
says.
Since Street Roots spoke with Mishchuck, there have
been multiple reports of an upsurge in fighting in
eastern Ukraine.
Like many other Ukrainians who immigrated to the
U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s, Mishchuck was escaping
religious persecution. Both his father and his
grandfather were jailed for their Protestant faith.
Just as much as the conflict has brought together
Ukraine supporters, there is a divide in the local Slavic
community between those who support Ukraine and
those who support pro-Russian separatists.
Local Ukrainians who spoke with Street Roots all say
Russian television stations are partly to blame for this
difference in opinion. They say that they are more
widely available in the U.S. than Ukrainian stations and
that Russian President Vladimir Putin uses technology
and media for propaganda against Ukraine.
“Parents and children - they fight over it because
parents watch Russian TV and kids are just living their
real lives,” says Putra, Mitkov-Baklanovsky’s wife. “So
many divorces because wife is watching Russian soap
opera and news and says Ukrainians are Nazis. She
and her husband say they have lost longtime friends
P H O T O BY JO E G L O D E
Vancouver resident and Ukrainian immigrant Mikhail
Pavenko has used Facebook to solicit donations.
over differences of opinion on the conflict Their son
says most people younger than him believe whatever
their parents believe. He, too, has lost friends over the
conflict.
While pro-Russian forces may be using television,
Ukrainian supporters are using Facebook. It’s not only
serving as a platform for organizing and sharing
donation drop-off locations in Portland; it’s also how
many U.S. citizens are connecting with volunteers in
Ukraine. Social media, especially Facebook, played a
significant role in organizing the 2013 protests in Kiev,
the Kyiv Post reported.
W 'T 'hank God for Facebook,” says Vancouver resident
JL and Ukrainian immigrant Mikhail Pavenko. The
28-year-old has used the site to solicit donations from
people in Clark County, Wash. “(Ukrainian) kids are
posting these things on Facebook that the whole world
sees, and then we have people connecting from all over
the world.”
He’s discovered through social media what supplies
are needed and where.
“Ukraine was jn shambles forever, they would post
pictures of checkpoints, and these soldiers would be
standing in Adidas with old AK-47 — I mean, they had
nothing,” Pavenko says. He meets monthly with a group
of about 40 other Clark County residents who are
working to send relief and supplies to Ukraine.
He shared photos of supplies they’ve collected and
■1
See SUPPLIES, page 7
See CONFLICT, page 7
P H O T O Ó F A N D R E Y K U R K O V B Y JUERG V O L L M E R /W IK IM E D IA C O M M O N S