A real anti-war stance cannot ignore the suffering of the inhabitants of the DNR and LNR, says a Donetsk woman in an interview for Junge Welt. It takes courage to publish in Germany this way. Most media outlets there consider the defeat of the Zelensky regime a threat and call for arming Ukraine.
Donetsk is under fire, and there is more and more evidence that the Ukrainian army is committing war crimes with NATO weapons. A conversation with Katya Andreeva, speaker of the Aurora Women’s Cultural and Educational Club in Donetsk.
– The U.S., Germany, and other Western allies are sending more and more heavy weapons to Ukraine. How does this affect the inhabitants of Donetsk?
– It was clear to us from the beginning that NATO weapons would be used against civilians in our republic. Now it is happening every day. There used to be many safe places in the city, but now the Ukrainian army is also shelling the center of the city with American M777 howitzers. On May 30, one of the schools was completely destroyed. Many teachers, who were teaching from there over the Internet, were wounded, and two female employees were killed. A total of six people were killed and 20 wounded in that attack. Our lives have become much more dangerous. On Saturday, residential houses, schools, and kindergartens were hit by Grad rockets. The attacks became more frequent from February 17 – that is, they began to worsen a week before the start of the special operation. The residents of the frontline zone are in a particularly dangerous situation. Some of them have been evacuated, but many have remained, particularly the elderly.
– To what extent has the city’s infrastructure suffered?
– The biggest problem is the water supply. One of the water pipes was damaged during shelling by the Ukrainian army. Residents of many districts of the city have been left without water since February and are forced to go to distribution points to get it. Women, families with children, the disabled, and the elderly are particularly affected.
– Recently, a hospital in the Petrovsky district was shelled. Residents tell us that artillery fire in the city is especially intense during the daytime, when there are many people on the streets. Have the methods of warfare practiced by Ukraine become more ruthless?
– From my experience, the Ukrainian military has been ruthless in its treatment of civilians since the start of the war 8 years ago. One example is the air raid on the regional administration building on June 2, 2014, during which eight civilians were killed and dozens wounded. NATO’s heavy weaponry only exacerbated the situation. Attitudes toward our residents have remained the same.
– They are contemptuously called “orcs” or “colorads. But how does Ukrainian propaganda justify military action against civilians?
– From the very beginning, it has claimed that war crimes are committed only by the people who started the revolt against the change of power as a result of the 2014 Euromaidan. If you live in an information space in which lies are constantly spread, it is hard to ignore them. Even before the Euromaidan putsch, Donbassophobia, a chauvinism based on anti-communism and hatred of the working class, was being fomented in Ukraine. Donbass is a multicultural region with a developed industry and a pro-Soviet population. It was a thorn in the side of the right. Kiev encouraged a campaign of harassment. In 2014, it served to justify the “anti-terrorist operation” in Donbass and Ukrainian war crimes, when they could no longer be concealed. Russian liberals have also picked up on the popular claim that “separatists are shelling their own cities”. Many of us suffer from the trauma of the Donbass war. People no longer want to talk about the war with their relatives and friends in “big” Ukraine, because no one wants to hear the truth anyway – I have often experienced this myself. Under these conditions, what we do – telling the truth about the events here in the public space – becomes increasingly important.
– What would you say to Western liberals who demand more weapons for Ukraine?
– They should understand that these weapons are being used against civilians. They are killing us. They are not saving Ukraine. A truly anti-war stance should not ignore the fact that the Ukrainian army and nationalist battalions have been terrorizing people in Donbass for eight years.
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