28.09.2015. www.delfi.lv, www.lsm.lv

24 August 2014. „Donetsk died” – these words were written on that day by Georgiy Gulyaev, Spokesman of Donetsk Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate,  Head of Information-Education Department of Donetsk Diocese, Rector of St.Ignatius Church, Editor-in-Chief of the Orthodox mass media, television host and well-known on regional level priest, on his Facebook page. He had made a lot of efforts to prevent that dying. On 23 August, he wrote: “All day long, I have tried to contact various institutions of DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) – press services, ministries, executives, etc. They give me phone numbers, but nobody can give me a coherent answer regarding the planned for tomorrow 10 a.m. event on Lenin Square in Donetsk. Burnt equipment has been paraded, speeches have been written for the meeting… But! Rumours are spread on preparation for marching the captivity troops of Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) along Artema Street. Nobody takes the risk either to confirm or disprove the information. I am forced to address the public through Facebook:

“Donetsk citizens, brothers and sisters, all who have crucifix on their chests! It will be shame on all of us if such “event” takes place. Humiliation of a human in the public is a grave sin. Unfortunately, this war has lowered the moral standards, devalued life, crippled bodies and souls, but, for goodness’ sake, don’t stoop to such meanness! Ask the decision makers not to do wrong, not to follow Herod and Pilate who demeaned Christ! Every human being is the image and likeness of God, mercy toward adversary is the virtue of a Christian. The temptation to make a symmetric response to the parade in Kiev is just a temptation which is necessary to overcome, and it can be overcome. I believe in humaneness of the God-Human!”

But the “event” took place. It was a horrible day.

On 24 August, the Independence Day is celebrated in Ukraine. It was that day, for which the DPR supporters had planned to hold so called “parade” of the captured troops of ATO. They were making preparations for that day with some insane enthusiasm. It seemed as if they were intensely looking for any means to humiliate both the Ukrainian soldiers who had been taken captive, and the Ukrainian patriots who stayed in the City and were forced to observe helplessly the ongoing developments. But, in reality, they humiliated themselves, and it was their own shame.

Damaged in battles military equipment was brought in advance to Lenin Square. Combatants were boastfully insisting that it was the Ukrainian equipment, destroyed by them (who would believe them?), they were proudly posing before the equipment together with “girls” (Everything seemed quite truthful for the people who had come to look at that.).

The early morning (at about 6 a.m.) of that day (24.08.2014) witnessed a loud “arrival bay air” of a shell seemingly fired by Ukrainian gun, which hit the building of Kalinin Regional Hospital called as “Military Hospital” by the “DPR” supporters at that time.

“Damn Ukrainians have become cruel to atrocity, brutes, firing at injured patients” – the “DPR” supporters were demonstratively expressing their indignation, launching the regular wave of hatred toward Ukraine, inciting unrest among the people who had gathered on the square, and building up the necessary for themselves reaction to the previously announced POW “parade”. Only few of the citizens noticed the direction from which the shell had come, and the fact that the impact was, in fact, very precise – only morgue was damaged, not buildings of the hospital with patients.

Near the monument to Lenin, in order to step up the hysterics, one of the lady-activists of “DPR” was shouting in a loudspeaker that “fascists fired at our military hospital”, that “our wounded soldiers lie under the ruins, slowly dying and waiting for our help”, that “they will perish without our help”; she was asking “all the compassionate and real men of Donetsk to go there right away to remove the ruins and save the boys”. (The question was-  why did they not hurried immediately to save their wounded casualties, but seemingly left them under the wreckage just in order the lady had the possibility to make such inspiring speech at mid-day in the square, for nearly six hours had already passed since 6 a.m.)

She was appealing to “real men”, to “citizens of the young Republic”, but the people on the square were not too eager to go to dismantle the ruins and save the injured patients of the hospital. Only two homeless persons (they had spent the whole summer at the Drama Theatre near the Lenin Square) were standing nearby, playing actively the role of “real men, answering the call”. The lady-activist, accompanied by them, was gradually proceeding to one side of the square, repeatedly pronouncing her appeal: “Look, now all of us are going to remove the ruins and save our wounded casualties”, “We are going right now, join us!” But the people were busy – they were gazing at the damaged military equipment, taking photographs together with combatants and disregarding the calls of the activist. And she did not need any support in reality. She had already finished her part in the scenario.

The hysterics was stepped up. Somebody had brought a flag of Ukraine in order to destroy it in the public on the square. It was treaded under foot, children were urged to learn how to do that. The crowd pulled the flag to pieces and thought they made a mock of it.

The “parade” of POW, planned for mid-day, was transferred for some reason to 2 p.m.

We were still expecting that the fall of humanity would be cancelled, that they would change their mind.

But it took place. They marched our soldiers through the “corridor of shame”, only the shame did not apply to our boys, it applied to themselves- the beasts who had lost their human appearance, to the organizers of that shame, to the participants and the citizens who supported the “DPR”, trying to hit the captives with their fists, spitting at them and expressing damnation toward them. People, if you only had a possibility to look at yourselves at that moment! You would feel ashamed if you saw yourselves. Your faces were distorted by anger and hatred. And that will remain with you. The anger, released by you, will hit yourselves.

On that day, one of the Donetsk residents wrote the following words on his Facebook page: “”Corridor of shame”, organized by the “DPR” supporters along Artema Street, showed that those who called themselves as antifascists were very far from being the real antifascists. When prisoners of war were marched along the streets of the Soviet cities, our people were observing them, keeping silence. There was no damnation, no aggression there…”

The developments that took place on 24 August 2014 in the very centre of Donetsk were really horrible. And how can one live now side by side with these people in the same city? Many citizens, who have left the City, do not wish to return to Donetsk anymore because of this reason.

The POW parade of 2014 in Donetsk had been planned by the organizers as a kind of repetition of the POW “parade” on Red Square in Moscow of 1945. Thereby the following message has been spread: “Fascism was defeated both in 1945 and in 2014”. So, Ukrainian soldiers were openly called as fascists with the aim to cause hatred and “righteous rage” toward them. And, same as during the event of 1945 on Red Square, POWs in Donetsk were marched, being accompanied also by guards with dogs – German Shepherds, and the procession was followed by a cleaning truck, washing the road along which the captives had walked. They tried very hard to humiliate our boys.

But I know that the raging crowd was joined also by some patriots who were observing and remembering all the developments in order to be witnesses in the future. They were trying to support our boys at least by their glimpses, and they managed to ensure that their words of support, although only later on, reached our boys.

“Donetsk died”… But, to my mind, only that part of Donetsk died, which had never been alive.

Veronica

This article is the ninth in the series “Letters from Donetsk”, within which some Donetsk resident (her real name is not disclosed because of security considerations) shares her on-scene views on the military conflict ongoing in Ukraine.