This article originally appeared at Novorosinform. Translated by J. Arnoldski at Fort Russ
Kiev is now in the headlines. Screams at the Rada, explosions, clubs, shields, protesters, the National Guard, corpses, and wounded. There’s the feeling that is isn’t 2015, but the end of 2013 or the beginning of 2014. Maidan is the word. Well, Ukrainians like to rage. Let the child play as it wants, as long as it doesn’t cry.
Events are boiling over again. The president makes appeals, politicians are beating each other and crying, there are exits from the coalition and calls for protests. Three young men, heroes of the ATO, have died. Everyone is worrying. The politicians in the Rada are giving touching speeches and tears are everywhere. The whole country is mourning.
Let’s rewind. Why did I not call this post “United Ukraine?” When the war had just begun and when there were Ukrainian channels available in Donetsk, we could “enjoy” the government’s position directly from the TV, without internet. In Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, people were already killed. At the Donetsk airport, there was already active fighting. People were dying. By the dozens. Children were caught in the crossfire. And they died from war, not by natural death.
Their lives were just beginning, but they ended at the start. Logically, a normal government would declare mourning in the country. But we didn’t see this. Instead, they reported on television that Russian invaders had seized power in the city, as separatists shelled their own cities, killing themselves, and the Ukrainian army is protecting innocent people from terrorists. Everywhere, on all channels, the Ukrainian flag was hung with the inscription in two languages: “united country.” But there was already nothing left of this country.
Then I realized that, no, we are not one country. If there is grief in the country, then the whole people would together experience this and grieve for the dead, especially the children. But there was no such grieving in Ukraine. No one mourned the dead “men of the pit” [a reference to the people of Donbass, which is known for its large mining working class – translato], but only shouted and rejoiced. Ukrainians didn’t care about Donetsk and Lugansk.
It was much more important to go around with a Ukrainian flag, get a tattoo with the coat of arms, and to laugh at the deaths of “Colorados” and “larvae” [A reference to the bugs which are colored the same as the St. George banner – translator]. Instead of words of sympathy, we heard only accusations that we ourselves are to blame for our misfortunes. There was no time to grieve for the dead in Ukraine, as everyone was still reeling from the massacre on the Maidan. There, they were “victorious.” They were not to be said, for they only wanted to jump.
That was in 2014. Now we return to 2015, what we see today. A bunch of idiots continue to jump around in the country, blaming each other for being agents of Putin, while at the same time sharpening their knives against each other. Russia is at fault, for they can’t possible divide the country amongst themselves.
And what is Donetsk busying itself with, while “civilized society” is comfortable with mass carnage in the capital. Donetsk is a monument to all the dead children.
We are too different. While in Kiev, they’re fighting for power, we are trying to build a new, post-war life (although the war still continues). We rejoice in the cessation of shelling, while in Kiev they only get angry and call for shelling again. In Donetsk, we celebrate our city and lay flowers at the monument to the fallen citizens of the DPR, while in the center of Kiev a crowd of “inadequates” attack journalists, seeing in them Russian propagandists, while protesters throw grenades at the National Guard.
It is hard to imagine a United Ukraine. At least now I don’t see any way out of this situation.