Residents living in Russian-occupied Donetsk who criticizes the Kremlin-backed leadership are closely monitored by the separatist police for “later reprisals,” according to the police chief of Ukrainian-controlled parts of Donetsk Oblast.
Those conducting the surveillance are former Ukrainian police officers who defected to the Russian side, Vyacheslav Abroskin announced on his Facebook page on June 22.
Abroskin’s allegations point to a possible crackdown on residents who spoke out against the separatist leadership in the first popular protest in occupied territories on June 15.
Abroskin posted photos taken at a recent anti-war rally in Donetsk where he says eight different men who “violated their oath” to Ukraine were spotted watching over the crowd. Having been fired from the Ukrainian police force late last year, they have all now turned up in the occupied territories, apparently working for the separatist police force. Photographs published by Abroskin show the men looking inconspicuous at the recent rally, apparently watching over, with at least one filming, demonstrators.
“I am appealing to peaceful citizens of Donetsk. Beware, you may have a field surveillance team from the so-called (separatist) police force following you with the aim of subsequent reprisals,” Abroskin wrote on Facebook on June 22.
“Nikolai Kryuchenko, the current separatist deputy interior minister, gave an order to his employees to tail the demonstrators and determine their identities in order to punish them later,” he said.
The press service of the Donetsk separatists refused to comment.
All eight men who Abroskin goes on to list previously worked for the Donetsk police force but were fireed in the fall of 2014.
One of the men, whom Abroskin identified as Mikhail Dyachenko, a former police major who was dismissed last September, is shown videotaping people in the crowd.
That police officers in Donetsk Oblast defected to the separatist side is perhaps unsurprising, as many have chosen to switch sides since the start of the conflict last year. Many interior ministry personnel were suspected of colluding or taking money in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts that allowed the takeover of police stations and government buildings during the armed Russian-separatist uprising last spring
Yet allegations that they are closely monitoring residents who are critical of the leadership may point to an impending crackdown in the occupied territory after the first public protest took place earlier this month.
Raisa, a pensioner who attended a recent demonstration along with friends and now fears for her safety, said she had simply stopped going outdoors for fear of reprisals.
“I just don’t leave the house after I attended. I shouted at them and said, ‘If you’re not going to protect us or help us, just get out. We don’t need this.’ My friends spoke up too and they don’t leave the house anymore either,” she said, adding that she had not been threatened or noticed any surveillance teams but would not rule it out.
A resident of the hard-hit Oktyabrsky district, Raisa said her neighborhood was bombed on a daily basis – by both sides in the conflict.
But she expressed outrage that separatist leaders “hold concerts and have parties while the rest of us live in our shattered homes.”
“People have mostly just stopped criticizing the so-called leaders here. The situation is tense, though it has been tense for a while. You can really only criticize things when you’re standing in line at the store, and even then you have to do it quietly,” said Anna, a journalist working for a Ukrainian publication who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“We just try not to leave our homes too much and don’t go to any public events. We pretend that we are unemployed and hide the fact that we work as journalists,” she said, referring to herself and her colleagues.
She said she had not noticed a tail or anything unusual for speaking out against the separatist leaders, but that it wouldn’t surprise her.
“The separatists gather information about Ukrainian journalists working in Donetsk – they ask those who switched to their side to work,” she said.
Fears have been further fueled by the recent deportation and beating of Pavel Kanygin, a Russian journalist working for Novaya Gazeta who has been critical of Russia’s involvement in the war.
After covering the anti-war rally in Donetsk on June 15, Kanygin said he was contacted on June 16 by separatist authorities requesting a meeting.
Thinking that the meeting concerned the accreditation he was waiting to receive, Kanygin showed up only to be detained, beaten and ultimately deported. Kanygin has said in several interviews that he believes he was set up and punished for reporting on the anti-war protest.
Separatist media has claimed he never applied for accreditation and made the whole thing up as a public relations stunt, presumably punching himself in the face for full effect.
Staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected].
