Valentina Romanova wants to take her two underage sons away from Russia’s war against Ukraine. But she has been stuck in separatist-controlled Donetsk for more than a month as she waits for permission to enter Ukrainian-held territory.
Romanova, who lives in a bomb shelter and relies on humanitarian aid, said Ukrainian officials promised her that the process would only take 10 days.
Ukrainian authorities have made it difficult for people to leave the separatist-held areas, raising an Iron Curtain between these areas and the rest of Ukraine.
In January, the Security Service of Ukraine forbid movement without special permission between Ukrainian-held territory and the Kremlin-backed separatist areas.
A Ukrainian seeking to get out must go to a special station and submit many documents. But the stations are located on Ukrainian territories, a situation that forces them into a bureacratic catch 22.
There are some loopholes.
Some Donbas residents have been sending their papers to Ukrainian-based relatives or friends to apply on their behalf. Others managed to sneak out on their own. Others tried to give documents to Ukrainian officials, but said that bribes are required.
Donetsk-based entrepreneur Vitaliy, too afraid to have his name published, said he isn’t even trying to get permission to leave because most of his friends have been rejected.
Enrique Menendez, an activist from Donetsk-based volunteer group Responsible Citizens, said that the procedure is not so difficult, but the implementation is bad — a typical situation for anything involving Ukraine’s government.
“The process turns into a bureaucratic hell for people,” Menendez said.
Diana Makarova, head of a foundation that helps people displaced by the war, said tight controls are necessary to stop “subsersive groups” from going to the rest of Ukraine.
“It is now impossible to leave territories for hospital patients, invalids, people with little kids, people in completely impoverished small towns. It’s difficult for them even to make a photocopy,” Makarova said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also criticized the difficulties for receiving permission, saying the process should be done electronically.
“There should be no papers that cost from Hr 500 to Hr 2,000 in bribes,” he said.
According to Markian Lubkivskyi, a senior adviser with the Security Service of Ukraine, an electronic permit system will be in place by the end of March.
“We are ready to launch it in test mode,” he told the Kyiv Post. “People will feel the result really quickly.”
Lubkivskyi also said that those who have already applied will not be forced to reapply. But he didn’t say when the current backlog would be removed nor how people who are homeless and without computers would apply.
“We will reveal all the information in a day or two,” he said.
Vitaliy, Donetsk businessman who didn’t want to be identified, said life is increasingly difficult in separatist territory. Supermarket shelves are emptying, so are people’s pockets.
“Those, who have money on bank cards can’t withdraw it, as the ATM machines don’t work,” he says.
Prices are also higher than in Ukrainian territories.
The permit system has slowed commerce and humanitarian supplies to the separatist zones.
“These are double standards. On one hand, the government says these territories are ours, on the other hand distances itself,” says Menendez.
Ukraine’s Parliament granted special status to some parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and defined the new borders on March 17. Poroshenko signed the measures into law on March 19. First, however, clean and transparent elections must be held under Ukrainian law.
A solution doesn’t appear to be in sight.
“I think that government doesn’t know how to solve the problem of these territories,” Menendez says. “Everyone understands that it is impossible to retake them, especially quickly, so they try to freeze the conflict. It looks like a blockade attempt.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]. Freelancer Stefan Huijboom contributed reporting for this story.
