PISKY, Ukraine —Valeriy Chobotar, #8 in the Right Sector's party list for the 2014 parliamentary campaign, won't be able to vote on Oct. 26 when the nation elects the new Verkhovna Rada.
Placing
war heroes on the party lists has become a popular move with the political blocs
and parties running for the seats in parliament. However, most of the soldiers
fighting against the pro-Russian separatists and camouflaged Kremlin troops in
the country’s east won’t be able to vote.
Chobotar
can’t vote since there are no polling stations in Pisky, a Donetsk Oblast village 14
kilometers from the provincial capital, where he is participating in the defensive operation
along with other militants from the Right Sector’s volunteer battalion and
soldiers of other groups.
“We
have more important stuff to do here,” Chobotar, who has pseudonym Hatylo,
told the Kyiv Post. He explained that keeping the Ukrainian army’s strategic position
at Pisky is very essential for providing support for those defending the
Donetsk airport, which is 1.5 kilometers from there.
The war
has changed Pisky’s regular life very essentially. Sounds of shootings are
heard everywhere, while many houses are severely damaged and serve as homes for
the soldiers.
On Oct. 20,
the parliament failed to pass the bill that could have provided the soldiers
participating in the antiterrorist operation with an opportunity to vote. However,
Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko claims it’s still possible for the fighters to
vote the way refugees from Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts do, in the places where they
currently stay.
Such an
ambiguity is very misleading for the army servants. While the militants of 95th brigade
present in Pisky claimed they were going to travel to some other location and
vote on Oct. 26, the soldiers of 93rd brigade said it was impossible for them
to do so.
“I
really wanted to vote during the most recent presidential election, but we
couldn’t do it then and now we can’t do it again,” said Oleksandr, a tank
driver from 93rd brigade. He added that while he planned to support Petro
Poroshenko in the presidential elections, now he doesn’t even know which parties
are running for parliament.
Some
soldiers are very disappointed that they won’t be able to vote. “I would
support Samopomich, (leader of Samopomich Lviv mayor Andriy) Sadovy seems to be
a good guy,” said Yevhen, a fighter of Dnipro 1 battalion.
Kostiantyn,
known as Sergeant Mayor among his co-servants, said he didn’t believe the new
parliament will bring real changes to the country, but he was going to vote
nevertheless. As a registered resident of Krasnoarmiysk, a city of 80,000 near
Pisky, he can go there and get a ballot as a regular civilian. Kostiantyn didn’t
tell which party he’s planning to vote for.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected].
