LUHANSK, Ukraine -- Timur, a 21-year-old student from Luhansk and a local activist with the EuroMaidan Revolution, is remarkably persistent. Until recently, he has consistently worn a blue-yellow ribbon, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
But his patriotism causes him problems in eastern Ukraine, where Kremlin-backed separatism is strongest, especially in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, home to nearly 15 percent of Ukraine’s 45 million people.
Several times he had to fight with thugs who see his ribbon and say: “Hey Ukrainian, get on your knees.” He also risks arrest.
Finally, Timur decided to take off his Ukrainian ribbon, since it is causing him too many problems.
“Now all of the Ukraine-oriented people have gone underground. It has become open hunting season on us,” he said, refusing to give his last name because of fears for his and his family’s safety.
The eastern regional capital of Luhansk, only 60 kilometers from the Russian border, has always been a tough place for supporters of Ukraine’s European integration.
But the life of pro-European activists has become dangerous in recent weeks, even though Timur thinks that the Russian-backed separatists are supported by only 5 percent of Luhansk Oblast’s 2.5 million people. He thinks another 5 percent are like him in backing Ukraine’s unity as a nation. The other 90 percent? “They just don’t care,” Timur says.
On April 29, a group of masked men armed with Kalashnikovs kidnapped Igor Chudovsky, a prominent Luhansk lawyer and activist known by for his pro-European stance. They tried to force him to give a statement on a local TV station. When Chudovsky refused to do so and tried to escape, the captors shot at him. He was hospitalized with grave wounds. “A bullet passed through his side, pierced his lung and injured his cheek,” his wife said.
On May 3, two EuroMaidan activists Anna Mokrousova and Oleksiy Bida were captured on the street and brought to the local SBU office, a stronghold of armed separatists. They were released the next day, but not before being beaten and threatened. They fled the city after their release.
Mokrousova told a TV journalist that they were captured after members of a pro-Russian rally spotted them and alerted the separatist militia. “I wasn’t afraid of the military men in SBU building who were pointing guns at me… I’m more afraid of ordinary people, who are now very aggressive and real eager for war,” she said.
On May 10, Kremlin-backed separatists from the Luhansk SBU building captured activist Maykhailo Lohvynenko for passing out leaflets urging a boycott of the May 11 illegal referendum on secession from Ukraine. The separatists put a dog collar around his neck and forced him to walk on all fours along their tent camp. They filmed the humiliation.
Timur, who took part in EuroMaidan rallies in Luhansk before the revolution succeeded in forcing President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, said just a month ago that the Ukrainian activists still were able to hold their regular meetings near the monument to Ukrainian hero and poet Taras Shevchenko.
“But now we have no reasons to rally, we cannot go with sticks against men with Kalashnikovs,” he said.
On May 18, separatists seized the regional police headquarters in Luhansk, the last important government office in the city that hadn’t been under the control of self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
Luhansk regional police chief Anatoly Naumenko and acting Luhansk Governor Iryna Veryhina had to relocated to a northern part of the oblast still under control of the central government in Kyiv.
A number of businesspeople have also left Luhansk because of the rampant crime in the city, where the armed separatists are free to even commandeer police cars.
Timur said there is a common belief among activists in Luhansk that Ukrainian authorities have decided to surrender the city and abandon its 500,000 residents. “I don’t even notice shooting or armed people here anymore. Masked men became a kind of norm here,” Timur said.
On May 20, the Luhansk activists sent an address to their compatriots all over Ukraine, asking them not to view Luhansk as a Russian city and calling for moral support. “It was the whole country on (Kyiv’s) Maidan, including people from the east, but here we are one by one with the enemy that unfortunately has a significant advantage,” the appeal said.
The activists also asked the state authorities to deploy an effective anti-terrorist operation in their region.
Timur believes the involvement of the Ukrainian army is the only way to defeat armed separatists ruling Luhansk now. He said he plans to vote on the presidential elections on May 25, even though he was sure “something horrible is going to happen” on Election Day.
“I’m also ready to join the army if our troops come to Luhansk, there is a need to do something,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This article has been produced with support from www.mymedia.org.ua, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and implemented by a joint venture between NIRAS and BBC Media Action, as well as Ukraine Media Project, managed by Internews and funded by the United States Agency for International Development. The content is independent of these organizations and is solely the responsibility of the Kyiv Post.
