The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic has just three weeks left till the Nov. 2 election that will decide who the leader of the republic will be. There are 103 candidates in total, but the most likely winner is Alexander Zakharchenko, who is leading the organization now.
Zakharchenko told the Russian Expert magazine that he planned to file his resignation after signing a cease-fire agreement because he thought he would be considered a traitor of the republic, which is considered a terrorist organization in Ukraine. Days later, at a press briefing on Oct. 8, he denied his intentions to resign.
But that does not mean he likes the peace deal much, he told Expert. Zakharchenko said that between Sept. 5 and Oct. 2 the insurgents reclaimed 38 townships. And yet he claimed that the insurgents have never violated the truce.
“We didn’t violate the agreement, we never opened fire first, but we always fired back,” Zakharchenko said, adding that there is “a different price to pay for the freedom.”
“We pay in blood, others pay off with money,” Expert quoted him as saying.
The Ukrainian authorities reported that Russia-backed militants violated the cease-fire agreement more than 1,000 times since its beginning on Sept. 5.
Zakharchenko is certain that Russian President Vladimir Putin “gave us a chance to change something,” so the militants started fight for their land. “If we do not succeed then we would die – not physically, but rather mentally. But Putin will never betray us.”
Speaking about his land, Zakharchenko said that Donbas has been “one of the richest regions of Ukraine.”
“I know the structure and economy of Donbas region and that’s why I want my compatriots to live better than the Polish people live. We have a unique territory and there are natural resources here. I wish every region of Russia to live as well as Donbas lived in Ukraine,” Zakharchenko said.
He also explained that only local people – those who were raised in Donbas – could understand the war that unfolds on its territory now. He said that former rebel commander Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, sees the war “like a doctrine.” But he is a Russian, and his views are skewed.
“Here (in Ukraine) there is another type of war. We tried to explain to them that our war is different; it doesn’t necessarily mean tactical moves, and it’s not only about attacks and defending,” Zakharchenko said.
He also recalled there should have been “at least 20,000 troops to defend Sloviansk, then the city would not have been taken by the enemy.”
Sloviansk used to be one of the insurgents’ strongholds in Donetsk Oblast for more than three months, but was reclaimed by the Ukrainian army on July 5.
“But he (Strelkov) had just 6,000 people with him them. So he pulled back,” Zakharchenko complained. “He’s also a hero, we respect him. But we didn’t back him in those issues when he tried to solve problems sacrificing lives of our compatriots.”
“When we were defending Kramatorsk – we knew that we’re defending the most important power center in Donetsk Oblast. While defending Kurakhovo we knew that there’s the only electrical power plant that is crucial for Donetsk. Why didn’t Igor Bezler (once the commander of the city of Horlivka mostly known under his nom-de-guerre Bes) leave Horlivka? Because there is Stirol (chemical factory) facility located there. He was wounded, but he and his units didn’t leave there.”
Zakharchenko said it happened only “because Bes is from the locals,” so he was ready to fight to the end.
In the interview Zakharchenko also denied reports that insurgents killed captive Ukrainian soldiers. “We exchanged prisoners. We haven’t killed a single captive,” Zakharchenko said. “However, I also can be cruel with the enemy. But I usually let up to 200 hundred of those (from Ukraine’s army) go, because they are children aged from 18 to 21. But I do keep officers, Donbas, Azov and Aidar battalions people, snipers and artillery spotters.”
However, Human Rights Watch documented at least 20 cases in which rebel fighters had captured civilians, and interviewed 12 people who said “their captors had beaten, kicked, stabbed, or lacerated them, burned them with cigarettes, or subjected them to mock executions,” according to their report published on Aug. 28. The organization also came into possession of three death sentences against civilians apparently issued by the Sloviansk insurgents’ summary war tribunal. Two were marked as “executed.”
Zakharchenko says he knows what he is fighting for. He says the “Russian world should be the union of all Slavs.”
“It’s not the way we live now – Russians, Belorussians and Ukrainians separately. We need to be together. But I understand that living together doesn’t always mean to be equal. That’s why I prefer to choose less evil and kill fascists and Nazis, all those radicals. I just don’t know how to call them differently,” he told Expert. The Nazi reference is commonly used to describe the Ukrainian people outside of Donbas area.
Zakharchenko says he was one of the people who decided to hold a parade of captured Ukrainian soldiers in the streets of Donestk for Ukraine’s Independence Day. Local residents threw plastic bottles and eggs at them while they were forced to walk the streets under the watch of Donetsk People Republic’s militants. The Human Rights Watch said the parade was a violation of the Geneva Convention ban on humiliation.
But Zakharchenko bragged that he could have brought up to 700 people to the streets, but finally “ended up with 608 people – officers, snipers and artillery spotters, because I don’t treat them as people.”
The idea of the parade came when Zakharchenko watched a speech by President Petro Poroshenko in which he said that there would be a military parade on Aug. 24 in Kyiv. The leader of insurgents decided at that point that he wanted to have his own.
“I didn’t regret about the parade, the whole world was screaming out about that. I guess it was a moment when I became famous. And I just stood there and watched the parade. I felt sorry – not for the captives though, but for the people who sent them there,” Zakharchenko says.
He also noted that the parade “had changed his perceptions.”
“Moreover, political environment had changed as well after it – even in Russia. Everybody understood it’s war, not an anti-terrorist operation anymore,” Zakharchenko said.
