Good afternoon, friends! I represent the Coordination and Legal Center "War and Peace". My name is Andrey Sedlov. Now we once again came to provide help to the civilians. This is one of the main tasks of the organization - helping those who suffered in shelling and stay in the frontline zone.
We are now in the Donetsk-Severny settlement. We came for providing assistance to the two elderly women who live in this settlement. Their house does not have gas, heating, and an appropriate water supply. The only boiler house that supplied the settlement before the war was completely destroyed
by the Ukrainian military forces. People have big problems with food and medicines supplies, so today together with Anechka we brought them some food and medicines, measured the woman's blood pressure, and provided her with a plan for further medical and social support.
The Coordination and Legal Centre first of all deals with the families of servicemen and regular civilians who live in the frontline zone. We have been doing this since 2014 when it was just an Internet community "War and Peace", then we started our cooperation with the public movement Novorossiya of Igor Strelkov
and now we work independently as a Coordination and Legal Center providing legal and social assistance to servicemen and civilians, including children left alone. Earlier we went to the orphanage, which we have been cooperating with for a long time - Zasyadko orphanage.
We brought them diapers and little presents, so to say, from our friends of the Petrovskaya community - cookies for lunch, as we usually bring them. That's all, if briefly.
- Here is a toothpaste... - Yes, yes, yes! - Here is a washing powder... - Thank you! - This one is a food set. It consists of canned food, sugar, cereals - for you and for your neighbor. - Yes, thank you! Then when she returns from the hospital. - Tell you once again: here is a first aid kit. - Yes!
Thank you so much! - If you need help, you have the phone number, so call us and Anechka will answer. - Are you all in Donetsk? Right? - Yes, in Donetsk. - We live not far from you, so for us it's convenient. - In Putilovka? - A bit farther, Vostochny.
It takes us five minutes to drive here. Sasha called us and said, "There are two families, help is needed!" and so we are here, ran quite fast! - Thank you so much!
- There was a direct hit in this flat, here are the flat and the doorway. - Really? - Yes! - When did it happen? - I don't know, 2016 or 2017, I don't remember already when it was. - And from where? - From where? From that direction. - Is there a frontline? - There is. - A Ukrainian one? - Yes!
- Here we come when the firing starts. We rush here and stay till it stops. Earlier, in 2015-2016, we even stayed here for a night. There were more people but then everybody left our house. At present, five flats still have people inside, 8 persons. These are those who have been staying here since the war has started.
We have water supplies here, some food, dishes, firewood, coal, a potbelly stove to warm ourselves up when it's cold. Certainly, it's better in summer, it's warm here.
- When have you been here last time? - We haven't been here for a long time, as we can hold it even at home nowadays. They mostly shell Spartak, have you heard about it? - Yes. It's not far from you. - There is a depot, we will go there and you'll see, a very long building,
then a highway, and then Spartak. Not so far. We can hear everything. So we stay at home. Sometimes they shell in the Putilovka direction. Then it flies not far from us, we can hear the whistle sound of the flying projectiles, then we also stay at home.
Because we know then that it flies nearby, though not at us. - Could you tell me the exact location, where are we now? - Yasinovatsky district, the Donetsk-Severny station. We belong not to Donetsk but to the Yasinovatsky district, as Yasinovataya is located near, our administration is there.
The Red Cross also brings us some help. - How far is the frontline from here? If you know. - Perhaps, 1 km to the Ukrainian military.
- And do they shoot here? - They do. Sometimes there is the sound of bullets can be heard outside. When it starts, we go inside. - Do you expect an active phase of military actions?
- Yes, we are under stress. According to what we heard it seems to be very serious. What will happen? Who knows what God will give. - If it starts, will you leave or stay? - Stay here. Where shall I go? They are going to shell everywhere.
I can only go to Oktyabrsky, my nephew lived there, but he has already moved out. How he rends a flat in a different district, which is farther. So there is one empty flat there, but Oktyabrsky is also shelled. No sense to go. Also, there is no such basement there.
I used to be there a couple of years ago, the building is old, and the basement is worse. Therefore, we have hopes only in our basement. We have already prepared a crowbar, in case we''ll be covered but remain alive.
- Do you think it will start or not? - I don't know. On TV they say one thing and then another. We have to other information. even on the Internet, it is all the same. Some political experts on TV say that it will start, others say nothing will happen because those are afraid. We'll see.
Well, will they recognize us or not? What do you say? - On 14th of February... - Yes, we know the 14th of February. A couple of days ago a went to get my DPR passport. - Yesterday Ukrainians stated that they will not comply with the Minsk agreements. - Did they ever comply with them? They never did.
- So you just received DPR passport? - Yes, Russian not yet. I'm originally from Russia, so I don't know if I need it. - Do you plan to receive it? - Seems like we will receive them if we get recognized.
- Is DPR going to become a part of Russia? - If we get recognized, I think yes, of course, we will be a part of Russia. Where else do we go? Or we will be separate. No one knows anything. I don't know.
- How would you like it to be? - Yes, I would like! - You said that in your house only 8 people remained, right? How many people were in this village before and how many remain now?
There are 7 houses in your village. So around 300-400 people used to live here, especially many children. Now there are up to 50 people. More people live in the other house, where the shop is. few people live in the other houses. Out of 60 apartments, only 5 are inhabited. Others left.
I this most of them won't come back. Many of them received Russian citizenship. We communicate with some of them, so we know. Anyway, everything is destroyed. probably you have seen the condition of the house.
- Did people mostly work at the depot? - Yes, railway workers, conductors, depot. There is a station there, I used to work at the station. - There are no children left, did you decorate the Christmas tree for yourself?
- Yes, we have a nice tree here, so we decided to decorate. We found an old Father Christmas, I guess it is older than I am. Of course we decorated it for ourselves, we need to upkeep it somehow. - Did you celebrate the New Year all together with your neighbors?
- Yes, we all gathered together. Every year I write about it on the wall. We call it a Wall of Tears. - Tell us more about it. - When it all started I started to write this with embers from a bourgeois. In 2014 helicopters were flying above us, after which they flew to the airport. And we all saw it.
In 2015 we still used to meet people here, but then.. So 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, I don't know if I still will have space to write it on the wall, or maybe it will end sooner. So I call it a Wall of Tears, as in Israel. We don't use the notes though.
- Can you tell us what do you have? Do you have light or gas? - We have nothing. We also don't have heating, we use heaters. There is no water, we have it only in the basement as it flows here by itself. But it gets frozen in the tubes as there is no heating.
So we have to keep it flowing all the time. So we get the water from this room. - And why is it so? Is it due to shelling? - We never had gas here, everything was electronic. Also, the boiler house was shelled, which used to provide heating for the village. - Ukrainian shelled it? - Who else.
But they say that they have a new boiler house somewhere, but there is no sense to install a new one due to shellings. So we don't have heating in the winter, we used heaters instead. The red Cross provided them to us.
- Ukrainians say that their forces do not shell at civilian villages or infrastructure. What do you say? - Are you here for the first time? They shell everywhere. they shell electric stations and everything. - But why do they claim so if it is not true?
- I don't know. - What is our name? - Tatyana. - And the surname? - Gurchiani. - Last week, Zelensky promised at a press conference that Crimea and Donbass will be a part of Ukraine again. - Yes, he said that he'll take Dobass and Crimea. But I have no idea how he will manage that.
- Do you think it is possible? - I think no. - Do you want to go back to Ukraine? - Me no. - Are there people that want? - I don't know just people here. There are 40-45 people here, no one even thinks of that.