Radio converters of southeastern Ukraine

Residents of Eastern Ukraine use the Zello program, which allows you to create radio communications channels and connect to them via the Internet. The channels are marked depending on the political orientation of the participants in the discussion. For example, for Slavyansk there is a communication channel “Slavyansk cannot be broken”, whose subscribers are negative in relation to the government of Ukraine. In the evenings, they say goodbye to each other by the call sign "We cannot break us." The second channel is called "Slavyansk", its call sign "Glory to Ukraine, the heroes of glory." The same channels are in Donetsk, Kharkov, Donbass and other cities. In all these channels, there are rules of verification of users. Moderators organize roll call, and in its course, users tell each other about armed clashes and military equipment that they see. Users ask verification questions about the names of the streets in cities to make sure that the certificates are reliable.

For several days, Slon listened to the Internet channels of radio communications to understand how dangerous the situation is for residents of Ukraine who do not take part in armed clashes. And then he talked with the inhabitants of Donetsk, Severodonetsk, Rubezhny and Volnovakha.

Zello "Anti-Maidan" 03/06

- Slavyansk market is quiet.

- Donetsk is quiet.

- Liman is quiet.

- Slavyansk center is heard machine -gun lines.

- Berdyansk is quiet.

- Slavyansk Golubovka is quiet.

- Kramatorsk Central Pharmacy calmly.

- The railway shots were heard on the railway.

- Liman, what do you have there? 30 seconds still hold the channel.

- The roll call is over, thanks everyone, the next roll call in an hour.

At the same time, the night roll call of the Slavyansk channel is taking place. First, only residents of Ukrainian cities say, after the time for Russian citizens is allocated so that they can express their support. The provocateurs wedge into the conversation, who manage to scold with swearing words of the separatists. Then the moderator asks each speaker to end his speech with the words “Slavyansk cannot be broken”, it seems that such words simply cannot pronounce people of opposite views. By one in the morning, no more than twenty people remain on the channel, they discuss scenarios for the development of the conflict. The voices sound confused, the girl who just called for separation from the “Kyiv junta that is unnecessary for us” asks who to consider herself: a separatist, a pro -Russian activist?

Zello "Slavyansk do not break" 04/06

- Guys, and to whom should I attribute myself to? To terrorists, separatists or pro -Russian activists?

- I have a separatist wife.

- I am also a separatist, it seems to me that we are all in Gorlovka separatists.

“You will forgive me, but I'm a Jewish-Saparatist.”

- They consider the separatists those who want to live normally. They must not be re -educated, but exterminated, rabid dogs.

- Explosions are heard next to the airport.

The Slavyansk channel consists of residents of Kyiv, there is a significant number of citizens of the eastern cities, including Slavyansk. Subscribers support the new government in the country, support the actions of the National Guard, but try to figure out whether the army is not acting against civilians. When these subscribers try to check information about the separatists, only messages confirmed by several eyewitnesses are considered truthful. But they believe about the goodwill of the Ukrainian military and their decent behavior at the checkpoints. The main problem for both one and the other side of the conflict, people, politically involved, but not participating in military operations, is the movement between cities. The railway message does not work everywhere, on the main roads there are checkpoints of the national guard and separatists.

Zello "Slavyansk" 04/06

- People had to understand for a long time that they did not need to go out at all.

- Ukraine should introduce martial law, otherwise we will not be able to win, well, you understand? Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the heroes, I went to sleep.

- People from Donbass are afraid to go to Kyiv and to the west, because it seems to them that we will shoot them here.

- We dumped the leaflets there, and they told the loudspeaker that we had to leave, that nothing threatens them if they were without weapons. Our people risk, on helicopters fly over cities to drop leaflets.

- I have such a question, I need to bring my wife to give birth, is it really possible to leave the city?

- And the information passed that there was an inspection in Red Liman, who from there, what is there?

- About checkpoints. Mostly separatists are not released, through our Ukrainian military you can drive calmly.

- I also have a pregnant wife, I had to give birth in May, I took her to give birth to Kyiv. Two separatist checkpoints, except for the word ...... I cannot say anything. Send machines to a pregnant wife. And I still had two women in the car, and through Ukrainian checkpoints it was normal. And "good afternoon" and "sorry that they stopped."

- In Red Liman, apartment inspections were held not for involvement, but for belonging.

The representative of the OSCE observer mission says that the situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions is tense. In Donetsk itself, as of June 4, it was calm, during the day there were no noticeable armed clashes. Nevertheless, the population of the city is frightened. The Ukrainian army controls the complex of Donetsk Airport, they did not allow representatives of the International Red Cross Committee to the airport to take the bodies of separatists killed during the conflict.

On June 3, the OSCE confirmed that the air raid was committed to Lugansk, the observers say that the rocket that entered the building of the city administration was released from the air. Residents of Lugansk are trying to leave the city and zone of military operations, for the next few days it is not possible to buy tickets for trains to Kharkov and Kyiv. The administration of Kharkov says that over the past two days have been placed 428 refugees who arrived from Lugansk and Donetsk.

Rubezhnoye city, Lugansk region

Lyudmila Alexandrovna came to Rubezhnoye (the city of Lugansk region with a population of 60 thousand people) from Moscow to be with her elderly mother. You can only get to Rubezhny with a bus, the railway does not work. At the entrance to the city are checkpoints of the Ukrainian army and republicans. Periodically, the entrance to the city is completely blocked, but now you can get into it along the road from Severodonetsk. Lyudmila Alexandrovna says that schools at the request of the city administration began to call their parents in order to receive permission to evacuate children in the direction of Rostov. Those who are not ready to send their child alone in a column of buses with their parents, they must write a receipt that they realize all the risks and take responsibility for the decision to leave the child in the city.

- Yesterday they announced that there will be evacuation in schools. But mom and dad will not give their girl, because they do not know where they will take her. The column will go without parents, unaccompanied, the girl is still sick. Then they asked for a receipt that they were ready to take responsibility, they gave this receipt. Then if something happens, then we will all be together at least. They took on such a risk, because the girl is small, first grade.

- And who is going to evacuate? Where to take it?

- Rostov or Rostov region, that is, to Russia, to those lands. They called from school, and who called to school, I do not know. I don’t know whose initiative it is, but I think that the leadership of the city. There was a city leadership, the head of the city at one time traveled, there are these militants around and the Ukrainian army, the whole city was besieged. When it was, the mayor with his team went to them and asked not to enter the city. That is, to solve all military problems outside the city, and they did not even talk to it. The machine was instructed for him, asked who you are. And now it is felt that the cleaning is approaching here, as they say. There are probably military groups that resist the new government with weapons, but they are not among my acquaintances, they are not visible in the city. Probably they are around the city. But they make stripping in such a way that cities are bombing. Either they do not definitely shoot, just the cities are very close, Severodonetsk and Rubezhnoye - six kilometers. Recently bombed, was heard, bombed these, as they are called? Either the separatists, or the militias, that is, those who do not agree with the authorities and are armed at the moment. They were between these cities, three kilometers from Rubezhnoye and Severodonetsk. They were bombed, but it was heard here. At the same time, civilians were not injured, but there were still sitting nearby, the houses were destroyed in it, glass flew out, one of the inhabitants died. Everything is quiet here so far.

The city is cordoned off, you can’t enter and go to the neighboring cities, there are checkpoints, they do not miss buses between cities. But there is some corridor along which the bus goes to Moscow. Previously, these buses rarely drove, but now they bombed the railway, trains do not go, and three buses are leaving every day - they take out children. The main thing is to transport abroad. I asked that, they are directly taken to Moscow? They said not, the main thing is to cross the border, and they are met and taken there. Everyone who has the opportunity has relatives or good acquaintances, they save who they can.

- Children go without parents?

- No, these buses go accompanied, because adults can also leave along the corridor. This is all surrounded on the one hand, and on the other hand, this bus pass through the checkpoints. And what is proposed to be exported massively, through schools - there without parents and unaccompanied. Someone is only from teachers. Therefore, my neighbors thought, thought, cried, cried and decided to refuse, because they did not know where, to whom.

Here my mother is completely elderly, she does not understand what is happening, it is impossible to take her out. We will wait here together. There are very young guys for 18 years, they did not want to fight. The whole hospital was in these guys, and their militias shoot them, that is, their own. There is an advertisement to go to the hired army and pay. In the Odessa region, they are offered allotments and land plots. They offer money for the amount of killed. I still do not believe that this is real.

- You were offered to leave before the start of the operation, talked about security measures?

- They said that they cleaned Semenovka near Slavyansk and Red Liman, and Avakov said that they scattered leaflets over the red estuary, in which they said what would happen if you are with weapons, that if you are a peaceful resident, you can leave. That is, they proposed, but it was the day before the cleansing. Semenovka was fired from all sides, and there was no way to leave.

- And how did you yourself be able to call in the Rubezhnoye? You were traveling from Moscow?

- And there is just one corridor that you can enter. I was the only Russian woman among all. I was asked at the checkpoint why I am going, to whom I am going. I explained that to my mother. And when I was traveling on the bus, Ukrainian troops stopped there, there was a check there, but since I was an elderly person, my Ukrainian troops did not ask for a passport. That is, I was not calculated, and nothing happened to me, and I drove along the happy corridor, which people can leave.

Bombing blows, and there are only three bomb shelters in the city, for everyone it will not be enough. Who has private houses, they are going to hide in the cellars. Hard. They do not take into account at all that this is a civilian population. This is some kind of unreal.

City of Severodonetsk, Lugansk region

The city of Severodonetsk is located twenty kilometers from Rubezhnaya. Vladimir Alekseevich says that everyone who wanted to leave the city on the eve of the armed clashes left. He is going to stay because he believes that the battles will not go in the cities themselves, but only around checkpoints along the road and military bases in rural areas. He considers the main threat to the urban population armed groups of people who do not obey anyone, but can make robberies, take cars. The railway in Severodonetsk does not work, but the corridor is open, through which the bus runs towards Moscow 4 times a day.

- Nobody is fighting inside the city, everything is functioning, markets work, shops work. Robbery attacks have become more frequent, so the people behave carefully. All sorts of rumors go around the city that a chemical attack is planned. But this is just a panic, we have large chemical enterprises here, but they are all stopped, the storage facilities are emptied, the entire ammonia is worked out. This is the same procedure in Gorlovka, in Rivne, in Rubezhnaya, in Severodonetsk and Sechansk. They continue to pay the salary, but in Rubezhnoy people were sent on vacation. The people, who can, tries to leave, who can, tries to move without cars. Life cannot be said that it has changed great in the physical sense. It continues at the same level, I'm talking about my city.

- And you yourself saw the people who shoot, or military operations?

- No, in the city itself I have not seen. But I heard that here we have a military unit, its government troops fired, because there was a training base of separatists. It was heard for several days. They do not shoot in the city itself.

-If someone wants to leave the city, how to do it?

- At one time, the road was closed from Severodonetsk to Rubezhnoye, there was a checkpoint, it was only possible to walk. It was only necessary to get to the checkpoint, and call it on the other side and go to it. But this Saturday the road was opened, it is functioning. On the railway, no one goes anywhere there everything is blocked. There are problems, they use it. There are four buses on the route for Moscow: Artemovsk - Severodonetsk - Rubezhnoye - Starobelsk - Novopskov - Voronezh and further to Moscow.

- People leave?

- Among my friends there are no such. In the line, panic was leaving there more. But then knowledgeable people tell you that there is nowhere to go and do not have to go.

- What does it mean?

- This means that it is assumed that military operations will not be conducted inside the city.

- And how do you understand where it is dangerous, where not? Where can you go, where can not be?

- For example, when one passage was closed, I drove through the village with a triangle. I drove away 12 kilometers from Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian flag was already hanging there, I could not move, but I was in that zone. In our city, a red flag, communist, and in the city center there is a flag of the Lugansk Republic on the city executive committee. And then I still hit the cordon, and it was calm, but two days later there was a shootout. So I was lucky just not to get. It is dangerous where the border passes. The fact that north of us is the settlement, and here Donbass. Government troops are advancing from the Slobodyanshchina, it captures not only the Kharkov region, but also Lugansk, and clashes are underway between government forces and separatists on checkpoints.

In the city itself, people are politically different and implacable, like a real civil war. The split is very powerful.

-There was some notification and warning on television, how to behave?

- The places where bomb shelters and basements are located are published, instructions are written on the Internet, how to behave. For five seconds, run to the nearest corner, lie down there and lie down until the noise stops. This is on the city site. Local radio notifies, everyone knows that if a siren earned, this means that an increased danger, and we must hide where anyone can. But Siren has never worked for us, all the battles on the outskirts and checkpoints.

- Who is the city administration?

- Our mayor before May first with his family went on vacation. On the 26th he returned. But the headquarters of the southeastern army is located in the institute’s building, in which there are three teams: representatives of the Don Cossacks, some other Cossacks and the local public. The mayor and secretary go there at meetings. This is the headquarters of the Republicans.

Donetsk

Donetsk, according to Irina Alexandrovna, now lives on an ordinary life. Only houses were injured, which are located near the airport. The city administration notified the population about where to go in the event of a declaring mass evacuation. In the city there are armed groups, which, like in Severodonetsk, take cars and make attacks on small shops and refueling. Irina Aleksandrovna says that there were much fewer transport in the city and traffic jams disappeared. Fighters of the DPR burned several buildings and sports facilities, but the city authorities plan to restore them.

- Where I live, while there was no danger. It was dangerous near the airfield, it is dangerous that some bandit could give you on the head. The police are inactive, I have not seen her lately.

“Have you seen to shoot?”

- No, I didn’t see it, but we live in such a place, they did not shoot at us. Only the sound of the military aircraft, but did not see and did not hear anything. Actually, I do not go to where they shoot, who walked, he saw. Donetsk is a rather big city, shells fell into houses, but not throughout the city. The roads were blocked, they say, but in the market we take milk at the thrush every day-and she somehow travels past the checkpoints. The gun was carried around the city, but it did not shoot. Every day you wait for what they decide.

“Who are you more afraid of, military or separatists?”

- I am not afraid of the military, my father was a military personnel. These are unpredictable people, they have no limiters. They do not even do what they order them.

Nobody knows the new government where it came from? Red beam in bad form, Slavyansk can be erased from the card. The elections were not given to us, there were no clashes, they simply did not open the plots. Открыли пришкольный летний лагерь сейчас, родители дрожат, но детей надо куда-то девать, их в лагерь мы посылаем. Кто может, тот уезжает с детьми в Россию. Кто в села пытается уехать. Есть беженцы, они едут в Киев и Западную Украину. А с Восточной Украины к нам не приезжают, со Славянска тоже не приезжают: что сюда ехать, если тут скоро будет то же самое?

– Вас предупреждали городские власти или средства массовой информации о том, что делать?

– На двери повесили объявление идти в школу с документами, если будет эвакуация, но мне на сборный пункт идти очень далеко от дома, я боюсь. Машин стало ездить меньше, потому что нападают, забирают у всех машины. Пробок нет в часы пик, но общественный транспорт как ходил, так и ходит. К аэропорту ограничено движение. Лекарства в аптеках есть, продукты есть. В бомбоубежище отремонтировали крышу и покрасили его. Мне дочка звонит и просит уехать, но я никуда не поеду, она хочет, чтобы я жила в ее доме, у них есть погреб, и там можно прятаться.

Город Волноваха, Донецкая область

Волноваха – маленький город в сельской местности, недалеко от Донецка. Светлана работает сторожем и получает пенсию, которую платят регулярно и без задержек. Она не видела вооруженных столкновений, но в семи километрах от ее дома с вертолетов армия Украины расстреляла в поле солдат, как оказалось, это были призывники, которых по ошибке приняли за сепаратистов. Светлана говорит, что солдаты украинской армии, которых она встречала, очень молодые ребята. Жители города их кормят и покупают им носки. Светлана не планирует уезжать из города.

– Мы под Донецком. Волноваха – это небольшой городок в сельской местности, опасность не чувствуем, но в нашем районе пока спокойно, слышен шум самолета. Я работаю сторожем. Накануне республиканцы выкрали одного из владельцев магазина, вымогали деньги, забрали его. И не поймешь, кого бояться больше. Я больше боюсь национальной армии, хотя это молодые ребята, они плохо одеты. Их местное население подкармливает. Тут еще есть бандитские группы, которые откололись от республиканской армии, но всех жителей называют республиканцами, и мы тоже, получается, республиканцы.

У нас есть местный телевизионный канал, по нему было обращение командира республиканской армии, он просил звонить по телефону доверия, если кто-то из его бойцов плохо себя ведет. Но мне трудно определить, кто есть кто.

– Сепаратисты – это кто?

– Я не могу сказать, я не знакома с ними, не знаю, что это за люди. Сепаратистами, кажется, называют все население юго-востока, они нам дали такую кличку. Из Славянска Нацгвардия не выпускает людей, а они хотят вывезти своих детей в Ростовскую область. Мне рассказывали, как пропустили автобус, мамы и бабушки потом с детьми шли секретными тропками и вышли к границе с Россией. Тут главный вопрос, если ты хочешь уехать – выпустят ли тебя?