“Just let them not fight with us”

Krasny Liman: when Grad is working, it's better to sit quietly

Krasny Liman: when Grad is working, it's better to sit quietly

We drive into Krasny Lyman along a broken bypass road - through the fields, away from greenery and roadblocks. They say that the city, in its nodal transport significance, resembles Slavyansk, although it is, of course, larger. And the mood of the population is similar. It is 10 km from here to Slavyansk, 5 km to Yampol. But it seems that it is much closer. The rattle of machine gun bursts can be heard from the forest, where heavy artillery hoots nearby.

Only very desperate businessmen, who have food outlets there, and volunteers agree to go to Krasny Lyman. The military recaptured the estuary from the DPR forces quite recently, and the separatists constantly make themselves felt by shooting from the forests. So there are few people on the streets of the city even during daylight hours. With a friend Alan from the Wall Street Journal, we find ourselves in the center during the next work of the "Grad" - again in the direction of Yampol.

First, the whistle is somewhere very far away, then closer and louder, and no longer a whistle, but a roar. Someone is waving to us from a candy store: quickly here. In a small shop, a saleswoman and several customers silently froze with packages. It was hot inside. The saleswoman with the packing scoop glanced at her watch, and when the glass stopped rattling, she went to the scales.

“From sin, lads, do not walk when they are shooting, because it will fly in the wrong direction,” said the elderly woman. “The hospital and the bakery were so bombed.

“This is by chance, Baba Alla,” said a younger woman in a sundress and looked at me.

- Come on by chance!

“Better be quiet, Alla,” said the saleswoman.

In the corner of the candy store, a thin old man sat down on a stool with a bag of sweets. There was another whistle outside, and the old man sighed heavily. I asked how life was in the city under the DNR. They looked at each other in the store.

- And who are you? the saleswoman asked. Don't talk to him, ladies. He writes down, then they will come for you.

- Yes, he is from Russia, don't you hear? - said the elderly Alla.

Ours, right? Do you have documents?

The women carefully studied the passport.

“Now it’s better to be silent,” said the younger one in a sundress, “the SBU already went with lists, took away who participated in the militia. Now they are forcing each other to report. Okay, don't shoot.

And many were taken away?

- Yah! All the men who fought managed to escape into the forest or Yampol. Look, there are no men in the city.

So you are for the separatists?

- Yes, we are not for anyone, lad! - said the elderly Alla. - Let them not fight with us!

- At the referendum, we voted for independence, spoke out! We were already promised a second referendum for Russia, but then the army came.

- You ask how it was under the DPR? There was order,” the old woman said. The people ruled.

“Wait,” I say. What about robbery and banditry?

“Well, it was,” said the younger one. - But the peasants caught them and sent them to the front line in Slavyansk. We did everything ourselves!

- And now these defenders have come, the people are afraid of them!

- What's wrong? It's scary, because they put artillery in the city, they shoot, and if Slavyansk gives us back in response? They will take revenge on us.

- Chechens are yours there. And if they come to us! They are already saying: why did you warm up these benders, traitors?

"It's better to sit quietly," the saleswoman said. “Then no one will.

- Yes, the soldiers are like boys, not animals.

But scary, of course. We only watch Russia 24,” Alla said. “They say the soldiers are slaughtering us for the Russian language. But they don't cut! But what if?

“Yes, Baba Alla, in the army they all speak Russian themselves,” said the younger one.

- You explain to us what will happen in general, who is telling the truth? Allah asked me.

The street was quiet again. An old man with a bag of sweets went out into the street. The women followed.

Krasny Lyman, recaptured from the DPR, is controlled these days by the Artemovsk National Guard Battalion. It was formed with the assistance of Igor Kolomoisky in Dnepropetrovsk. The battalion commander, who has already become famous Konstantin Mateichenko, simultaneously acts as the head of the city administration. Although Mateichenko's fame is more connected with circumstances - the National Guardsman headed the first large city in the Donbas, recaptured from the separatists. By a special decree in June, he was appointed by President Poroshenko. And the Russian media started talking that the "creator of private armies" Kolomoisky continues to place his people in the East.

In the new army camouflage, Mateichenko meets us in the city hall building - it is lined with sandbags on all sides. In his office, bulletproof vests, helmets, and a couple of machine guns are laid out. There was only one piece of paper on the empty table, over which Mateichenko was bending over, writing something in and out. I asked if a cleansing was really being carried out in the city and whether the activists of the DPR were being identified, who, therefore, had gone underground.

“We don’t have any underground,” Mateichenko said. - Here are people who live, work and who understand what shit they stepped into then. And now they are happy to say: “Firs-sticks, thank God that you have come!” That's all. And the DPR is nonsense, it's a hoax, understand. The police also fell for it, because they are people too. They were also deceived and now they are happy to say: “Thank God, we are returning to normal work.” They also had to obey these freak bandits.

— You mean those who supported the DPR — they changed their minds?

- Yes sir. Certainly! They even give an open interview to one guy there: “Yes, we went with the flags of Russia, now we understand how corny they just scammed us.” Yes, that's all.

- And what did they screw up? When did this fracture occur and what was it connected with?

- Because they saw that it was banal banditry, looting, robbery.

Finally, we asked Mateichenko to tell us about the places where refugees from Slavyansk are accommodated. But the mayor advised better "to walk around the city and admire the beauties, but not to linger much."

- Anything can happen. The enemy is not asleep,” the mayor explained. “But our fighters are always ready, and soon we will go further across the Donbass.

It must be said that the boy who is being openly interviewed turned out to be a National Guard fighter Roman, an assistant to Mateichenko. A brand new Kalashnikov assault rifle with a yellow and blue ribbon around the barrel hung on Roman’s shoulder, he held an iPad in his hands. Later we met with Roman in the shelled railway hospital in Krasny Liman. Roman recorded Russian human rights activists from Human Rights. Then he offered to write us down:

- Could you introduce yourself and say that you are grateful for the peace and tranquility of the Artemovsk battalion? the fighter asked politely. — We have a wonderful Facebook timeline, would you like to be added?

The railroad hospital was shelled a few weeks ago. Who fired the shot is still unclear. The military and the separatists blame each other. And the chief doctor, Leonid Zagursky, says that he even wrote a statement to the prosecutor's office to find the perpetrators. In the courtyard of the hospital, he talked with officials from the Donetsk regional administration and human rights activists.

Let them look, I don't care! the chief insisted. - Our roof was destroyed, windows were broken, and how do we want to treat people?

“Everything will be restored to you,” a representative of the regional administration told him.

- It is good to. After all, we must not fight, but work, develop peacefully, earn money, ”Zagursky was upset. - Provide opportunities!

“Let me take a picture of you,” Roman suggested again.

Somewhere nearby, the volleys of the Grad were heard again. Darkness descended on the peaceful Liman in the light of day, they were shooting in the forests. The National Guardsmen asked to wrap things up as soon as possible.