How the occupied city of Svatovo lives, which until March 2022 was considered a "visit" of the Luhansk region

Svatovo, the Center for Gromada and the city of the Luhansk region with 25 approximately thousands of population, Russian troops occupied in early March.

Until this moment, Svatovo was considered a kind of window, the hallmark of Ukraine in the region, according to which the differentiation line with the "LPR" laid eight years ago. Reliable rear. In Svatovo, neither the separatist flag nor the Russian tricolor never raised.

The local leadership gave enough interviews about how under their leadership, in the spring of 2014, approximately fifty men, armed with personal hunting carbines (according to other sources, “borrowing” the table weapons in the police department, was already ready to surrender without a fight), the checkpoints, including the fields, did not let the invaders-the Cossack battalion. The Ghost Alexei Mozgovoy, a fellow countryman, a former employee of the military enlistment office and soloist of a male vocal ensemble. (In May 2015, the cerebral and the motorcade followed him was liquidated on the Perevalsk-Lugansk highway-either the GRU special forces, the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, or the Lugansk partisans, but this is a completely different story.)

In a stable, who did not betray the homeland, the regional state administration, the prosecutor’s office, and other structures were placed for the first time, not to mention immigrants from neighboring settlements “because of the line”. And the district court had to plow at all for three: for himself, for the Krasnodon city and Leninsky district court of Lugansk, which were in uncontrolled territories. The bulk of criminal proceedings was associated with armed conflict in the Donbass. I retell it close to the text my report “The back side” from Svatovo, published in Novaya Gazeta in the summer of 2018.

The appearance of the district center did not give a reason to doubt - here the "Russian world" will not break off, they may not wait. On the streets, mainly Ukrainian speech sounded, and even more often a surzhik, a special settlement. The City Council on all sides was decorated with Pictures-portraits of Lesya Ukrainka, Nikolai Gogol, Stepan Bandera and so on. Others were hanged at the level of the second floor so that the vandals would not reach. To the City Council, quite in European traditions, was adjacent to a playground with hills-caches and fashionable parking for bicycles. In the square, among the rose bushes, sculptures of angels and, of course, Christ were dispersed. Under each work stood a sign "The gift of a local philanthropist of such and such." The traditions of the merchants! And the memorial, where a monument to the victims of the Holodomor, slabs with the names of fellow countrymen who fell on the fronts of the Second World War (on the stele was knocked out- “1939-145”), the Monument to the “Chernobyls”, the Afghans monument and the Obelisk “Bright memory of the Defenders of Ukraine” born in the mid-nineties- 2014th, were stood in the line. 2016, 2018 ...

Only the recently open bust of Taras Shevchenko looked slightly grotesque: a large gilded head, disproportionate with a pedestal. As if the heads of culture in Svatovo decided to emphasize, so that they saw in Kyiv - we are engaged in national revival, do not worry!

Grocery stores also looked worthy, although prices were not too different from the capital. In the Cafe "Fidget" (the icon "Es-UNDP project" at the entrance, air conditioners, bright furniture, an intricate menu) to find a free table among the day- it was dined in pairs or companies. So earnings allowed.

Of course, I tested my feelings, talked with both citizens and responsible persons. Something entered the text, something is not. And the details about which other interlocutors preferred not to remember or say “how it should be for the newspaper”, in the story of Svatov’s entrepreneur Natalia Melnik ( in the interests of a person’s security, whose relatives remained in the occupied territory, the real name, surname, the profession now, I don’t call me , O.M. ) seemed to me disagroly exaggerated, like a head on a pedestal ...

The leaders were “lost” first

Five years later, Natalya and I, forced by a migrant, are talking in a suburbs of Kyiv, in a coffee shop. Right outside the windows - a pine forest, nearby - a modern residential building, whose facade at the level of the upper floors is torn by tank shots. Black failure on the site of the loggia, the windows are clogged with plywood. Under one window hangs a panel of a miracle of a surviving blue-yellow flag. From here they were able to oust Russian invaders a month later. How many years will be overgrown with wounds is unknown.

Natalia, as a realist and a business person, will hardly return to his own small homeland even after the liberation of the region:

- The occupation all this time gradually seized their heads there - informational and politically. In the last elections to local councils, I mean, in 2019, people from the OPZH, the former Party of the regions of Yanukovych, won. Of these, power was formed. Of those who, let not directly, but continued to preach the alliance with Putin Russia.

- Why did you choose again?

- Again? They did not disappear anywhere. In the fourteenth, it simply did not work out to expand the limits of the "LPR". But then the pro -Russian Cossacks acted as external force, and in the twenty -second, the regular army.

And eight years ago, according to Natalia Melnik, the defense of the city did not pull on the heroic epic. The machine gunners of the chieftain of the brain suddenly entered the controlled territory, surrounded the administration, and did not meet resistance. Rather, on the contrary. The police immediately removed the Ukrainian flag from their building, the court entered the same way. Hurry! The brain and did not plan to capture, he was simply heading to the village of Nizhny Duvanka, to say goodbye to the seriously ill father. To justify, they came up with a legend.

In early March of this year, the situation looked different. Two or three Russian tanks, an armored personnel carrier, a military car visited the outskirts of the city several times, for intelligence. Unlike Kyiv or Kharkov, they didn’t beat missiles on Svatovo, nor from heavy weapons fired. They hit only once on the object of the Ukrainian army, which was here. On this, the battles are over.

- And the territorial defense?

- The administration the day before pretended to create detachments. They invited a group of local romas, they were always connected when it was necessary to show work with different segments of the population ... And on February 23, on the eve of the invasion, the head of the state administration of the district Oleg Vladimirovich Slipets unexpectedly disappeared.

“He did not become a collaborator,” says Natalia. “Just“ lost ”. Allegedly moved to the Dnieper and even continues to receive a salary there.

The head of the City Council Vita Vladimirovna Slipets remained on the farm, not a relative - a namesake. She, along with a group of activists with Ukrainian flags, went to negotiations with the Russians. The notes were posted on Facebook. That is, they did what they could. The police chief evaporated. The management was taken by the police officer Anna Ruban as the eldest in rank. In fact, the same thing happened with the security forces as in 2014. But now no one cared about PR.

“People who really wanted to confront Russian invaders turned out to be a handful,” says my interlocutor. - The Potemkin village collapsed.

Zhduna ( as Ukrainians mean those who actively or passively expected the invasion - OM ) in Svatovo won.

Natalya recalls: literally on the eve of the Great War, February 16, on the day of the unity of Ukraine, just established by President Zelensky, local officials, who later became officials of the occupation administration, were photographed wrapped in blue-yellow linen, as in cocoons. And they forced the townspeople to take part in the celebration, as in Soviet times. We reported on the achievement: they extended the largest flag - from Svatovskaya Square Victory to the Maidan Zeroda ( consent - Ukrainian )

- And when the Ukrainian flag was replaced by a tricolor, most people took another external “repainting of reality” calmly.

I recall posters on the building of the City Council, from Lesya Ukrainka to Stepan Bandera. Did you also let dust in the eyes?

“One of the first there was a portrait of the former first secretary of the Svatovsky district committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Ivan Ivanovich Zaburdaev,” Natalya retorts. - The monument was demolished to Lenin, and Zaburdaev forever with us.

According to Natalia Melnik, only under President Viktor Yushchenko made attempts to figure out what was in their souls and in the heads of the local people. Then Kyiv demanded only a picture, not a deep transformation. She was replaced by showdowns of activists in the store: someone allowed himself to communicate in Russian! Social elevators were carried into pro -Ukrainian, pro -European parties of the careerists, which speculated on what was not really. The population was indignant - for the time being, as they got used to it for a long time. But they perceived everything Ukrainian as a window dressing, decoration.

The reaction resulted in the result of the local elections of 2019, when the "opposition platform-for life" won the district council. She prepared the ground for a full -fledged occupation. Plus, Russian television channels that previously broadcast here, in the Border region, as in their home. And now even more so ...

Natalya says: recently a cassette shell flew to the city center, several adults and a child died. Her brother, who serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the neighbor called: “Yura, I will sleep you a hut! Why did you fired at us?! " And Yura in Svatovo had a wife, children, grandson. “Yes, look at the direction where you flew from! Turn on the brains! " - asks Yura. It does not help. The Russian TV said - Kyiv beats in Svatovo, which means that it is.

With a person

Lyudmila Pavlovna Rusanova headed the district council under Ukraine and became the head of the administration at the LPR. Although real power, of course - Svatovo’s military commandant’s office, Russians in the form whose names are neither my interlocutor nor other citizens, including Rusanov herself, know. Not supposed.

- She was not going to leave the occupied city? - I ask. - Or organize resistance?

“In 2014, the son of Lyudmila Pavlovna and several more people were sentenced to conditional terms,” says Natalia. - They blocked the railway tracks so that the Ukrainian echelon, which brought weapons to the Donbass ... to Svatovo ...

Rusanova went from the Communist Party to OPZH. And all her life was held by leading posts: the director of the school, head of the education department, deputy head of the district state administration. Natalia Melnik clarifies:

- But Lyudmila Pavlovna is not from fanatics who ran with St. George ribbons: “Go ahead, Russia! Putin, bring the troops! " On the contrary, on the day of the unity of Ukraine with a blue-yellow flag stood. The trouble is that here all the time in power people who are accustomed to Soviet mimicry. And if Ukraine returns tomorrow, you think she sincerely does not want to serve the system, like a screw? The population, by the way, is enough that Rusanova remained, did not abandon, deals with their problems. It will also warn if someone is threatened with troubles: "Sit, be silent, do not lean out!" Although it has already been listed in the “Peacemaker” base as a traitor and collaborator.

- And the fanatical supporters of the “Russian world” in the city manifested itself?

- Certainly. What surprised, there are many among entrepreneurs. Recently organized a car racing on the Day of the "Republic". Several dozen cars, with the flags of the "LPR", themselves in T -shirts with the "Zetka". One of them, Alexander Tretyak, sent his 19-year-old daughter Lisa to the hospital-to treat the wounded Russian soldiers. She gave an interview to Russian television: how, they say, it’s good that they were freed Svatovo!

- Why? - I am perplexed. -Svatovo was famous for the millionaire farmers, they seemed to have a maximum of preferences.

- And the louder shouted "Glory to Ukraine!" - Picks Natalya.

She has a version: most successful entrepreneurs are descendants of the Soviet and party chiefs of the Donbass spill. That is, the starting capital is invested in family, “bribe” affairs. Ideological attitudes also dragged from there - VRI to any state for personal benefit.

A separate conversation about the media. The journalist of the matchmaker Pavel Kush on the patriotic topic became a deputy of the local council. Before that, he liked to remove pathos stories from checkpoints. He himself was “attached” to a grenade launcher: this is how to protect Ukraine from the Russian Horde! Today, Kushch - Deputy Rusanova, leads the organizational department. I am glad that his talent was appreciated by merits. The rest could not get so. They are engaged, as before, who is loved with an amendment to Russia.

I am interested in how the local police, Sbushniki, judges behaved. My interlocutor calls a small TG channel, where they publish photos and dossiers of those who violated the oath. Most of them are police officers, as in 2014. The reform of the department did not affect the selection of personnel?

“Thirty percent of the personnel swore allegiance to the new government,” the miller clarifies.

Old shots pulled up. A former policeman named Rudenko, Honored Master of Sports, a weightlifter, already in the years, went to serve in the LPR police. And the former head of the Svatovsky traffic police. Judge Yurchenko, who spoke about in the city as a corruption of number one, left his home in an unknown direction. Everyone knew: the judge was also a large Latifundist. With one hand the verdict signs, the other - sells the sunflower and checks the proceeds in his own stores. "Frightened that now, finally, they will put it!" - The locals concluded. They take what is happening so far as restoring order.

The richest farmer of the district, once the Communist Party, deputy Vladimir Grigoryevich Kunitsky, by the way, the father of Vita Slipets, in the recent past - the head of the City Council, tried to agree on cooperation with the new government. Read, with the Russian military commandant. And almost agreed. But rotation occurred, sent fresh personnel. Someone brought: Kunitsky, the owner of almost forty percent of the arable lands of the Luhansk region-a billionaire! The Russians decided to take their maximum, by force. To begin with, we arrived, beat ... The daughter managed to evacuate her father from Svatovo to the controlled territory.

- But when the fellow countrymen who are fighting for Ukraine at the front turned for help: “Vita Vladimirovna, you need to buy body armor”! ”, The official complained to them:“ I fled with one suitcase, there is absolutely no money! ” - recalls Natalya.

Svatov merchants not only accepted the Russian occupation, but immediately tried to cash in on it, raised prices. They rushed to Lugansk for goods - the demarcation lines no longer exist, and the fuel has become more cheaper. Although at gas stations it is sold to consumers at the “Ukrainian”, that is, high prices. “Cashed” flourishes, a new service, for which twenty -five percent is taken. For example, a pensioner cannot go to the ATM for a controlled territory, withdraw money from the card. Gives the card to the "cashing". He brings a pension in hryvnias and without embarrassment takes a quarter of old people. Almost all entrepreneurs have mastered this type of business.

At the same time, about half of the population remained in Svatovo. Many moved to the territory controlled by Ukraine, although the city practically did not suffer from shelling.

- People in any case need to eat, be able to visit a doctor. Criticizers of critical infrastructure employees - firefighters, rescuers, communal workers cannot be considered collaborators. Children need a school. So, you can’t do without teachers. It will be better if everyone who should ensure the life of the occupied territories will be brought from Russia? - I ask.

“Most doctors left Svatovo,” says Natalya Melnik. - And not to earn abroad, although they with good qualifications would have found application there, and in the Dnieper, in Poltava. I communicate with many. They are waiting for the counterattacks of the Ukrainian army to return home. That is, unlike officials who have speculated on patriotism, turned out to be real citizens of the country. They always had their position.

And ninety -nine percent of primary school teachers, on the contrary, went to “distort” to Russia in order to be in time for the new school year. Only two people refused.

From the beginning of the full -scale invasion of Russia, the State Bureau of Investigations of Ukraine (GBR) has been opened to today, 480 criminal cases have been opened on suspicions of collaboration, treason and treason. The Ukrinform agency quotes Tatyana Sapyan, a GBR adviser to communications: "More than a hundred suspicions have been awarded, four accusatory acts were sent to the court, and there are already the first sentences. Judges record cases of a conscious transition of law enforcement officers, judges, officials to the side of the occupier, and also record the assistance of the Russian occupation power. ”

At the same time, the adviser to the head of the president’s office, Mikhail Podolyak, wrote on Twitter: "Each official who agrees to cooperate with the invaders must understand that he is signing the verdict and becomes a legal goal for Ukrainian special forces and courts."

Kyiv