IT IS CARE THAT MATTERS

Two towns of Luhansk oblast, Svatove and Sievierodonetsk, I visited together with a group of artists who again came to the ATO zone to support the troops with songs, communication, and presents. The tour is called “Support Our Men,” and the name explains the aim of such trips to the turbulent east of our country. Among the troupe were popular singers Anastasia Prykhodko and Tonia Matviienko, as well as bands EyRa and Ray Band.

The first town, Svatove, was never occupied by terrorists, the other, Sievierodonetsk, was liberated back in the summer. Who could best render the region’s sentiment? Ordinary citizens, Ukrainian troops, volunteers, or maybe the cops? In Svatove the hotel owner baked pies for us early in the morning. When a girl from our group spoke Ukrainian to her friend at a Sievierodonetsk supermarket, the local thugs grimaced. On the other hand, right there in Sievierodonetsk there is a now legendary Auntie Tania, known not only for helping Ukrainian troops in various ways, but also for asking them for really special advice. It was during the occupation, when three separatists were sitting in her cafe, and she was ready to dispose of them single-handedly. She only did not know how she would get rid of the bodies. Then she called the military, who politely advised her to stay out of the boys’ business. I have already written about a business owner from Lysychansk who gave the Ukrainian artillerists the coordinates of his own car repairs garage, where pro-Russian terrorists camped. So, the local picture is pretty mixed, and maybe it is not worth while trying to figure everything out when action is top priority.

GOVERNOR AND LAWN-MOWER

Hennadii Moskal, governor of Luhansk oblast, once promised to exterminate the so-called LNR completely. Literally. I would not treat his words as populism. You have to know General Moskal’s biography and his role in cleansing Crimea from criminal groups. According to one of the consiglieri to a Luhansk mafia boss of the 1990s, there is the lawn-mower principle. No one is going to make a haystack and burn it. Instead, the tallest grasses will be mown, one by one, steadily and methodically. We could notice that the president only once asked Moskal “not to panic.” The president had to save his face somehow and respond to the governor’s criticism. The latter, however, does not seem to pay attention to such reprimands, and not because he ignores the president. Just the other way around. I am convinced that he is carrying out his order, to mow the lawn, and all means justify the end in such a case. It is proven by the fact that the representative of the executive comfortably uses abusive language (and even threatens certain officials) in front of cameras. I must admit that very few are displeased with such behavior. Conversely, here, in the east, people expect decisive and clear-cut actions, even if the methods are harsh.

Yevhen Rybalka, the mayor of Svatove, is explicit: the governor hardly ever shows up in Svatove. “Moskal is a rare guest here, he has enough problems elsewhere. In Svatove we have peace and quiet. The only thing I asked him to do was to take those pencil-pushers away, who would not let us work.”

Both in Svatove and Sievierodonetsk the tour gathered full houses. There was hardly a place to put another chair. The atmosphere was wonderful, and there were endless incidents which in peacetime would have had a different meaning, if they should ever take place.

SVATOVE HAS BECOME A RELIABLE HOME FRONT

In Svatove we were also honored to pay a visit to our troops in hospital together with the “oppressors’ muse,” as some brainwashed victims of Russian propaganda refer to singer Anastasia Prykhodko. Of course, performing at local community centers for troops and volunteers is an inspirational experience. But the artists will not stop at that. They seek contact with the troops, they talk with them. Moreover, in the evening the artists even had an opportunity to talk to the troops informally, in a cafe. But that was later. First there was the hospital.

Svatove has become a reliable home front. It has not just a hospital, but a real base with its own helipad used to deliver the wounded. Of course, we were not allowed anywhere near the badly wounded. But the others got presents, children’s drawings, and even an improvised listeners’ concert in the wards.

Later in the afternoon the artists met with volunteers and some army medics, who shared gripping and touching stories. Coffee and tea bring people together, and the military shared their worries with the guests. One of the volunteers turned out to be an official from a village council in western Ukraine. He gave up his own business and his career to enlist in a volunteer battalion. Remarkably, even the nearest of kin have no idea of his whereabouts. In August he happened to be at Ilovaisk. Once they were sent to fend off an attack of an approaching enemy force. When the battle began, it turned out that our shooters faced a convoy of armored vehicles. How this could have happened is a separate subject. At that moment the first thing that occurred to our hero was to call his wife, who until today believes that her husband is somewhere in Kharkiv. He wanted to just call her and hear her voice, maybe for the last, and she would not even know. He was lucky and survived, unlike many others. After treatment and rehabilitation he returned to the front.

Another soldier, a military doctor, quit his own medical practice and joined the medical corps. He regularly performs surgeries on the troops and says that no one may command volunteers. There is subordination, there is a common vision of the situation, but they even will not wear military insignia, that is useless. In their turn, regular troops resent that volunteers in the army get help from civil volunteers, while the Ukrainian Army is just left to its devices by the government. There have been cases when commanders explicitly advised the military to seek help from volunteers. However, these are basically different spheres in military organization. A volunteer is independent and fights on his own accord, because of his own beliefs. In practice we see a curious combination of opposite philosophies, compulsion and goodwill. The same is true of police units. What do they all have in common?

“WE MUST DETERMINE OUR PRIORITIES AND ACT”

A conscript at a checkpoint near Lysychansk, were we went after the concert in Sievierodonetsk, says: “Ninety percent of the men here do not want this chaos to go all the way to Kyiv.” The military understand that they are charged with an important mission: to localize the pest. But what about healing? A police officer from Luhansk says, “We must determine our priorities and act.” He is angry that Luhansk was not liberated in August. Serhii Melnychuk, commander of Aidar Battalion turned MP, recently explained why: “We only needed two more days. But we were exhausted, and the Russians invaded. That was when they assaulted Ilovaisk and Luhansk.” This explanation is anything but new. That the forces around Luhansk were dispersed and the circle closed, was obvious even to the locals, isolated from any sources of information. Indeed, Russians played a crucial role in the enemy’s strategic advantage in August. But on the other hand, was the fire from the Russian side of the border anything new back then? Ukraine’s territory was bombarded on a regular basis, which plagued our border guards. Was there anyone who doubted that Russians could invade Ukraine? It is common knowledge that such invasions had been regularly happening for a while, only on a smaller scale. In fact, our men had a potential source of fire after their backs. This is a matter for a separate, thorough study.

Meanwhile we came to the dugouts, where the fragile Prykhodko heard machine gun shots. The thing was that close from that checkpoint there is a village Bila Hora, where our troops are in charge, but this is really an outpost. Separatists regularly venture towards it. To discourage them from attacks, from time to time our sentries open preventive fire in their direction, and this proves really helpful.

After the meetings with the troops the artists returned to Kyiv. Vitalii Pastukh, who organizes these tours, shared on the way back: “I already have thousands of soldiers’ phone numbers. And once I get a call from someone I     can’t really place, of course. And he says, hi, I just call to tell you that I’m home already. This is so special, very touching. I know that they are waiting for us because we bring them a bit of warmth from home. They ask the children to write their phone numbers on the drawings, so that they could call back and thank each child.”

So, what funds allow artists to go on such tours? Vitalii answers: “Just these days 15,000 hryvnias were sent to my account. With nothing expected in return. And I will tell you, if not for the mayor of Svatove, who organized our hotel stay, meals, if not for my good friends in Sievierodonetsk, this money would not be enough. Everything is supported by good will, people’s own stand, their desire to help, do something to protect the country.”

“You have to remember that we think about you and we need you. Never forget that,” Anastasia Prykhodko says to a soldier, who escorts us to Kreminna. This soldier is paid 2,400 hryvnias per month, and I have not heard a word of grumbling from him during the whole evening. One can even sense some sort of shyness in their behavior. They smile, talk more freely, hug, take photos, and it is noticeable that they need this type of holiday. A simple holiday of attention.