Donbas is being taken away from Ukraine. But where?!... Donetsk journal

The "young republic" has been proving its independence from Ukraine for the seventh year in a row, as the phrase goes, by deed, not by word. Supermarkets stopped accepting hryvnia in the summer of 2015. In 2016, all owners of movable and immovable property were forced to replace Ukrainian documents confirming ownership and license plates on Ukrainian cars with new ones indicating their belonging to the "DNR". In February this year, the "people's council" voted for the initiative of the "DNR" "head" to amend the "constitution". The mention of the Ukrainian language, which was listed there as the second "state", was removed from the 10th article. At the same time, they made changes to the "legislation" on education. Thus, the Ukrainian language and literature subject disappeared from the school curriculum. Now teaching in educational institutions of CADO is carried out only in Russian.

According to these changes, all documents or certificates that need to be provided somewhere are brought in line with the current "legislation", that is, if they are drawn up in Ukrainian, they require translation into Russian.

But this does not end with the infringement of the rights of Ukrainians who have found themselves in the occupied territory for various reasons. The rulers of the "people's republic" decided not to recognize Ukrainian ID-passports, which were accepted as an identity document up until recently. Now they require a so-called address certificate when registering pensions, social payments, benefits and even when contacting a bank. To the questions of outraged citizens, the "officials" answer that there is no registration data on the plastic card, and an extract from the State Voter Register with the voting address and place of registration in the territory not controlled by Ukraine is not considered valid here.

"Deputy of the DNR People's Council" Anastasia Selivanova explained this in the local media: "If you have an ID-passport of Ukraine, and you want to receive social benefits in the DNR, a bank card, submit documents to a university or carry out other operations that require an identity document, then you need to legalize your ID-passport first". The word "legalize" was especially liked by the Donetsk people, who propose with some degree of sarcasm to legalize the "DNR" first.

Actually, "legalization" consists in obtaining an address certificate, where a photo of a person is pasted in and data from a new passport of a citizen of Ukraine is entered in with an indication of registration on the territory of the "DNR".

"Address certificate is a document certifying the fact of your registration on the territory of the republic. You do not need to exchange it every six months (unlike the usual address certificate, which is issued due to the loss or absence of an identity document)", - "deputy" Selivanova enlightens the Donetsk citizens.

But Selivanova either talk round corners, or deliberately keeps silent about the fact that from July 31, 2020, the "address certificate" is issued if there is another certificate that the person has submitted documents for the "DNR passport". Which ambiguously indicates that ID-passports will soon be invalid in the uncontrolled territory even with the very same "address certificate".

From bad to worse. The local Internet resources reported last week that references to hryvnia were being removed from all "documents". For example, the words "hryvnia" and "national currency" in paragraphs 52, 65 and 75 in the rules for the provision of postal services, in were replaced by "Russian ruble". These paragraphs relate to money transfers and postage payments.

We may only guess the directions of sick fantasy of the rulers of the "republic". So, the borders with Ukraine are kept locked up not out of fear of the spread of coronavirus infection. However, only propagandist Maya Pirogova dared to voice the real reason: "Because Ukraine is not Russia". Convincing, isn't it? And the Donetsk people quite rightly assume that the policy of pressing everything Ukrainian in the uncontrolled Donbas is aimed primarily at pressing all pro-Ukrainian citizens and those who are unable to withstand all this insanity.

The lies and bravado of the "DNR" rulers infuriate even ardent supporters of the Russian world. Recently, local media circulated an interview with Pushilin that there are very few people among the residents of the "DNR" who want to live as part of Ukraine and therefore "we are going the right way, comrades" and "our course is Russia". "According to our sociological research, there are very few citizens of the republic who want to return to Ukraine or live in it on special conditions, about 5%. Residents of the republic are unanimous that today's Ukraine is out of our way", - Pushilin stated. This caused a heated discussion in social networks of the near-term prospect of the uncontrolled Donbas. Because it has long been clear that Russia needs a new formation that imagines itself as an independent state under no circumstances.

The bravura statements of the "authorities" that a little bit more, and Mother Russia will take the proud Donbas into its arms cause only irritation, because no one needs several million poor people and lands ravaged by war. Even for humanitarian reasons.

So that the people would not finally become discouraged by the unsightly prospect, the Kremlin came up with another fairy tale for morons, which is now being poured into the ears of Donetsk residents with the help of local media.Allegedly, all the "ministers" in the "DNR" do not sleep at night and are thinking about how to revive the once rich region. So that every person can live well in it. Actually, a November 19 meeting on the development of industry at Pushilin's office with heads of the "ministries" and branch enterprises began from this.

It turns out that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has already developed a comprehensive program for the development of light industry for 2021-2023.

"We took as a basis the example of the Russian Federation, where two government decrees are in effect - No.616 and No.617, which prohibit the purchase of foreign-manufactured products for budgetary and municipal funds…", - "Minister" of Industry and Trade Vladimir Rushchak shared his plans.

He explained the relevance of the innovation by the fact that a large amount of low-quality light industry products are being imported to the territory of the "DNR". Therefore, there is a need to develop own production. In order not only to provide for the residents of the "republic", but also to work for export!

"The second component is development of export potential, that is, restoration of the historical trade and economic ties established over the course of decades", - the "minister" boldly reported. Сhair of the coordination council of heads of light industry enterprises Larisa Ivanova timidly noted to this that there was a shortage of personnel in the "republic", but her words quietly disappeared in space.

Of course, no one said how the program would be implemented, as well as where they would look for personnel for its implementation. However, the expressions on the faces of the "officials" clearly said that the Chinese sewing enterprises would go bankrupt pretty soon, and the designers of the leading fashion houses of France and Italy would line up at the factories of the young "republic".

Then no one will doubt the words of Pushilin that only 5% of the population in the uncontrolled Donbas wants to return to Ukraine and live as before, until 2014. They will even believe that the whole "former" Ukraine wants to join the prosperous region. In the meantime, such a "sociology" causes only a bitter smile…

Liusia Molchanova, Donetsk, for OstroV