From the Front-Lines

 The Russian anarchist website https://aitrus.info/node/5934 has posted an interview with an anarchist in Gorlovka, which is a town in the Donetsk People’s Republic. As it’s unusual to get news from such a vantage point, here is a translation of some of what he said:

‘Before Putin recognized the “independence” of the DPR the situation in my town was quiet enough. After recognition many residents hoped that Russia would send “peacekeeping forces” to the DPR and the war would stop. Instead, a considerable part of the town’s male population was mobilized into the “People’s Militia of the DPR.” At municipal service facilities at least 50% of men were mobilized, at some 100%. As a result there was no one left to repair many objects of the infrastructure. A city sewerage worker I know said on March 13: “We still have water for a few days. After that we’ll be in the shit.” There is a much stronger feeling of fear in the town than in 2014. But there are still enough food and other products on the shelves of stores.

As for the military situation in the area, the front line has not shifted and I don’t expect it to in the foreseeable future. But artillery fire has become more intensive.

My father and I stay home almost all the time, so that we don’t get handed mobilization notices on the street. We live in the central district, which throughout the war has been relatively little affected by artillery fire. Things have always been much worse for people living on the outskirts. So we are lucky.

There have been instances of whole groups of people being forced into motor vehicles and driven off to the military recruitment office. Even people with a “white ticket” have been mobilized. Although it is possible to avoid service legally. If you end up in the recruitment office, demand a full medical examination. That will take several days. If serious problems with your health are found they will let you go. My neighbor was excused because he used to have cancer. Even if there are no serious problems with your health, you can use the delay to find a reliable hiding place.

As for those who are mobilized, some are sent to the front, others serve in the rear. I know of instances when men were sent to serve in Kharkov or Kherson Province or at a “sorting station.” Trucks are loaded with the corpses of Russian soldiers and they are taken to Crimea. One told me: “I’d sooner go to prison for five years than see all this horror.” Many of the mobilized men have already been killed or wounded. Others have been taken prisoner. Those who refuse to go to the front are threatened with criminal charges.

At the very start of mobilization people were promised that they would just spend a few days in barracks and then be sent home. That is why many turned up at the recruitment office. Also because they feared possible problems at work if they failed to show up. Fighting spirit was nowhere to be found. The DPR “patriots” whom I know have not the slightest wish to join the “People’s Militia” and take part in the war.

The people of the Donbas have always been passive and attracted to a “firm hand.” The miners’ strikes in the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s were the peak of class struggle, but once the Ukrainian economy stabilized and the miners began to get decent wages their activism faded.

There was a group of non-political volunteers in my town in the first years of the war, who helped residents who could not care for themselves. But for a long time now I have heard nothing of these volunteers. There is no sign of grassroots self-organization here.