“Does Ukraine need us?” The results of the survey in the areas of Donbas that are not controlled by the Ukrainian Government, the analysis of the opinions and the conclusions by a conflict expert Imprint DRA e.V. Badstraße 44 D-13357 Berlin Tel. +49 (0)30 446 680 12 Fax. +49 (0)30 446 680 10 [email protected] www.austausch.org This publication was prepared within the project “Dialogue for understanding and justice: European NGOs working together for the conflict resolution in Donbas”. The project is implemented by DRA e.V. with the financial support of the German Federal Foreign Office. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the official position of the German Federal Foreign Office or that of the DRA. Editor – Iryna Yakovlieva Illustrations – Nastia Eliseeva Copyright © DRA 2020 Reproduction of the content is authorized provided the source is acknowledged. “Does Ukraine need us?” The results of the survey in the areas of Donbas that are not controlled by the Ukrainian Government, the analysis of the opinions and the conclusions by a conflict expert Contents 3 Foreword 4 Tim Judah, British journalist, author of the book ‘In War Time: Stories from Ukraine’ Survey “Six years behind the frontline: what do people living in non- 7 government-controlled territories think about Ukraine, the war and the future?” Essays by Ukrainian journalists whose origin is in Donbas about 30 the opinions expressed in the survey From the perspective of the “excepted” 31 Alisa Sopova, journalist, doctoral candidate in anthropology, Princeton University, born and raised in Donetsk To be dug up in a hundred years? How in some parts of the Donetsk and 34 Luhansk regions there is almost no Ukraine left Yulia Abibok, journalist, PhD candidate in media and communications Dialogue across the contact line has never stopped 37 Dmytro Durnev, journalist, born and raised in Donetsk The reflections of a conflict expert 41 Dialogue starts with personal stories Inna Tereshchenko, mediator, facilitator, trainer, conflict expert, PhD in philosophy, the Head of Odesa Regional Group of Mediation 4 Foreword me to give a speech. I said that not only had I just seen these checkpoints but that I had seen them before in Croatia and in Bosnia and that they meant that war was coming. The other guests disagreed. It was not just that they did not believe me it was that they did not want to believe me. And that I had seen before too of course. As war raged in Croatia, Bosnians smiled and said, “It won’t happen here, because everyone knows just how awful it would be if it did.” And now here we are again. A quarter of century since the end of the Bosnian war and almost seven years since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Tim Judah Ukraine and everything I have read in this report is British journalist, author of the book ever so familiar again. ‘In War Time: Stories from Ukraine’ There is a caveat though. There were many If experience has taught me anything it is that similarities between the Balkans and eastern sometimes you need distance to see things. I Ukraine but there were also some key differences. am not talking physical distance of course but The most important was or is that in the Balkans emotional distance. the conflicts were drawn on clear ethnic or at least identity lines. Serbs (Orthodox) v Croats Let me explain. During the 1990s I covered almost (Catholics) v Bosniaks (Muslims) v Albanians (not every moment of the Yugoslav wars. Actually more: Slavs). In eastern Ukraine the difference between I lived them, even more than most Yugoslavs in Russians and Ukrainians was entirely fluid – the sense that, as a journalist, I not only covered but as this report makes clear – with every year all of the conflicts, in Croatia, in Bosnia, in Kosovo that passes that is ever less of the case. If in the – but unlike them I was able to move back and non-government-held territories Ukrainian has forth across the frontlines. Then, after the wars, I been expunged and for many on the other side continued to cover this region. My next story will Russian is the language of the aggressor, then be about what 25-year-olds in Bosnia think. Why? new identities are being formed. Should we be Because the war there ended 25 years ago. surprised that the report reveals that younger people can be more nationalistic than their So what is the connection? In April 2014 in Ukraine parents? We have seen the same in the Balkans. I was stunned with a feeling of déjà vu. I saw The young have no memory of the time when euphoric men given guns, manning checkpoints everyone lived together and schools mould the and screaming about “fascists”. Suddenly they thinking of the new generation. In the Balkans new thought their humdrum lives had meaning. They identities have emerged – Bulgarians and Greeks too could be like their parents, grandparents or for example are enraged that Macedonians think great grandparents with their very own tales of they are Macedonians, because 100 years ago fighting a just war or rising in revolution. Then, they might not have done. In the second half of in Donetsk, I was invited to a dinner with a large the twentieth century Kosovo Albanian identity number of people and, as a foreigner, they asked morphed from being a regional one to a national “Does Ukraine need us?” The results of the survey in the areas of Donbas that are not controlled by the Ukrainian Government, the analysis of the opinions and the conclusions by a conflict expert 5 one. In Bosnia, younger Serbs are no longer The strange thing is that in the years since the end just Bosnian Serbs but identify with Srpska, the of the Yugoslav wars people have lived on different para-state in which they live. Now the same is planes. happening in Donetsk and Luhansk. On the one hand for example, Bosnia is clearly The idea that we must know what people are a dysfunctional state. Across the region young thinking – even if it is not the entire story because people talk the nationalistic talk and so on. And people there are not free to speak their minds – yet, and yet… is entirely valid. But it does not mean of course that, just because you know what people on Many years ago I went to interview a newspaper the other side of the line think reunification or editor in Bulgaria. At the end I asked him if he knew peace is possible. Quite apart from the fact that editors from Belgrade and Zagreb and so on. He Kyiv and Moscow may have their own reasons said that during the wars of the 1990s he met them for keeping things as they are, the fact is that frequently but afterwards he lost touch with them. in recent times, no other directly comparable “Why was that?” I asked him. “Because they were conflict has ended peacefully with people only interested in talking to each other and went reconciled. Don’t forget of course too that the back to doing that,” he said. It dawned on me that biggest lie in international relations is that “there however much had been destroyed during the is no solution through violence”. In 1995 Croatia wars there was still a huge amount people had solved the problem of the breakaway Serbian in common and that included family and friends republic of Krajina by expunging it from the map now divided by new borders and much of what has militarily. In 2009 the Sri Lankan army crushed happened since then has been the reconnection of the breakaway Tamil state on the island. In 2020, everything from families to business. after more than a quarter of century, Azerbaijan struck and crushed the Armenians in Nagorno- At the top level I even get the impression that Karabakh leading to columns of refugees, some whatever they say about one another for their of whom set fire to their houses before leaving, media the region’s leaders see one another more in scenes powerfully reminiscent of the Balkan often than they see their own ministers. They wars. seem to tour the region and Europe, meeting one another in conferences, forums, official gatherings In 1995 in Croatia one Serb-held region however and so on every week. At the same time ordinary was surrendered without a fight and there people too may do the same in a way. They may Serbs continue to live, however to what extent say if asked that they “hate” the other side but there has ever been reconciliation with Croats they still want to go on holiday there and eat there is questionable. Serbs and Albanians live their familiar food and listen to their music. In parallel lives in Kosovo as do Macedonians and that sense Serbs, Croats and Bosnians and so on Albanians in North Macedonia – although there, don’t think of one another as “real” foreigners. In despite conflict in 2001, all governments contain the past week I took part in a conference in which Albanians. In Bosnia, there was no revenge young researchers from all of the Balkan countries killing after the war but every year journalists discussed papers they had written together, write that the country is on the brink of war discussed common problems, discussed possible again although it never happens. solution and swapped data and experiences. This is today’s normal. Much of the media, politicians, What does this all mean and what are the lessons priests and so on say what they have to say to keep for Ukraine? their tribes of voters on side but, at the same time, 6 real life where people just have get on with things, interest and ability to strike a deal are in power carries on.