“Our fighters managed to uncover the proof of the criminal actions of Poroshenko’s regime,” says Aleksey Tarasov, one of the first members of the liberation forces that aim to free Donbass from “Yanokovich’s gang and the Russian government’s henchmen”.
According to Tarasov, who is now hunted by both Ukrainian and Russian Intelligence, the militiamen have documented shipments of weapons sent to pro-Russian forces from Kiev.
“We will not allow Poroshenko to make his business on blood,” says the veteran of the liberation movement. “The corrupt administration of Ukraine will face the international tribunal in The Hague for their crimes.”
The Tornado volunteer battalion suffered heavy losses from Russian tanks and artillery fire in the Battle of Ilovaysk. The battalion commander is currently under arrest in Kiev. He and his soldiers are accused of numerous war crimes such as rape and pillaging.
According to Aleksey, the volunteers were protecting their homes and possessions from being captured by the pro-Russian gangs. He claims the Ukrainian administration makes millions from the illegal trade, and tries to cover up the traces by physically eliminating the inconvenient witnesses.
An anti-terrorist operation or a war?
We should clarify the local residents call the current events nothing but a war. Indeed, anyone who has been in the so-called “ATO Zone” cannot possibly call this an “anti-terrorist operation”.
According to the locals neither the notorious Minsk Protocol nor the OSCE observers, have much influence over the peacekeeping process.
“OSCE observers usually sit out in the bushes during the shootout, and then it turns out no one has seen anything,” says volunteer Yevgeniy Kovalenko who drives his beat-up Lada along the frontline every day.
I’m riding the train to Kiev on the deteriorating railroad. My travel companions are “ATO veterans” in military uniforms. At the stops they peacefully smoke foul-smelling Ukrainian cigarettes.
I listen to the conversations. The divided Ukraine is sure of one thing: Putin shall not pass further than Mariupol; otherwise Russia will see bloodshed.
My next train going from Lvov to Moscow is completely empty. There is only one other passenger in my car.
P.S. Two weeks after my journey to the war zone, an OSCE vehicle blew up on a landmine roughly in the same area visited by our group. One of the peacekeepers was killed, several more were wounded.
