‘The hope is finished’ Life in the Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk
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n July 2021, CPC member Professor Brienna Perelli-Harris, along with Professor Theodore Gerber (University of Wisconsin-Madison), and Dr Yuliya Hilevych (University of Groningen), collaborated with a Ukraine-based research team to help them conduct focus groups with people living in the separatist territories of Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics about the everyday problems they faced. Here, they discuss their findings: Russia’s recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and a military attack on Ukraine, have once again drawn the world’s attention to these two rebelheld separatist regions. They have been outside Ukrainian government control since Russian-backed separatists fought Ukrainian forces to a standstill in 2014, a conflict that killed some 14,000 people by early 2022. While an estimated two million have fled these territories – mainly to either Russia or Ukraine – about three million have remained. In May 2022,
women and children in these regions were ordered to evacuate to Russia, with armed conflict again upending their lives. In contrast to journalists, who tend to seek out people with especially interesting stories to interview, in July 2021 we sought to recruit a selection of ordinary people, including both urban and rural residents, men and women. Overall, 40 people participated, and despite the virtual format they seemed quite comfortable discussing aspects of their daily lives, usually from their own living rooms. We were struck above all by what they did not talk about: whether they wished to be part of Russia, part of Ukraine or independent of both. While the Russian and Ukrainian governments have jockeyed for eight years now over these territories, these residents were more concerned with daily problems. They struggled with Covid quarantines, feeding their families, obtaining education for their children, and
staying in touch with relatives across the “line of contact” – the border between the areas controlled by the Ukrainian government and the separatist territories. In 2015, the Minsk II agreement led to a ceasefire between the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk and the Ukrainian government. Since then, these regions have been controlled by Russian-backed puppet governments. The isolation has taken its toll on the people living there. Some of our participants had lost jobs or businesses, and many complained of rising prices and falling wages. The banking system was cut off from the outside world, the transport system deteriorated, pensions were no longer paid, and a 10 pm curfew restricted their evening movements. Residents were separated from relatives in Ukraine, from siblings who had moved to Russia, and their children could no longer visit their grandparents.
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