The blockade announced in mid November is a lie . The reality in Donbas is that this blockade has been in place for almost six months now. The bank runs happened in the late spring through the mid summer. I was there as thousands of people stood in line literally for days in front of bank ATMs.
During this time a surcharge was added to every deposit in Donbass banks and the funds went to buy the bullets used to kill people here. When Kiev lost ground in the east in mid-summer they closed the banks altogether. The banks closed without warning, and all deposits were stolen and used to buy more bullets. How is it possible to have a bank run in November when banks haven't been open for 4 months?
The vulnerable, the dying, and the dead
Pensions and benefits to the elderly and disabled were also cut off in mid-summer. State and oligarch owned businesses functioning and reaping profits stopped paying salaries. By early July retirees across the countryside were surviving on leftovers from the last harvest, unripened fruit, and help from their neighbors.
In August I started hearing about the starvation among the most vulnerable people, the shut-ins. People that were bed ridden or because of disabilities could no longer leave their apartments died of starvation and thirst. Where were their neighbors?
In early summer the Ukrainian army started targeting apartment buildings and homes. Throughout the summer this never let up. At first Kiev denied it but later it didn't matter anymore in the news. Kiev suspended the human rights of people in Southeast early in the spring. The shelling of civilian homes had the effect Kiev was hoping for. It created a flood of terrified refugees that simply ran and almost overwhelmed the capacity to take care of them in Belarus and Russia.
I have watched people come to this decision. They don't talk about it out of fear. They quietly slip away. The neighbors of the shut-ins thought someone else was staying and would look after them. In a lot of cases no one could. No one talked to anyone else: they ran.
Ukrainian nationalists popped up everywhere. In the cities groups like Pravy Sektor did random shootings. Paranoia ran wild. It didn't help that until recently most people never understood what was really happening. How do you comprehend the country where your family has always lived and you are a part of deciding you are less than human? How do you come to grips with your country wanting to kill you?
The shock that your own neighbor might want you dead for some incomprehensible reason caused this. That fear became justifiable when people turned their neighbors in to the punishers to be tortured and killed. I know one too many stories about a town drunk spinning tales for another bottle. Ukraine is a place where being a 2nd cousin to the militia back in June was enough for a death sentence for your entire family, including your children, even if you never spoke with them.
Every town has people from across the political spectrum just like yours does. People confused patriots with nationalists and vice versa. The social net that Poroshenko cynically cut off in November has not existed since late spring. Kiev destroyed it with shells, not democracy.
Medication
Medications for chronic life threatening illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and basic antibiotics became in short supply in late spring. Early on medication was transported by clearly marked vehicles with red cross insignia or ambulances. These became the favored targets of mercenaries and para military forces like the Donbass battalion. In every major city hospitals have been prime targets the entire time.
Until
then most medications were distributed through warehouses in Kiev. As
early as June publications such as the
Telegraph reported
on the humanitarian efforts which were caused by Kiev's humanitarian
blockade. The reality since summer is that people are dying because
the medications they needed were kept out of their reach. No matter
how much effort is put into the humanitarian campaign, the population
of over 7 million people are in a war zone that is constantly
bombarded with rockets and shells.
Creating Famine Conditions
Beginning in the late spring, the Ukrainian army set land mines across the grain fields needed to support the area for human and livestock consumption. They aren't in contested areas, are not marked and the locals were not told to stay away by the Ukrainian army.
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