Donetsk: entering a city under siege
After a few days of indecision we finally decided to pack up and leave for Donetsk we had heard very mixed things about how dangerous it may or may not be. However after speaking to somebody who was there we decided to take the chance and go for it. So yesterday we left our apartment for the final time and headed for the train station. Our Translator kindly said he'd accompany us to say goodbye which turned out to be fortunate as not long after we purchased the tickets we were approached by 2 undercover policemen, a sniffer dog and a regular brandishing a machine gun, who wanted to inspect our bags. After some explanation from our translator and showing that it was a rolled cigarette and not drugs we were smoking they allowed us to board the train for Donetsk.
After much consideration we had decided to bring all of our luggage, it was not preferable as our bags made us stand out considerably, we had already had our first run in with police 5 minutes in and extra attention was something we did not need. However as we had nowhere else to leave them and we had no idea how long we may be there, we boarded the train clanking down the corridor in true backpacker style.
Not long after leaving the station our compartment was invaded by a group of young children, recently returned from a dance tour around Eastern Europe. They quickly took a shine to us, especially Elliott, as they misunderstood what we were doing and thought we were in films and so were famous. This resulted in us in signing various scraps of paper for them with messages of good luck. They found our attempts at speaking Russian particularly hilarious and their level of English was very good in comparison. We learnt some more Russian phrases and brushed up our English counting skills too which was a bonus, but our fans mean a lot to us so we were happy to do it. It was a nice distraction and a strange juxtaposition considering what potentially awaited us in Donetsk.
We stepped off the train and waved goodbye feeling fairly confident that we could just walk out and grab a taxi especially as it was a big busy station similar to Clapham Junction. But just before entering the main station building there was some sort of commotion behind us, we continued to head for the exit until a burly man grabbed John's bag and spun him round whilst a young man (no more than 19) pulled out a pistol, cocked it and pointed it at us whilst shouting in Russian. After a heated discussion and a call from our new friend Sandro (a Brazilian journalist we had contacted but were yet to meet) the situation was diffused. The initial aggression in hindsight could have been justified due to the fact we could obviously not understand their demands to stop in Russian and could have potentially been 'the enemy' carrying explosives or weapons in the massive bags we were carrying running away from them. The fact they were in plain clothes and so young was something that we had never expected and having a gun cocked and pointed at you whilst being shouted at in a language you don't understand is always going to be a shock After checking all our details and talking to Sandro in Russian they apologized profusely and happily let us go…to then be ripped off by a taxi driver who took us to our budget hotel where we had organised to meet Sandro.
Sandro met us on arrival, a friendly, energetic Brazilian who had been in Donetsk since Sunday and had been living in Moscow for 4 years so spoke excellent Russian. We immediately set out to get our accreditation from the Donetsk People's Republic Government building. As without this filming anywhere in the city would get us in a lot of trouble.
This Soviet Monolith was a site to behold with 6 armed militia on the front door inspecting the passports of what seemed to be a constant stream of journalists and laborers. Inside was even more bizarre, with damage from the attack that secured the building for the separatists months before apparent on every wall. Russian propaganda hung around the entry foyer and a small shrine for the Malaysian airlines dead sat by the 1 working elevator.
We were told to go to the 7th floor but took a wrong turn out of the elevator and ended up in the disused side of the building with damaged doors, looted offices and barbed wire strung up the stairwells. This building truly was fascinating, one can only imagine what documents and information had been acquired when the building had been taken.
Eventually we found the right office, the 'ministry of public relations' (written on a photocopied piece of A4). We were told that there was a press conference at the moment and we could return in an hour to get our accreditation processed. On Sandro's advice we decided to go to the only restaurant nearby that was open and have a few beers and get to know each other better.
We returned to the ministry expecting a struggle to get our accreditation but the reality was the opposite. The kind woman of the ministry of public affairs simply typed up our accreditation, printed them off and stamped them. We were now officially accredited in the Donetsk Peoples Republic and were informed we could film anywhere within the city. We could not however film military personal without acquiring their express permission first.
The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to find deodorant and stock up on a little food. After hours of searching we managed to get some food but would continue to smell bad for the following few days. The city of Donetsk itself was truly impressive, much bigger, cleaner and organised than we had expected. Many of the cities including Mariupol had seemed very run down, with grass in the parks overgrowing, empty buildings with broken windows and many completely shelled and left as ruins. As it was only our first day we had not yet seen the damage done in the city of Donetsk, considering the amount of fighting within the city it must be considerable. However the centre of the city was very well kept and buses and trams seemed to be running smoothly.
With much of the population leaving due to the fighting there was definitely a lack of people and around 80% of shops and businesses were closed but otherwise without the odd distant shell exploding or burst of gunfire it was very easy to forget the war that was being waged in various different regions of the city.
We had been informed by Sandro to get some hot food before everything closed at around 7pm, so we all bought a burger and on the way back to the hotel got accosted by a man, who in English shouted "Fuck Ukraine, Fuck America, Russia! Russia! Russia!, Fuck Obama! Fuck Obama! Fuck Obama!" As far as we could work out he did not like Ukraine or America and particularly did not like Obama. He was obviously very passionate about his views which he emphasized by constantly spitting at the floor.
This was a stark reminder of where we were and that the people who had remained in the city most certainly were all supporters of Russia. Filming in the city was going certainly going to be an interesting challenge. We then returned to the hotel and sat on the balcony chatting and listening to the sounds of battle raging not far away in the dark night. All in all we are pleased that we have finally got to Donetsk and can begin investigating the fascinating epicenter of the Rebels.
http://jtecproductions.moonfruit.com/contact-and-donate/4585681067
After much consideration we had decided to bring all of our luggage, it was not preferable as our bags made us stand out considerably, we had already had our first run in with police 5 minutes in and extra attention was something we did not need. However as we had nowhere else to leave them and we had no idea how long we may be there, we boarded the train clanking down the corridor in true backpacker style.
Not long after leaving the station our compartment was invaded by a group of young children, recently returned from a dance tour around Eastern Europe. They quickly took a shine to us, especially Elliott, as they misunderstood what we were doing and thought we were in films and so were famous. This resulted in us in signing various scraps of paper for them with messages of good luck. They found our attempts at speaking Russian particularly hilarious and their level of English was very good in comparison. We learnt some more Russian phrases and brushed up our English counting skills too which was a bonus, but our fans mean a lot to us so we were happy to do it. It was a nice distraction and a strange juxtaposition considering what potentially awaited us in Donetsk.
Families struggle to board a train leaving Donetsk
We stepped off the train and waved goodbye feeling fairly confident that we could just walk out and grab a taxi especially as it was a big busy station similar to Clapham Junction. But just before entering the main station building there was some sort of commotion behind us, we continued to head for the exit until a burly man grabbed John's bag and spun him round whilst a young man (no more than 19) pulled out a pistol, cocked it and pointed it at us whilst shouting in Russian. After a heated discussion and a call from our new friend Sandro (a Brazilian journalist we had contacted but were yet to meet) the situation was diffused. The initial aggression in hindsight could have been justified due to the fact we could obviously not understand their demands to stop in Russian and could have potentially been 'the enemy' carrying explosives or weapons in the massive bags we were carrying running away from them. The fact they were in plain clothes and so young was something that we had never expected and having a gun cocked and pointed at you whilst being shouted at in a language you don't understand is always going to be a shock After checking all our details and talking to Sandro in Russian they apologized profusely and happily let us go…to then be ripped off by a taxi driver who took us to our budget hotel where we had organised to meet Sandro.
Sandro met us on arrival, a friendly, energetic Brazilian who had been in Donetsk since Sunday and had been living in Moscow for 4 years so spoke excellent Russian. We immediately set out to get our accreditation from the Donetsk People's Republic Government building. As without this filming anywhere in the city would get us in a lot of trouble.
This Soviet Monolith was a site to behold with 6 armed militia on the front door inspecting the passports of what seemed to be a constant stream of journalists and laborers. Inside was even more bizarre, with damage from the attack that secured the building for the separatists months before apparent on every wall. Russian propaganda hung around the entry foyer and a small shrine for the Malaysian airlines dead sat by the 1 working elevator.
We were told to go to the 7th floor but took a wrong turn out of the elevator and ended up in the disused side of the building with damaged doors, looted offices and barbed wire strung up the stairwells. This building truly was fascinating, one can only imagine what documents and information had been acquired when the building had been taken.
Eventually we found the right office, the 'ministry of public relations' (written on a photocopied piece of A4). We were told that there was a press conference at the moment and we could return in an hour to get our accreditation processed. On Sandro's advice we decided to go to the only restaurant nearby that was open and have a few beers and get to know each other better.
We returned to the ministry expecting a struggle to get our accreditation but the reality was the opposite. The kind woman of the ministry of public affairs simply typed up our accreditation, printed them off and stamped them. We were now officially accredited in the Donetsk Peoples Republic and were informed we could film anywhere within the city. We could not however film military personal without acquiring their express permission first.
We queue at one of the only working ATM's. This was the most amount of people we had seen since arriving
The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to find deodorant and stock up on a little food. After hours of searching we managed to get some food but would continue to smell bad for the following few days. The city of Donetsk itself was truly impressive, much bigger, cleaner and organised than we had expected. Many of the cities including Mariupol had seemed very run down, with grass in the parks overgrowing, empty buildings with broken windows and many completely shelled and left as ruins. As it was only our first day we had not yet seen the damage done in the city of Donetsk, considering the amount of fighting within the city it must be considerable. However the centre of the city was very well kept and buses and trams seemed to be running smoothly.
With much of the population leaving due to the fighting there was definitely a lack of people and around 80% of shops and businesses were closed but otherwise without the odd distant shell exploding or burst of gunfire it was very easy to forget the war that was being waged in various different regions of the city.
We had been informed by Sandro to get some hot food before everything closed at around 7pm, so we all bought a burger and on the way back to the hotel got accosted by a man, who in English shouted "Fuck Ukraine, Fuck America, Russia! Russia! Russia!, Fuck Obama! Fuck Obama! Fuck Obama!" As far as we could work out he did not like Ukraine or America and particularly did not like Obama. He was obviously very passionate about his views which he emphasized by constantly spitting at the floor.
A Donetsk Peoples Republic advertisement, stands over the empty streets of this once great city.
This was a stark reminder of where we were and that the people who had remained in the city most certainly were all supporters of Russia. Filming in the city was going certainly going to be an interesting challenge. We then returned to the hotel and sat on the balcony chatting and listening to the sounds of battle raging not far away in the dark night. All in all we are pleased that we have finally got to Donetsk and can begin investigating the fascinating epicenter of the Rebels.
We are still desperately trying to raise more money to help support our cause and finish making the film we started, going to Donetsk is a new chapter in the process and will involve a whole new set of challenges and costs so please spare as much or a little as you can. It all helps!
http://jtecproductions.moonfruit.com/contact-and-donate/4585681067
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