The War. Escape from the occupation. Public opinion.

In Volnovakha people are waiting for warmer weather to leave the city. The Dokuchaevsk filtration center will decide where they will go. Many citizens are waiting for their long-awaited document, which will allow them to escape from the city. Where? It doesn’t matter. All that matters is not staying in the «DNR».

They say you need to be fingerprinted and go through different verifications.

People understand that everything is bad, but they resist till the end. Those who really believed in russia’s future, in liberation, aren’t excited. It’s difficult to formulate what they were freed from. Other people, who are wandering around the city and taking photos of damaged private homes, comprehend the horror of what has happened. Civilians and invaders are occupying houses that have survived intact. It is dangerous and uncozy now in private houses.

Kadyrovtsi distribute humanitarian aid in the city. On the video, holding a book on the danger of mines, they are claiming that Volnovakha’s children were taught to make bombs. The situation recalls the October Revolution. Those who were nobody seized power and expelled opponents from the city, taking everything. The concept of private property in Volnovakha has disappeared completely.

There are those who do not want to admit that the russians have cruelly deceived them. They were taught to hate Ukraine on the Russia 24 TV channel. Supporters of the «russian peace» who were living until now on the other side of the region have returned to the city. Now they are making lists without the fear of responsibility. Inscriptions such as «Nazis» or «banderovtsi live here» have appeared on many doors. Certainly, there are many people who are being threatened.

The big mistake of propaganda in Volnovakha is that it didn’t take into account the people who were born and lived here. They saw the renovation of the fifth school, the bridge, the lighting, the construction of the stadium, the renovation of hospitals and the park in the city center and, of course, the huge number of shops and new restaurants. We remember all this very well. We were released from this.

I remember being in Kyiv in 2020, when I spoke carefully about the war in Donbass, which I had lived through. I knew that a lot of people could not believe that russia was an aggressor and this war was for Ukrainian territory. There are no doubts anymore about who is who. Now everything is easy to understand.

Pavlo, Donetsk region