In Isolation, page 25
In Russian, “glutton” (tr.).
ATB is a Dnipro supermarket chain that has rapidly expanded into the rest of Ukraine in recent years (tr.).
RZhD is the Russian-language abbreviation for Russian Railways (tr.).
Bankova is the street in Kyiv where the presidential administration is located (tr.).
Many of the soldiers used by Russia in the Donbas and Crimea are Buriats, a northern Mongolian people in Russian Federation (tr.).
Lipetsk is a city in Russia where controversy raged for years over a Roshen plant that Russia took over.
Strila Podilska (Podillia arrow) is a very popular chocolate made at the Lipetsk factory that was at the time owned by President Poroshenko’s Roshen confectionary holding (tr., ed.).
Deriving its name from the French vinaigrette, an oil and vinegar dressing, and featuring such ingredients as boiled and diced potatoes, red beets, carrots, pickles, and finely chopped onions (with local variations including other ingredients such as beans and sauerkraut), this hearty salad is a staple food in Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian cuisine (tr., ed.).
Here and elsewhere the author provides prices in both Russian rubles and Ukrainian hryvnia, since the Russian ruble was introduced by the DPR and the LPR as one of the accepted currencies in the areas of the Donbas under their control. The prices in Russian rubles have been converted here to US dollars according to the exchange rate at the time to allow the reader to better understand the price levels in relation to the average income of the population. According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the average salary in Ukraine as of June 2016 was below 5,000 Ukrainian hryvnias, or approximately 200 US dollars. Average salaries were the highest in large cities such as Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Lviv (160–180 US dollars), with Kyiv topping the list (320 US dollars) (ed.).
The police academy (tr.).
Bumboks (from the English “boombox”) is a popular Ukrainian hip-hop and funk band whose lead singer is Andrii Khlyvniuk (tr., ed.).
Vladimir Vysotskii (1938–1980) was an iconic Russian Soviet singer, song writer, poet, and actor whose songs and poems expressed criticism of the stagnation-era Soviet Union using the familiar language of the street. As an artist who positioned himself against the “official” Soviet culture, he achieved a legendary status in the Soviet Union, not least also because of the rumors surrounding his death, and he continues to be an important figure in Russian popular culture today. “Russkii russkomu pomogi” expresses largely Russian nationalist views with lyrics that allude to Russian defense against external enemies (“We wouldn’t have crossed this threshold, / if it weren’t for our enemies”), appeal to the legacy of Rus´ (“Rising from the darkness of past centuries, / Rus´ stood its ground on Rúsian might”), and to the Russian soul that is to be defended just as the land itself (“Save the Rúsian soul. / Save Rúsian land”). It is worth noting that Rúsian refers to the peoples of Rus, the medieval state with the center in Kyiv that later gave rise to the modern Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian nations. “Rus´” and “Rúsian” (russkii in Russian, as opposed to rossiianin [citizen of Rossiia, i. e. modern-day Russia]) were reinterpreted later in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Russia as a synonym for “Russian” and the heritage of the Kyivan Rus´ was claimed almost exclusively by Russia as a means to legitimize itself vis-à-vis Western royal houses and the Western culture. Such notions were also employed in the recent Russian attempts to promote russkii mir as a unifying paradigm for East Slavs under Moscow’s leadership and to justify Russia’s aggression against Ukraine (ed.).
Brat (1997) and Brat-2 (2000) are Russian neo-noir crime movies written and directed by Aleksei Balabanov. Both films reflected the rise of nationalism in Russia in the late 1990s, against the background of state corruption and the economic decline after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The films included a strong anti-Western and anti-American message, as well as an appeal to the conservative and isolationist Russian notions (ed., tr.).
A resort town on the northern coast of the Black Sea and close to the Sea of Azov in the Krasnodar Krai of the Russian Federation, just south of the Kerch Strait (tr., ed.).
Aleksandr Borodai (b. 1972) is a Russian citizen, pundit, political strategist, journalist, and one of the ideologues of russkii mir. Borodai is closely familiar with Igor Girkin (Strelkov), he participated in the Russian takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea and was installed as the first “Prime Minister” of the DPR in May 2014 (until August of the same year, when he was replaced with Oleksandr Zakharchenko). Borodai also leads the Union of Donbas Volunteers, an organization founded in 2015 in Russia and claiming to provide assistance for Russian volunteers who fought in the Donbas as well as to the families of those who died in action in the Donbas (ed.).
Cargo 200 (in Russian, gruz 200) is the code name used in the Soviet and Russian military for transportation of casualties, originally referring to the corpses of soldiers that were transported in zinc-lined coffins and later used broadly for all types of casualties. The term itself gained prominence in the course of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The term received international attention with the onset of the Russian aggression against Ukraine: the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission reported many Russian vehicles in the Donbas with the inscription “Cargo 200.” Gruz 200 (2007) is also a popular neo-noir thriller by Aleksei Balabanov (the director of Brat and Brat-2) that presents a grim view of the war the Soviet Union waged in Afghanistan (ed.).
The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov (tr.).
This changed in April 2019, when Vladimir Putin suddenly announced that Russia would fast-track passports for those living in occupied Donbas. In July 2019, that offer was extended to all Ukrainian citizens living in the Donbas, including the areas under the control of the Ukrainian government. Official Ukrainian statistics report a total of close to 406,000 of residents of the Donbas who received Russian passports as of the end of 2020, while Russian officials claim that number to be close to 640,000. Due to the conditions in the occupied areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, there is no reliable data as to the total size of the population remaining there: estimates range from 1.6 million (Ukrainian government) to 2.8 million (the United Nations) and to 3.77 million (the DPR and LPR data) (tr., ed.).
A reference to donetskie (in Russian, Donetskites)—a political and economic elite that moved into the offices of the national government of Ukraine and large state companies following the pro-Russian then-president Viktor Yanukovych. The management style of this group was often compared to a steamroller and close connections to organized crime have been reported for many of them (ed.).
Nom de guerre of Aleksandr Timofeev (b. 1971), a Russian citizen and then the DPR “Deputy Prime Minister” and “Minister of Revenues and Fees.” Timofeev was badly injured in the blast that killed Zakharchenko in August 2018 and, once Denys Pushylin took over as the head of the DPR, he was accused of theft and later sentenced to 14 years in prison by the DPR (tr., ed.).
ORDLO is the official abbreviation for Select Raions of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts (in Ukrainian, okremi raiony Donetskoї i Luhanskoї oblastei). ORDLO is the formal designation of the LPR/DPR (ed.).
Andrii Tkachov (b. 1969) is a Christian Orthodox priest from Lviv, Ukraine. For a time he studied at the Moscow Suvorov Military School and at the Military Institute of the USSR Ministry of Defense in the Department for Special Propaganda, from which he was expelled. He later studied briefly at various religious educational institutions in Ukraine (as non-resident student at one, expelled from another) and in the early 1990s was ordained a deacon and then a priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Lviv. He is known for his aggressive anti-Western stance and his sermons directed against civic rights, the rights of women, and science. In June 2014, he moved to Russia where he served in a church near Moscow, occasionally writing about Ukraine as a “quasi-state” and the Ukrainian people as “false brothers,” “possessed,” and “insane” (ed.).
The now defunct KRT (Kyivan Rus´ TV channel) was a pro-Russian Ukrainian channel. The ownership of the channel is disputed and some reports have argued that it was owned by Vitalii Zakharchenko, the Donetsk-born former Minister of Interior Affairs under President Yanukovych (Zakharchenko is accused of sanctioning the use of firearms against the Maidan protesters; he reportedly escaped to Russia) (ed.).
The system of Suvorov military schools was organized in the Soviet Union during World War II to provide boys of school age with an education that focuses on military subjects. These boarding schools existed in many Soviet republics, including the one in Kyiv, Ukraine, which after the collapse of the Soviet Union was reorganized and came under the auspices of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ed.).
In Russian, Our USSR Motherland (tr.).
Named after the eponymous salad that was invented by a French chef Laurent Oliver for the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow in the 1860s and became a staple Soviet and post-Soviet menu item (tr.).
The Zhiguli was the Volkswagen of the Soviet Union, in that it was a small, cheap car that ran forever but had little else to recommend it. It was rebranded as the Lada in foreign markets, with the ability to withstand extreme cold its main selling points (tr.).
Compote here refers to a drink made from stewed fruits or berries (tr.).
In Russian, checkpoint (tr.).
Heart-shaped millefeuille buns (tr.).
The slogan rhymes in Russian: spasibo dedu za pobedu. This is a reference to the victory in World War II, which in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia has been primarily interpreted as the Soviet (and Russian at that) victory over Nazism (ed.).
In Russian, rabotaite, bratia (ed.).
The slogan takes a swipe at both the Ukrainian government elected following the Revolution of Dignity (called by Russian propaganda a “Nazi junta,” among other epithets), and at Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, a wealthy businessman and an oligarch before his election as president. It thus combines an ideological message with a popular anti-elite sentiment that is widespread in most of Ukraine and which accuses the country’s ultrarich of causing the poverty of the working class (ed.).
A 2009 French action thriller directed by Patrick Alessandrin, the sequel to the 2004 film District 13, which was directed by Pierre Morel. Both films depict events in a poor and overpopulated ghetto on the outskirts of Paris which the authorities have surrounded with a fence of barbed wire as they are unable to control it, and where violent gangs rule without any regard for the law (ed.).
Shmel (Bumblebee), is the name of RPO-A, a Soviet infantry rocket launcher (tr.).
“Effective control” is a term from international law referring to the way in which responsible authority in an occupied zone is determined (ed.).
Vodafone Ukraine is Ukraine’s second largest mobile operator. The network was originally known as UMC Ukraine and was the pioneer of mobile communications in Ukraine. In 2003, UMC was acquired by Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), Russia’s largest mobile network operator with headquarter in Moscow, and renamed MTS Ukraine. In 2008, MTS and the British Vodafone Group PLC signed a strategic partnership agreement, which was expanded in October 2015 and resulted in the rebranding of MTS Ukraine as Vodafone Ukraine. The rebranding was largely seen in Ukraine as a move aimed at continuing operation in Ukraine despite the Russian ownership of the company, including in Crimea and the Donbas. The company continued operating in the occupied areas of the Donbas, both the LPR and the DPR, until January 2018 when the service was interrupted following a fiber optic line cut. Although the service was restored soon after, Vodafone remained unavailable in the DPR following the demands from the “republic” to pay taxes to their “treasury” (ed.).
Grishin is the real name of Semen Semenchenko (b. 1974), a military volunteer and one of the initiators of the blockade. In March 2021, Semenchenko was accused by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of being the leader of a private military company engaged in contraband and sale of spare parts from Russia for military equipment in Ukraine, and was arrested following a court hearing (tr., ed.).
Shortly after the outbreak of the war in the Donbas, Russia has been supplying energy (natural gas and oil, etc.) to the LPR and the DPR at prices well below market, or entirely for free, at times trying to charge the Ukrainian government for it. The low utility rates are used by the separatists as one of the “carrots” for people to stay on the occupied territory. The author puts this on the balance sheet along with the complete lack of the rule of law, terror, and torture in the republics (ed.).
From Russian, zapadenets (westerner), which in the Soviet period was a derogative term that generally applied to Ukrainians from the western part of Ukraine (tr., ed.).
Butyrka is a Russian band that plays prison pop. The name is based on a remand jail in Moscow (tr.).
On July 5, 2014, Girkin and a group of militants who had been occupying Slov’iansk withdrew to Donetsk despite being encircled by Ukrainian forces. The Kyiv government claimed that Girkin was allowed to escape because he and his men were holding hostages as human shields (ed.).
A line from the song “Skovannye odnoi tsepiu” (Those who are chained together) by the Russian band Nautilus Pompilius (ed.).
In Ukrainian, peremoha means “victory,” while zrada means “betrayal.” The Ukrainian media, including opinion makers on social media, have been oscillating between these two radical evaluations of the events surrounding the political events in the country, while in reality neither was entirely the case (ed.).
In Latin, “appeal to death” (tr.).
Illustration Credits
All images are reproduced in this volume by permission from the copyright holders.
Road signs for Makiїvka and Donetsk, with Msta-B 152 mm howitzers on the road. February 24, 2015. Photo: Valery Sharifulin, ITAR-TASS News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo
Graffiti in Donetsk reading “Novorossiia! Putin.” June 10, 2015. Photo: Celestino Arce, ZUMA Wire / ZUMAPRESS.com / Alamy Live News
The destroyed building of the new terminal of the Donetsk Airport. Photo: Tommy Trenchard, Alamy Stock Photo
DPR military recruiting office in Donetsk. February 10, 2015. Photo: Mikhail Sokolov, ITAR-TASS News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo
The “parade of captives” in Donetsk. Captive soldiers of the Ukrainian armed forces are led between two rows of militants armed with rifles with bayonets. August 24, 2014. Photo: Alexander Ermochenko, Xinhua / Alamy Live News
The “parade of captives” in Donetsk, staged on Ukrainian Independence Day, in which Ukrainian servicemen captured by DPR militants were led through the city streets in a humiliating procession. August 24, 2014. Photo: Maxim Shemetov, REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
A separatist fighter with typical Christian Orthodox icons at an LPR checkpoint near Stanytsia Luhanska. January 25, 2017. Photo: ITAR-TASS News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo
A local boy with the DPR militants as they stand guard outside a regional administration building in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, seized in the night by separatists. April 28, 2014. Photo: Sandro Maddalena, NurPhoto / ZUMAPRESS.com / Alamy Live News
Children celebrate a farewell bell event at Donetsk school number 30, where the DPR anthem is played for the first time instead of the Ukrainian anthem. May 2015. Photo: Pacific Press Media Production Corp. / Alamy Stock Photo
Pro-Russia demonstrators celebrate and occupy the streets after attacking Ukrainian police and violently dispersing a peaceful pro-Ukraine unity demonstration. April 28, 2014. Photo: Idealink Photography / Alamy Stock Photo
A road sign for Donetsk damaged by shelling. Photo courtesy of Radio Svoboda (RFE/RL)
A pro-Russia demonstrator holds an anti-Nazi sign in front of a barricade outside the building of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration. April 11, 2014. Photo: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
Pro-Russian demonstrators with icons and Russian flags on their way to a memorial in Donetsk. March 30, 2014. Photo: Romain Carre, NurPhoto / ZUMAPRESS.com / Alamy Live News
An apartment building partly destroyed in a night shelling attack in the city of Horlivka (north of Donetsk) and blamed by DPR militants on Ukrainian armed forces. Photo: Alexander Kravchenko, ITAR-TASS News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo
The building of the Polit (Flight) Hotel near the Donetsk airport, destroyed by heavy shelling. Photo courtesy of Radio Svoboda (RFE/RL)
Nadiia Savchenko, a military bomber and helicopter pilot, one of the most prominent Ukrainian hostages captured by the Russian military. She was abducted from Ukrainian territory and tried in Moscow, Russia, on the charge of “illegally crossing” the Russian border. Savchenko was exchanged in a prisoner swap in May 2016 and went on to become a controversial politician in the Ukrainian parliament espousing pro-authoritarian views. February 10, 2015. Photo: Maxim Zmeyev, REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
From left to right: Ukrainian pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, whose daughter’s godfather is Vladimir Putin himself; Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia; DPR head Oleksandr Zakharchenko; and LPR head Leonid Pasichnyk talk to the media following their meeting in Moscow. December 25, 2017. Photo: Sergei Bobylev, ITAR-TASS News Agency / Alamy Stock Photo
