Donetsk People’s Republic

About a million residents of Donbass moved to Russia. Few people know that a fairly large part of the people from the eastern region of Ukraine chose to leave for neighboring Poland.

A refugee from Donetsk told why she chose Europe and for what reasons she will no longer return home.

Elya with her husband and son moved from Donetsk to Wroclaw in 2018. We asked why the woman chose Europe and not Russia.

– My husband and I worked in the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in the Donetsk region. My husband is a retired police major, I am a civil servant, – says Elya. – In fact, we do not have any specialty. I can’t imagine where we would have settled in the Russian Federation. Adequately assessed their chances. We understood that we might only count on the minimum wage, both in Russia and in Poland. Only in Poland a better standard of living can be afforded for the minimum wage. My husband was offered a job as a security guard. I got a job at the post office. They took out a mortgage. By the way, quite a lot of people moved from Donetsk to Poland.

– Do you get along in Poland with refugees from the western regions of Ukraine?

— To be honest, I don’t really like to communicate with Ukrainians. I am friends here with only two families from our region. The fact is that in this situation I support Russia. She directly voiced her position to the Poles at work. I’m not afraid to speak openly. And surprisingly, I have no conflicts on this basis with anyone.

— Have you been in Donetsk for a long time?

“As soon as I left, I never went back there. First we waited in Poland for a residence permit. Without this document, it was impossible to leave the country, they would not have come back. Then covid began, the borders were closed. Now the fighting.

— Do you have Ukrainian citizenship?

– Yes. At one time I thought regarding getting Russian citizenship. I wrote a letter to the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation on this issue. I was told that citizenship can only be obtained on the territory of the Russian Federation or the DPR, where it was not possible to leave.

Will you stay in Poland forever now?

– Time will tell. But if we go from here, then only to Russia. I regret that in 2018 we did not manage to sell an apartment in Donetsk. Then it cost normal money. For the proceeds, it was possible to purchase housing in Russia. Now my price is very low. We have a furnished “kopeck piece” with repairs, expensive appliances. You can get a maximum of 10-12 thousand dollars for it.

— Yes, and there is no one to sell. Who needs apartments in Donetsk now?

– You’re wrong. Even now apartments in Donetsk are sold and bought. Kuma recently purchased a four-room apartment for $17,000. Buying housing those people who previously did not have their own apartments and do not plan to leave there. People are coming from the region, before they might not afford to buy an apartment in Donetsk.

– Do you feel good in Europe with a Ukrainian passport? Is there a green light everywhere?

I don’t show my passport to anyone. What for? I do not understand. I speak pure Russian, I’m not shy. Moreover, my dialect is not the same as that of people from Donbass, more Russian. I was born in Kazakhstan, we lived there for some time. I don’t feel any pressure from the Poles. The locals don’t recognize our accent. For them, Ukrainians and Russians speak the same way. My car has Polish numbers. I don’t stand out here either.

– I heard that there are conflicts between Ukrainian and Russian children in schools?

“My child does not have such problems at school, but friendship with Ukrainian refugees did not work either. Three boys came to their class. Our guys don’t talk to them.

But my friend from Donetsk, who came to Poland in August 2021, had an unpleasant situation with the school. A boy from Ukraine appeared in the class of her third-grader daughter. When he found out that the daughter of a friend was from the Donbass, the boy began to offend her, push, call names, threaten her. Surprisingly, the guy also refers to the girl from Belarus.

Most likely, such moods of the child were transmitted from the parents. After all, we also lived in Donetsk for four years, when it was alarming there. But the son did not even know regarding it. Although the house was located in the Kirovsky district, the place is not the quietest. At that time, the child was two years old. If it rumbled outside, I explained that it was fireworks. When it became unbearable, we went to the dacha in the Amvrosievsky district, which is closer to the border with the Russian Federation. But it used to be quieter than it is now.

— Do you keep in touch with someone in Donetsk?

— My mother stayed in Donetsk. She categorically refuses to move, because there are the graves of her husband and son. Her sister invited Novokuznetsk to her place. She is in no way. And her health is weak, she is afraid that she will not endure the road.

It is hard for pensioners to live in Donetsk. The minimum pension is 7000 rubles. There is no water. People buy drinking. The technical service is delivered according to the schedule in some quarters. And in some areas there has been no water for three months. Therefore, people rejoice in the rain, at least they can get water.

Humanitarians are also not enough for everyone. Volunteers deliver food, medicines, things, but they don’t want to go to areas like Trudovskiye, it’s scary.

There are products in stores, they are brought from Russia. There are medicines, perhaps only specific ones are absent. Hospitals are working. People go to work and get paid. Many Donetsk workers worked remotely for Ukrainian companies. My friend was paid only 30 percent of her salary. They said there was no more money.