auslander Sun Sep 20, 2015 9:04 am
On a serious note, we have completed a small task. We have more than a few friends up north whom we have kept in contact with since the beginning of this cluster intercourse last year. One is a young man, young by my aging standards, and his wife. They are childless but she is slightly expectant. Him having a sedentary vocation he is not in the best of physical condition and he is no warrior by any stretch of the imagination.
While he was not a maidanchik he did support the principles of that mess. Last summer when they had holiday he and I had several spirited discussions on the general subject, this was not long after the war started. They resided nowhere near the area of conflict.
Since last summer my wife and the lady and I and the young man have communicated often. This past April he communicated that he had his draft notice. He is physically disabled, as in no way he can march, tramp across hill and valley and use an automat, he just can't do it, plus his vocation was what could be called secure and important. Protestations of the disability and vocation fell on deaf ears and he was ordered to report for training. He communicated that fact to us, a plan was hatched and long story short he and his wife were met and brought to safety. They left everything including food in the refrigerator, they arrived with the clothes on their backs.
Over the last period of time we have discussed the situation in his previous home region. Please understand that their residence is quite some distance from the war. Here is what they communicated to us.
Their local hospitals are full of wounded from the fighting that in theory ended some weeks ago. The lady stated quite clearly that wounded are still coming in for treatment after the current cease fire began, ergo the fighting may have abated but has not stopped. Considering the distances between their location and the front lines the Uke casualties are significant to this day. The lady also stated that medical care for civilians has deteriorated dramatically this year, medicines of many types are very hard to find and when found the expense is high. Physician care is difficult to obtain in their city, the city being not small. With the work load of the wounded the doctors have little time for the civilians. She stated that about half of the doctors at the large hospital near their home had left, to where she did not know but she stated that most of the absent doctor's families were also gone. She stated that the same can be said of other medical vocations at that hospital, many have left.
The workings of City Administration have deteriorated. He stated that the city was never what could be called efficient but in the last year most city services have ceased to operate. Road repairs do not happen with some of the roads becoming impassable to vehicle transit. Utility services are working to a great extent but if something does fail, water, gas, electric, sewer, the repair service times can be long. Prices for utilities have increased dramatically and another increase is expected by the first of October. She stated that even on their salaries it was becoming difficult to balance the increased costs of utilities against the growing food prices. She stated that these combined cost increases have had an appalling effect on the poor and the pensioners. He stated that the nearby heating plant for flats, a large one, ceased to operate in early spring and he states there are no coal supplies for that plant at the time they left. They both stated that the city transit systems are deteriorating rapidly and most of the private small buses have ceased to operate and have disappeared. They both stated that private trucks and cars are often confiscated by both the government and various radical party members for the war effort.
They both stated that they knew people who had disappeared. She stated that in one instance she witnessed SBU literally kicked in a front door and arrested the wife of a man serving in Donbas. She was taken away and has not been heard from or of since, this incident was in April. Her child was handed to a neighbor who is not a relative. That neighbor has since left and the lady stated she has no idea what happened to the child. After the woman was taken away, she stated that the local Right Sector cadre arrived as SBU left and looted the entire domicile, taking everything right down to household chemicals and clothing and when leaving they broke all the windows in the domicile. An elderly pensioner who protested what they were doing was knocked down and beaten severely enough to require hospital care, which was not available. She stated that the pensioner was cared for by his wife and another pensioner who is a retired nurse. She stated the pensioner has since died, she did not know if his demise was from the beating or age related.
They both stated that many citizens are in fear. One accusation of separatist sympathies, no matter how innocuous, will bring a visit from Right Sector with almost always an arrest and the subsequent looting of the domicile. They both stated that Militsiya simply stands aside and watches the arrests and looting and often participate in the looting. They both stated that the citizens wonder why there are so many military age men running around with various radical party insignia on their uniforms while the drafts continue, taking every larger numbers of military aged men, and many not so military aged. He stated that the last round of mobilization before he got his notice garnered less than 20% of the men to be mobilized. He stated that those who have money or connections avoid the draft by paying a substantial bribe. Those who have no money leave instantly, to where he does not know.
In essence the picture they painted of current life in Ukraine was not pretty. The fear in her eyes was palpable when we spoke to them on their arrival. That fear has now disappeared as the couple start a new life, building anew what they abandoned in Ukraine. I have left out a great deal of what they told us, that so there is no possibility of their old location being identified.
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Mykola is dead now anyway, died in hospital of natural causes unfortunately, or all a ruse for him to dissapear....
