As the anti-Kiev insurgency continues to batter Eastern Ukraine, Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told reporters that there is little of Ukraine actually left in the Donbas region.
"Our language is almost non-existent there, and our memory, our church, and our culture are basically absent," Yushchenko said in an interview with the Ukrainian Truth.
Despite the changes wrought by conflict - and Yushchenko in the interview noted that many of the peculiarities that bind nations have been lost in the region - Yushchenko still believes the Donbas should remain part of Ukraine.
"This is my land, I will do everything so that this small piece of land will never be in the hands of anyone but our state and our nation.... At the same time, there are people - many people - who think otherwise," he said.
Its unclear whether Yushchenko's statements were heartfelt or political. As a rather ineffective opposition leader, his fate is unclear in the new Ukraine - a country split three ways by Russia's presence in Crimea and by the pro-Russian opposition in the Donbas. In a faint echo of Moscow's official stance, which blames Ukraine's unrest on the protests in Kiev's Maidan Square, he claimed to be highly skeptical, and even fearful, of what took place there: "I fully understood back then...that the political leaders who appeared during those protests may have had an entirely different agenda from the protesters...When I saw that normal and healthy demands by protesting youth were turning into a short-term transformation of power at the top, I understood that our nation was headed for calamity."
Back in 2010, Ukrainian voters lost confidence in the man who had once led Ukraine's pro-Western Orange Revolution - Yushchenko only netted 5 percent of the votes in the presidential election that year. Support for the former president now is marginal, though his political future could turn depending on how the current Ukrainian administration handles the myriad crises plaguing the country: a collapsing economy, an uncertain geopolitical future, and a pro-Russian rebellion that shows no signs of abating.
Meanwhile, the pro-Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that the city of Donetsk, the would-be capital of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, has become a "city of volunteers," as regular citizens try to help each other out in the face of a full-blown crisis: "People are organizing on social media to share information and try to help each other in any way possible - with moves to a safer part of the country, transport of belongings, finding a doctor, help with repairs... people are paying for each others groceries in the supermarkets... Normal city dwellers have become very attentive to each others' needs and do not pass by those who are in need."
The Russian paper noted that while much of the aid arriving in the Donbas comes from Russia, a lot is also coming from the rest of Ukraine, despite the fighting. "There is assistance from Ukraine - not from the government, but from ordinary people from Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Zaporozhye, Kharkov and even Lvov and Rovno (in the more anti-Russian, Western portions of the state). Help is sent despite the current public mood, with an understanding that the residents of Donetsk should not starve, that the ongoing blockade is inhumane."
