‘There is no ceasefire. Every day, someone else dies’
The Donetsk communist party congress had just come to a close and members were dispersing when a blast ripped through their headquarters in eastern Ukraine on Oct 29.
The powerful explosion burned the face and arm of Igor Khakimzyanov, who had hoped to run for head of this Russia-backed breakaway state in an unrecognised election here today, but is instead in a hospital bed.
His aide suffered burns and postconcussion syndrome, while shrapnel and pieces of glass flew into first secretary Irina Yakina. The portrait of Lenin emerged unscathed. “The person who orchestrated the explosion achieved the goal of knocking the party out of the election process,” said Boris Litvinov, the party chairman.
In Donetsk, the capital of the statelet that broke away from Ukraine when a pro-Western government came to power in 2014, this was politics as usual. Today’s elections were called after Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” was killed by a bomb in the Separ café in August.
In reality the unsanctioned vote is only cementing Moscow’s control over eastern Ukraine, also known as the Donbass. Denis Pushilin, the acting head of the republic, who went to Russia to meet an aide to Vladimir Putin before announcing his candidacy, is all but guaranteed to win. Many here remember him as a salesman for a notorious pyramid scheme.
Ukraine, the UK and the EU have all condemned the vote as a farce and a setback to the Minsk peace agreement, which called for official local elections in Donetsk and the smaller breakaway state of Luhansk under Ukrainian law to draw a line under the bloody conflict. But despite the ceasefire signed in Minsk in 2015, both sides regularly shell each other, and two Ukrainian soldiers have been killed this weekend. In the trenches near Yasinovataya on Friday, The Daily Telegraph heard incoming and outgoing mortar fire and witnessed separatists firing a 12.7mm machine gun at Ukrainian positions.
“There is no ceasefire,” said a rebel with the nom-de-guerre “Sokol”, accusing Ukrainian forces of ignoring the truce. “They see you, they kill you. Every day, someone dies.”
Speaking yesterday, the EU foreign affairs chief, said the elections were “illegal and illegitimate” and called on Russia to help implement the Minsk peace process. But Moscow and the rebels have claimed that the vote to choose a “head” and “people’s council” does not count as “local elections,” accusing Kiev of failing to pass constitutional reforms to give greater autonomy to eastern Ukraine.
“The contradiction is that Western countries don’t pay attention to the fact that Ukraine hasn’t been fulfilling the Minsk agreement for the fifth straight year now and is thereby pushing the Donbass away from it,” Mr Pushilin said. But as the two sides bicker over the stalled peace process, Moscow has been taking almost full control over Donetsk’s military and economy.
Zakharchenko retained a modicum of independence thanks to his personal control over key military units. After his death, this de facto praetorian guard was subordinated to the people’s militia and interior and state security ministries. A separatist commander told The Telegraph that people’s militia leadership included high-ranking Russian military advisers, and the two ministries were also seen to be under Moscow’s thumb.
Zakharchenko and his right-hand man, tax minister Alexander Ti- mofeyev, also enjoyed extraordinary sway over the local economy, much of which was nationalised after the separatists came to power. Timofeyev and other officials close to Zakharchenko have since fled to Russia.
Meanwhile, a mysterious firm called Vneshtorgservis, believed to be linked to the Kremlin, has taken over coal mines and metallurgical factories that the separatists seized from a Ukrainian oligarch. Last month, Mr Pushilin appointed a former Vneshtorgservis executive as deputy prime minister.
The company is registered in South Ossetia, a Georgian breakaway republic established by Russia’s military intervention in 2008.
Asked about Moscow’s creeping takeover, Mr Pushilin claimed Russia was no more than a “political partner”.
But maverick separatist commander Alexander Khodakovsky lamented on social media last week that the “economy has been taken away from Pushilin” and the Donetsk authorities had been “castrated”. He had intended to run for head of the republic until Russian guards allegedly refused to allow him back across the border during a trip in September.
Residents of the village of Oktyabrsky, heavily damaged during fighting for the nearby Donetsk airport, said they would vote for Mr Pushilin even though they didn’t think he would help stop the simmering conflict.
“We want peace but we can’t imagine how this will end,” said Yelena Boriseyevich, 55.
‘Ukraine hasn’t been fulfilling the Minsk agreement and is pushing the Donbass away from it’