@JuliaDavisNews
Dismal Russian Record in Occupied Eastern Ukraine Serves as Warning: The areas, once engines of the Ukrainian economy, are now impoverished, depopulated enclaves that increasingly rely on Russian subsidies to survive. wsj.com
“There used to be a lot of enthusiasm for the Donetsk people’s republic in the beginning... Now, there’s just a lot of disappointment... they are ruled by cretins. The economy there has crumbled, the jobs are gone. There’s nothing good over there.”
“There are so many families here that have broken up because one part supported Ukraine and another backed the Russian aggression,” said Maryna Oliynyk. She no longer speaks to her uncle and cousin, who binge on Russian TV and adore Putin.
Little remains of the airport, the site of some of the war’s most intense combat in 2014... With the bulk of prominent Donbas businesspeople escaping to Ukraine-controlled territory, the republics have seized most of the region’s biggest mines...
Donetsk was once one of Ukraine’s wealthiest cities, with a new int'l airport, stadium & swanky hotels. Its buildings now are covered with billboards praising unity with Russia & honoring separatist commanders who were mysteriously assassinated after 2014. twitter.com
“They’ve managed to rebuild a Soviet system in the occupied territories—and not the Soviet system of the 1960s and 1970s, but a Soviet system of the 1930s and 1940s, with dungeons, with torture chambers, a system where lives are ruined...” |
