They are 50 years behind, and every day of the war against Ukraine pushes them back centuries.
"In the communities of the Donetsk region, no one expected or wanted a "Russian world". In the border communities with the self-proclaimed DPR/LPR, people knew better than anyone else that the Russians had brought nothing but unemployment, decline and ruin to the occupied territories in eight years."- Vasyl Mitko, village head of the Nikol village council of the Donetsk region.
"Evacuation of the civilian population from the Ukrainian-controlled territories of the Donetsk region is mandatory. Local government leaders persuade people to evacuate. Some residents do not realize the seriousness of the situation and still hope to "wait it out", — head of the Mariupol District Council Stepan Makhsma.
"Even in communities with a historically pro-Russian opposition, people value Ukraine. The difference in approaches to the organization of people's lives, that is, local self-government, in Ukraine and Russia is huge.
What Ukrainians are offered in the occupied territories is a stone age. Everything is in manual mode. Neither registers, nor electronic document flow - nothing. People see the truth with their own eyes, which no amount of propaganda can change."- Ivan Fursenko, adviser to the Association of Cities of Ukraine (AMU).
The people of Mariupol and the residents of the community, who passed racist filtering, literally lost their common sense.
The Nikolsk united territorial community includes 27 villages of the former Nikolsk district. 1 urban-type settlement; 26 rural settlements, 17 inhabitants.
Before the war, Nikolske was a suburb of Mariupol and a "window" into normal life for Ukrainians leaving the DPR and LPR.
Since 2014, more than 15 IDPs have moved to the community, they find work in Mariupol or Nikolsk community, and enjoy all the advantages of a normal life in Ukraine.
"Thanks to the proximity to Mariupol and the Nikolsky Reserve, houses were bought from us, whole families moved to us to live, relax at the sea, and work. In our country, the difference between the decline of the LDNR and the development of Ukrainian communities was visible to the naked eye.", — commented in the community.
Today, the territory of the community is completely occupied. Racists entered the territory of the community on March 4 from Kherson and other southern directions. There was no time to evacuate.
"In the first days, we saw continuous looting, — says Vasyl Mitko. A bus and a car serviced by the National Emergency Service were taken from the communities, fuel was drained from gas stations, and food was stolen from stores. They took everything out of their homes."
Apparently, when there was nothing more to steal, they started looking for the community leadership. They were interested and had a task to keep everything working in the community.
Perhaps in this way they wanted to control the resistance and partisan movement among the locals. Local self-government during the war was, without exaggeration, the key to civilian survival. In a few days, there was no communication, no fuel, no electricity, no products - hospitals, police, pharmacies could not work.
The authority of local leaders and the solidarity of farmers, entrepreneurs, and local residents helped to maintain the situation. By pooling the remaining resources and efforts, we provided hospitals with generators, generators with fuel.
Retired policemen went out to patrol the streets. Not only the exploits of the military, but also the courage of civilians save lives and support Ukrainians in the most difficult times.
"The Russians, surprisingly, knew how to read, and in the documents of the village council they found evidence that the village council made a decision at a session to allocate financial aid to the military a few days before the war. For this, apparently, I was taken prisoner and kept in Donetsk, interrogating about cooperation with the Armed Forces. - continued the head of the Nikol village council of the Donetsk region, Vasyl Mitko. "Dozens of people from the community were captured - ATO soldiers and activists. The fate of many is still unknown."
We thought that we had seen the worst in the first days of the war, but then Mariupol happened...
Residents of Mariupol tried to get out through our community.
We had three points of accommodation for refugees, the Rashists tried in every possible way to prevent this. At a certain point, they blocked the possibility of escape through Ukraine - the only way for the people of Mariupol was to go to Russia, through the filtration camps. Queues for such filtering in some places lasted for weeks for Ukrainians.
Then the lists of those who passed the filtering were read. They were sent to Rostov by bus.
About 20% did not pass the screening, they were arrested. The Rashists did the worst with children.
Many children from Mariupol were rescued by adults who were nearby - neighbors, teachers, relatives, friends - such children were detained and sent to orphanages in Russia separately from the adults with whom they left. People literally lost their minds from what they saw and experienced.
These are the stories about the "liberation" of Ukraine that racist propaganda seeks to hide both from the world and from viewers of Russian television.
But too many Ukrainians saw these crimes with their own eyes, they cannot be hidden. These crimes will definitely be punished, and the Ukrainian territories - both in the east, in the south, and in the north - will definitely be liberated.
Mandatory evacuation of the civilian population from the Ukrainian-controlled territories of the Donetsk region is currently being carried out - from Pokrovsk, Vugledar, Bakhmut, Kramatorsk and all other settlements that are under shelling.
The head of the Mariupol District Council, Stepan Makhsma, talks about the practical side of evacuation, as well as the possibilities of communication with the occupied territory of the Donetsk region for those who have relatives or property there.
"We are persuading our citizens to leave. Today, it is still possible to leave the north of the region by bus, private vehicle, and rail transport. However, the situation is complicated.
Racists are doing everything possible to prevent people from leaving. Residents of the territories controlled by Ukraine should only contact the leaders of local self-government, and they will be helped to evacuate.
As for Ukrainians who are in occupied or uncontrolled territories, it is not possible to organize a centralized evacuation. The situation is complicated.
Mostly people are trying to leave the uncontrolled territories through the occupied Vasylivka towards Zaporizhzhia. However, two days (August 2-3) after heavy rains, the road near Kamiany became impassable.
Emergency services help free cars stuck on it.
There are people who want to temporarily go to an uncontrolled territory for things, or to see the condition of their home.
We try to help with this, but it is impossible to predict the consequences of such a decision.
First, the Rashists are not interested in solving humanitarian issues in an organized manner. While our checkpoint lets through 2000-3000 cars a day, the Rashists let through about 200 cars. Such a skew in the amount leads to multi-day traffic jams.
There are cases where people managed to leave the first time and pass the rashisti filtering, but failed to do it the second time when they decided to return. The attitude of the Rashists towards those who try to leave is bad.
Vehicles are meticulously inspected, it is difficult to move through the occupied territories without a filter ticket.
The approach to the settlement of humanitarian issues demonstrates how both sides treat the people of the region.
At a time when the local self-government of Ukrainian communities continues to ensure the safety of the civilian population as much as possible, the Russians, who caused the suffering of Ukrainian civilians, do not care at all how people live in the territories occupied by Russia.
The racists obviously expect the local residents to accept the occupation and allow an offensive and criminal "referendum" to be held on their lands, the results of which are known in advance.
It is important for Ukrainian civilians in the occupied territories to continue to support each other and keep in touch with representatives of the legitimate Ukrainian authorities.
They have no idea what prosperity and freedom are
Now it is very difficult to manage the community remotely, but the residents of Nikolsky appeal to the local self-government with a request to organize the education of their children remotely according to the Ukrainian program.
Medical workers continue to work and provide services to community residents remotely.
All residents who left receive state services. Even in today's situation, when the entire community is occupied, the level of access to public services, medicine, and education is higher here than that of the "liberators" at home. The people who came to us - Buryats, Chechens, Russians, unemployed people from the DPR and LPR - had no idea what level of well-being Ukrainians had.
They cannot understand that the settlement community can have 30 million hryvnias of free money, which the community spends at its own discretion, for example, on a sports complex, a music school, a new water supply system, as was planned in the Nikolsk community.
The life that the "liberators" want to bring to Ukraine is a life without a future, this is the life they live in the territories occupied in 2014. The population of Nikolsk community wants to have a future that is not possible as long as the occupiers remain on our land.
According to the materials "Economic Truth"
