“Den is the lone warrior in the field!”

Den’s publisher has been regularly delivering it to the frontlines for three months. In this important mission, it is helped by the Starobilsk NGO Freedom. According to Volodymyr Hryhorenko, who is a member of this organization, it has become more difficult to carry the newspaper to the frontlines recently, as the checkpoints have been shifted south, where volunteers find it hard to get. Despite it all, the activists are keeping up their effort to satisfy the soldiers’ information needs.

“When we deliver copies of Den to our soldiers, they are very happy,” Hryhorenko told us. “They still face huge troubles with information provision, as they lack access to the Internet, do not watch TV, and thus suffer from the information hunger. On bringing Den to the warzone, we often hear: ‘Give us 10 copies, 5 is not enough.’ Had they not read it, they would not ask for more and more copies. Of course, I am not the only one to bring these humanitarian cargoes to our soldiers, we have a system of volunteers who provide the boys with supplies including warm clothing and food. On receiving a cargo from our volunteer, the boys take only what they need at the moment, not everything, but newspapers, I mean Den, are always in demand.”

In addition to journeys to the front, Freedom has recently started to inform the locals. “I always leave two or three copies of Den for myself,” Hryhorenko said. “When the frontline started moving farther and farther away from us, we started distributing about a quarter of our newspaper shipment in Starobilsk itself. We have a lot of soldiers stationed here, as our town is a transportation hub, with military units moving east, west, and to the northernmost districts of the region via Starobilsk. One of our activists owns a few stationery stores, and we give him a few dozen copies. His customers take every last of them. Let them get the newspaper in this way, if not of their own initiative.”

“THE ELECTIONS WILL SOLVE THE PARTIES’ PROBLEMS ONLY, WITH THE COUNTRY GAINING NOTHING FROM THEM”

“No one understands the purpose of the truce,” Hryhorenko said. “Previously, such truces were always followed by heavy losses on our side. My local friends who supported the Euromaidan are increasingly sure they will need to wage a guerrilla war, because Ukraine is treating with the terrorists. We supported the Kyiv protesters last winter, and now, when we are struggling to survive in the fight against the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic’s terrorists, the central government is for some reasons absorbed by the elections. In fact, the war is still on, but we are talking about the elections. They will again forget all our troubles, buy votes and engage in PR coups. The elections will actually solve the parties’ problems only, with the country gaining nothing from them.”

People of this region care about the security of the state rather than opaque political games, and really want to be able to defend their land. Some media tried a few times to portray an antagonism between eastern and western Ukraine, covering the pickets of state buildings staged by soldiers’ mothers from Galicia and Podillia. Meanwhile, volunteers from Luhansk region, some of them retired soldiers, have to fight the authorities to join territorial defense battalions in Starobilsk. “Our public initiative appealed to Valerii Heletei, head of the Luhansk Oblast State Administration Iryna Verihina and regional military commissar, asking them to create a territorial defense battalion in Luhansk region,” the Starobilsk member of the Freedom NGO told Den. “The regional military authorities are now stationed in Starobilsk, so it would be appropriate to locate the mobilization office here. The Ministry of Defense has no battalions made up of residents of Luhansk region, while all of Ukraine is fighting for Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Meanwhile, there are volunteers who want to join already established battalions, but they are refused because there are no open positions left in them. My friend, a retired officer of the SBU, not even an old man yet, repeatedly visited the regional SBU office and the military commissariat, expressed his desire to serve, but his impression is that his request has died at that level.”

“The loyal Ukrainian north of Luhansk region includes nine districts and three cities: Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, and Rubizhne. According to our data, at least 150 people from this region are ready to join the military right now,” Hryhorenko concluded optimistically. “I would like to thank Den for sending copies of the newspaper, and promise to continue to deliver them to the front. We will win!”