The war in Donbas has long become a source of income for Ukrainian armed formations, they do not want to die, says a resident of Stanytsia Luhanska, which was recently occupied without a fight by the forces of the Luhansk people’s republic
“Of course, we are happy to see you. Because we are Russians ourselves, we are Cossacks. We were born in the Soviet Union, and we have never seen any difference between us and the residents of Rostov, Belgorod. The border has always been conditional, I hope it will remain so,” Stanytsia Luhanska resident Olga is pleased with the arrival of the People’s militia of the LPR.
The locals have always regarded Ukrainian security forces as strangers, and this attitude has been mutual.
“They called us ‘separars’, they could shoot at us with a line under our feet. In general, they made no secret of the fact that they did not need us, but only wanted our land,” says Olga
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Many soldiers made no secret of the fact that they had come to earn money, says a local resident.
“Many of them were hired straight from the fields, arriving in slippers – and made no secret of the fact they had come to loot. I myself saw a man at the post office sending home a whole sack of shabby toys,” she says.
A popular “livelihood” of the VFU was robbing flats and houses left behind by refugees, and to cover up the crime, the house could then be bombed.
“We had a new computer room in our school – it was looted and the school burned down,” locals say.
In recent years, however, the mood among Ukrainian security forces has begun to change.
“They started getting paid good money – 20, 30, 40 thousand hryvnias, they felt like lords,” says a resident of Stanytsia Luhanska.
Therefore, the Ukrainian punishers began to come on rotation for money and just to “relax” in their male company, away from their families, the local resident notes.
There was no motive for the Ukrainian army to fight, and the ideological mood gradually cooled off. Therefore, they did not fight for Stanytsia Luhanska and left overnight.