KURAKHOVE, Ukraine - When residents of Kurakhove in Donetsk Oblast were casting their ballots during the parliamentary election, border guards outside the city were establishing a so-called “administrative border” that would separate the parts of the oblast controlled by Ukraine from a kind of grey buffer zone near the separatist-controlled areas.
Kurakhove, the city of some 20,000 people, is located in the center of the election district, whose eastern part is occupied by Russian-backed separatists and western — borders with overtly pro-Ukrainian Dniproterovsk Oblast.
Kurakhove’s residents are divided into those who expect that the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic will spreads its authority onto this territory and those who support Ukraine.
“If DNR comes here what kind of life are we going to have?!” said Ihor, a 42-year old unemployed electrician, coming out from the polling station.
Ihor, who feared to give his last name as the situation was still tense and unclear, said he used to support the Party of Regions of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, but now he cast his ballot for the Right Sector, the militantly nationalist political group that emerged thanks to EuroMaidan Revolution.
Ihor said he felt robbed and betrayed by Yanukovych’s party. “The Regions were stomping us by their feet for years,” he said. “Maidan became possible thanks to the Right Sector, and we need a real force like them now.”
Over 60 percent of residents of Kurakhove, who predominantly work at the local power plant and steel plant, both owned by Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man and sponsor of former ruling Party of Regions, voted for the Regions back to 2012. Now the most devoted adherents of the former ruling party chose to vote for Opposition Block, which was established on its remnants.
“They are closer to us,” said Tetiana, a middle-aged pensioner, who also refused to give her last name. “Hope they will change something for better.”
Most of the people were unwilling to tell about their choice fearing for their safety. The fighters of Dnipro 1 volunteers battalion were present outside of the polling station located at the local train station.
Up to 2 p.m. only 10 percent of people came to vote, the members of election commission reported. “This is normal given the ongoing situation,” said Olesia Kurchenko, deputy head of the election commission.
The polling stations located to the east of Kurakhovo in direction to Donetsk, separatists’ stronghold, didn’t open at all for security reasons. The district election commission was moved from dangerous east to the far west of the district.
Only 42 percent of people were able to cast their ballots in partly occupied Donetsk Oblast, when in Luhansk Oblast there were only 26 percent of those who were able to vote, Committee of Voters of Ukraine reported.
Officials of self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic threatened to “persecute by the wartime laws” those who dare to come to the polling stations and execute the members of election commissions as was written in the order issued by Aleksey Kariakin, head of LNR parliament.
Thousands of refugees who came from occupied or embattled territories as well as dozens of armed members of volunteer battalions reminded about war which was going on just in 20 kilometers from Kurakhovo.
Nadiya Serebrianska, deputy head of election commission at Kurakhovo’s culture center, a woman with blue-and-yellow Ukrainian stripe, said that the parliament elections were quiet in comparison to the presidential ones in May, when her polling station managed to start its work only in the afternoon.
But even when these elections were safe many people didn’t come. Serebrianska said that they were either scared or confused, whom to support, or just abstained from Ukrainian elections. “Many people are not entirely for Ukraine, to put it mildly,” she said.
On May 11 those residents, who supported separatists, voted in Kurakhovo for creation of DNR at the referendum that was held at the local lyceum.
Vitaly said it was hard to achieve a real change in the town as majority of officials, who openly supported separatists’ referendum kept their positions. “The Ukrainian authorities need to be more decisive here,” he said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grystenko can be reached at [email protected]
