Division Runs Deep in Donetsk, Mirroring Ukraine’s Split

The rapid chain of events this week in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk reflects the deep divisions that have been in evidence since last month’s ouster of Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency.

Short of having Russian troops on the ground — for the time being, anyway — Donetsk otherwise has it all: two governors, one who was appointed by the interim government in Kiev, the other a pro-Russian Ukrainian who appointed himself to the position; opposing camps of demonstrators that are engaged in a tug-of-war that appears to be holding steady right in the middle; Ukrainian and Russian flags that alternate atop the city’s regional administration building, depending on which camp last stormed it; and growing violence.

The video below from earlier this week shows Ukrainian border guards who were sent to patrol Donetsk as tensions escalated.

Border guards arrived in Donetsk as tension grew in the eastern Ukrainian city.

The situation playing out in Donetsk is a microcosm for the country at large. But the city’s split also reveals another truth about Ukraine: things are not so black and white. Calls for Russian annexation on the one hand and for Ukrainian unity on the other don't fall as squarely along ethnic and linguistic lines as one might expect. To keep things complicated, there are also class and generational distinctions at play.

On Thursday, Ukrainian security services arrested Pavel Gubaryev, the 30-year-old who proclaimed himself the “people’s governor” last Saturday, on charges of attempting a coup and seizing state buildings. He had rejected the interim government's authority as well as its recent appointment of Serhiy Taruta as governor of the region. Taruta, a mining tycoon, has yet to turn up at the city’s municipal headquarters.

Gubaryev called for a referendum on the territorial fate of Donetsk’s province and pledged to rally “100,000” supporters to appoint a temporary government to the region — even though, so far, no more than a couple thousand supporters have come. Gubaryev, who is reportedly an activist with the Russian nationalist group Eurasian Youth Movement, led several men in a siege of the local administration’s building on Monday and Wednesday.

The video below shows the pro-Russian protesters storming the building, where they raised the Russian flag.

Pro-Russian protesters stormed a government building in Donetsk on Wednesday.

A group of pro-Russian protesters also attacked a crowd of about 3,000 pro-unity demonstrators Wednesday night, leaving dozens injured.

Yanukovych was born in the province and has sympathetic supporters there. Events in nearby Crimea have prompted widespread rumors in Donetsk that suggest Russian infiltrators will attempt to bolster Yanukovych’s loyalists. Calls have reportedly gone out to “volunteers” on Russian social networks, encouraging them to gather in Donetsk and other eastern cities to support anti-Euromaidan rallies.

“We need men aged 18-45 who are already in Ukraine, or are ready to go,” a page called Civil Defence of Ukraine said, according to The Economist.

Gubaryev, who gave an interview to reporters just an hour before his arrest, did his best to keep alive the fear — or hope, depending on whom you ask — of a different kind of Russian intervention, closer to the variety on display in Crimea.

“I don’t rule out that Russian military forces can come in to settle the tension,” Gubaryev was quoted as saying in the Kyiv Post. “This is the only way I see to keep it without blood.”

“I have never called for arms, but I know some people have them and I am not in control of each and every person in the movement,” he added. “People are angry.”

A couple hundred supporters protested Gubaryev’s arrest on Thursday, chanting “Russia,” “Putin,” and “freedom.”

The videos below show people rallying outside Donetsk’s security department and storming a bus protected by riot police.

Protesters demand the release of Pavel Gubaryev on Thursday outside Donetsk’s security department.

Protesters stormed a bus on Thursday night, and demanded Pavel Gubaryev’s release.

But protesters calling for Donetsk to join Russia were outnumbered by those calling for Ukrainian unity. The prospect of Russian troops entering the city, or of pro-Russian supporters resorting to violence, has driven hundreds of the city's residents to the streets to call for peace.

“In Donetsk people are afraid of Russian aggression,” Donetsk journalist Oleksiy Matsuka told VICE News, adding that Russian nationalists and “skinheads” have reportedly joined Donetsk's pro-Russia demonstrators.

The videos below show unity supporters waving a large Ukrainian flag and chanting “Crimea is Ukraine” and “Ukraine is one.”

Pro-unity protesters waved a large flag of Ukraine on Wednesday.

Pro-unity protesters chanted and waved Ukranian flags.

“What is going on in Donetsk is abnormal,” Anatoly Prokopenko, a pro-unity demonstrator, told Reuters. “I can't go with a flag of my own country into city center: I need to be afraid. But people with the flags of another country act like they are the bosses and even put their flag on the administration building.”

Despite those billing the confrontation as an ethnic and linguistic one, several Russian-speaking protesters also joined the pro-unity rallies.

Mikhail Stoyanov, a 23-year-old ethnic Russian in Donetsk, told Radio Free Europe that he had voted for Yanukovych. But like many young ethnic Russians, he has since switched allegiances.

“At some point, something just clicked. I understood that I’m not just some amorphous resident of Ukraine,” Stoyanov said. “I realized I am a citizen who understands he lives in a particular country."

Stoyanov’s embrace of his Ukrainian nationality is reflective of a generational divide. For younger Ukrainans — including those who, like Stoyanov, never lived in the Soviet Union — citizenship, rather than language or ethnicity, defines allegiances.

Class distinctions also play a role.

“In Donetsk there is a separation in terms of poverty and wealth — poor people go to rallies for a strong hand, and for them that’s Russia,” Matsuka told VICE News. “The middle class are experiencing apathy and for them the existence of a unified Ukraine is an indisputable fact.”

Many in Donetsk feel alienated from the new Kiev administration and galvanized by Russia's occupation of Crimea. They have vowed to continue rallying for the release of Gubaryev and for a Russian administration to manage the city.

“Double standards are being applied, it is obvious. He is charged with seizure of administration buildings,” a pro-Russia protester named Viktor Shalgunov recently told the Kyiv Post, speaking of Gubaryev. “But that's exactly what people in Kiev did, why are they free then?”

On Friday, the regional administration building that has become both the stage and symbol of Donetsk’s divided aspirations was once again under the control of Ukrainian authorities. The video below shows officers guarding the building.

Ukrainian forces guarded an administrative building in Donetsk, which was the site of several protests.