Totalitarian conditions reported in occupied Donbas

The self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic has created camps to train children in the use of firearms, gather reconnaissance and staff security checkpoints, a Ukrainian delegation informed the United Nations Security Council in a report submitted on August 3. The leadership also is forbidding teenagers to leave the occupied territory and is recruiting them for reconnaissance and sabotage work, the report said.

Donetsk residents can’t freely travel in their city and face curfews, according to reports from the occupied territories published by Germany’s Bild website. Banks, post offices, and train stations have been shut down, the report said, citing a 40-year-old resident. State workers receive petty wages and are required to attend protests against Ukraine, for Russia and for the republic’s leader, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, he said. Russia controls the occupation government, allowing only Russian television, currency and food products, he said. Criticizing the government can lead to arrest.

Zenon Zawada: These reports further confirm that it will be very difficult to integrate the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk into the Ukrainian state. The plan endorsed by Western leaders to hold local elections and establish de facto autonomy will only hinder Ukraine’s Western integration since the occupied territory will be used by Moscow to place a constant burden on the Kyiv government. As it stands now, Russia is succeeding in undermining Ukraine’s Western integration, which is occurring slowly and in piecemeal ways.