Putin made a decision: Insider shares how Ukrainians feel and prepare

UK joins US and Israel in urging its citizens to leave Ukraine immediately
UK joins US and Israel in urging its citizens to leave Ukraine immediately
Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

The Donetsk People’s Republic is a self-proclaimed quasi-state in the eastern Ukrainian oblast of Donetsk. Only the partially-recognised South Ossetia and the neighboring Luhansk People’s Republic recognize it. The capital city and largest city within the DPR is Donetsk. Now people are escaping to Russia in fear of a Ukrainian takeover.

“We don’t care if we are under Ukrainian or Russian rule, we just want to have peace and go back to normal.” These are the words by a resident of Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine better now known as Donetsk People’s Republic.

eTurboNews talked to residents of Ukraine and also in the quasi-independent Ukrainian region known as Donbas. It is a historical, cultural, and economic region in southeastern Ukraine, some of whose territory is occupied by two unrecognized Republics – Donetsk and Luhansk.

A former resident of Luhansk, who was a Ukrainian Government attorney in Luhansk when it was not occupied, is now a US citizen.

He or she told eTurboNews: “Ukraine is really squeezed as a battlefield between Russia and the United States.

“I think the West is forcing Ukraine to take back the Donbas region, forcing Russian-backed leaders in that region to call for the population to evacuate to neighboring Russia.”

Warning sirens sounded in Donetsk after it and the other self-proclaimed “People’s Republic” Luhansk announced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people to Russia. Local authorities wanted women, children, and the elderly to leave first. 700,000 people are expected to flee. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the government to house and feed people once they arrived in southern Russia, according to a Kremlin statement.

Due to this ongoing conflict since 2014, Ukraine and the established quasi-independent region, the region had ongoing battles, killings, and shellings for 8 years. People are fed up and desperate to have everything turn back to normal.

Many people were killed, the region is cut off from the rest of the world and a good portion of the people fled.

The Donbas region was the most developed and economically stable region in Ukraine before 2014. It contributed a lot more to the Ukrainian state compared to what it got back from a centralized government.

“Our region was always Russian-speaking, and we had very close ties with Russia. We felt more Russian than Ukrainian, and this may have caused the separation. People in Ukraine still only need a domestic ID and not a passport to travel to Russia,” the insider shared.

“For 8 years my relatives in Luhansk and Donbas lived in a state of war. There are no credit cards, no international mail service, passports are hard to get, and most movement can only be facilitated through Russia.”

“With the Russian threat of invasion, the United States is pushing Ukraine to take back the occupied Donbas region. It creates panic in the population today with busloads of people leaving. In reality, people in the region don’t care if Russia or Ukraine, they just want peace and normality.”

Four days ago, Ukrainian Members of Parliament with access to wealth had left Ukraine causing President Zelensky to call for a return of parliament members to the country.

According to a tourism panel discussion facilitated by the World Tourism Network, in most regions of Ukraine, there is a major concern of war, but there is no panic. People are relaxed, shops are well stocked, and regular citizens are not leaving in masses. Tourism leaders think Ukraine will remain safe, and this threat is nothing but a Russian poker game.

In 2014, Russia took Crimeria without a shot fired. The Ukrainian army was ill-prepared and equipped.

In 2022, Ukraine has a modern well-equipped military, and a Russian attack would turn to be bloody and not without a terrible fight for everyone. Ukraine would not stand by for the Red Army to invade.

“The United States should be prepared to help Ukraine, but should not be directly involved. I think best equipped to be a mediator would be the United Kingdom. The EU is too soft. If it comes to war, however, the exodus of Ukrainian refugees would be a challenge for countries like Germany or France more than any other EU country,” said the former Ukrainian lawyer now residing in the United States as an American.

He or she added: “The Ukrainian president is a marionette and controlled by a powerful group of Ukrainian billionaires.”

According to a report in Al Jazeera, close to 600 explosions were recorded on Friday morning, 100 more than on Thursday, some involving 152 mm and 122 mm artillery and large mortars, the source said. At least 4rounds had been fired from tanks.

“They are shooting – everyone and everything,” said the Al Jazeera source. “There’s been nothing like this since 2014-15.”

Confirmed today by US President Biden, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, today accused Russia of spreading disinformation that Ukraine is planning an attack in eastern Ukraine or sabotaging chemical plans in the region. President Biden added that according to US Intelligence, Russian President Putin made a decision for war, but the US diplomatic channels are still open.

“This is the most significant military mobilization in Europe since the second world war,” US ambassador Michael Carpenter said at a meeting at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Vienna.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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