For Ukraine’s eastern rust belt, it’s Russia or bust
DONETSK, Ukraine: Pro-Russians cheer and clap as miners in hard hats march into the heavily fortified zone around the occupied state building in Donetsk: here they are heroes, the soul of an economically depressed coal region fighting for survival. As the protesters rally in support of separatists holed up inside the building, virulent anger against the new proWestern government in Kiev and their plans to shift out of Russia’s orbit is stoked by a real and visceral fear for their future. From the coal and steelmaking industries of Donetsk to factories in Kharkiv pumping out military tanks and turbines, the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine has always relied on one main client: Russia.
“In our region we have a lot of machine-building plants. Russia buys our products. Our factories will be closed because... nobody will need it in Europe,” said Liliya, a 27-year-old housewife. “Our products are not competitive, half our citizens will lose their jobs.” Jobs lost, factories and mines closed and industries swallowed up by “German businessmen ”these are the fears on everyone’s lips at the barricades of tyres and barbed wire surrounding the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, declared independent by a handful of separatists willing to go to extremes to protect their ties with Russia. Katerina, 50, a kindergarten teacher, thinks closer ties to the European Union will be “very, very bad” for eastern Ukraine. She is most worried about her kitchen garden, which allows her to earn money on the side selling flowers and vegetables. “I saw on the Internet and TV that it is forbidden to do this in Europe. Our goods will not be competitive,” she said.
Like the majority of the crowd, she aches with nostalgia for the days when this part of Ukraine was the industrial pride of the Soviet Union, a sentiment strummed daily by old Soviet songs played to the crowd, and constant references to the glories of World War II.
‘Corruption everywhere’
The eastern industrial powerhouse was hard hit when the USSR collapsed and Ukraine won independence in 1991. Many factories were shut and jobs lost as the region struggled to adapt to a capitalist system. Two decades on, the outlook in the economically depressed region, bled dry by corruption and blinded by the wealth of a handful of oligarchs, feels bleak.
“Life was better in the USSR, there was equality, there was free education and medicine. Now there is corruption everywhere,” said Katerina. The trade wars with Russia that have erupted since Kiev turned toward the EU following protests that ousted a Kremlin-friendly government have only heightened fears in the region which borders Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week threatened to cut off gas supplies to a heavily-indebted Ukraine, and Moscow has threatened to cut off imports from Ukraine.
In January Ukraine exports to Russia totalled $746 million, and imports $1.46 billion, according to government statistics. “Our country has no serious dependence on goods from Ukraine. If any restrictive measures are taken by the Ukrainian side, our companies will be able to fully replace their goods,” said Russian Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov.—AFP