21 May 2014

Tensions are only growing as Sunday's election day draws nearer. 

Putin has said that he has ordered troops to pull out from the regions near Ukraine. He claims this is to help create a positive environment ahead of the nation's presidential vote. But he added that the continued fighting will make it hard for the Kremlin to ‘deal with’ the winner. While Russian television broadcast footage of columns of tanks and howitzers towed by heavy trucks, it is unclear where this footage was taken.

Clashes in the Eastern areas continue between separatists and Ukrainian forces. Deaths are reported daily. In Donestk, Akhmetov has demanded an end to the mutiny which he said was destroying eastern Ukraine and called on workers to hold protests. 

Local residents are also increasingly angry and exasperated over being caught in cross fire that have destroyed their housing and endangered their lives. According to a woman, Oksana, in Slovyansk: “The terrorists have gone completely crazy. They are shooting from mine launchers at the private sector. The National Guard of Ukraine is still outside the city. And these idiots are bombing with mine launchers. Just like monkeys with grenades. I think they are in agony now. Blaming everything on the army. They say it’s their fault.” 

Excerpt from: Myroslava Gongadze's article in Ukraiynska Pravda, in memory of her husband and Ukrainian journalist, Heorhiy Gongadze, who was murdered in 2000.

Today, May 21, Heorhiy Gongadze would have turned 45. When the beatings and kidnappings began during Maidan, I relived that day, September 16, 2000, each time, all over again. I tried, to the best of my ability, to sound the alarm, hoping that the fate of each person would be better than the one that befell Heorhiy.  Each time when people were found, mutilated but alive, I rejoiced at the lives saved.

When brave men began to die on Maidan, I could barely hold back my tears or maintain the emotional balance on the air that is required of journalists. Each time, with each new victim, the agony of losing another life doubled.

Today, if Heorhiy were alive, he would be on the front lines in Eastern Ukraine. During his short life, he faced the enemy repeatedly.

In 1992, he left Lviv for Tbilisi to help his father, Ruslan Gongadze, a former dissident, head of a political party and a member of the Georgian parliament — someone that Gamsakhurdia had listed as an “enemy of the people.” Then he returned and made a documentary — “My country’s anguish.”

When Russia undertook its scenario in Abkhazia, he was there again, this time to defend his country from Russian aggression. Few people realized then that the war in Abkhazia was not a struggle by Abkhazians for independence, but rather Kremlin’s attempt to grab a piece of the flourishing Georgia and bring a proud people to their knees.

This time he returned on the last plane from Sukhumi, after losing a lot of blood and with massive fragment wounds all over his body. The process of rehabilitation was difficult and long. But again, this time with my help, he made a documentary — “Shadows of War.”

The third time was the last. This time it was a war for freedom and justice in Ukraine. In this war, he met his death. But he left behind two wonderful children and his journalistic creation — Ukrainska Pravda.

For us, his family and friends, he was the only father, the only husband, the only friend, one who will be missed forever. But for society, he marked the beginning of the changes that would lead to the Revolution of Dignity.

If he were alive today, I am convinced he would be happy to see that the Ukrainian people, the people of his mother and ancestors have arisen, and, once again, he would repeat, as he once said on the radio, I am ready to give my life for Ukraine.

Translation: Anna Mostovych