for example, There is the black umbrella. At a bus stop in Kiev, he is broken, his owner is one of those who fled from the war in Eastern Ukraine in the capital. The woman is running now, pushing and cursing lost by the city, the old umbrella.

of The screen, as well as any other object in Yevgenia Belorusets stories, the atmosphere in a country whose inhabitants have to live for four years with the war. The artist and author from Kiev, is 38 years old and I want to represent, as she says, “the people can not participate in the big story.”

life at war

documenting The artist Yevgenia belorusets photo: Yuri Kruchak

Belorusets called the people living in the Donbass, “hostages of war”. In the coal-producing Region in the conflict between pro raging-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army. Between 2014 and 2017 Belorusets was as a photographer there on the road, spoke with the local people and collected the Told in a Band. She stresses, however, that the stories are fictitious.

Far away from the war Belorusets sits in Berlin’s late autumn in a Kreuzberg Café. She divides her time between Kiev and Berlin, worked with a scholarship of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung at the University of the arts and as a Translator in residence programme of the Literary Colloquium at Wannsee. In the summer of 2019 your book “Happy Fallings to appear” at Matthes & Seitz (the German title is not yet fixed).

After the Azov-crisis fear

are light, playful and make the whole tragedy of the war is understandable. The florist from Donetsk, loved your Shop and the name of the flower fight, now in a battalion. From your Store is a warehouse for propaganda literature. The narratives show the complexity of life in a competitive Region.

In a personal conversation Belorusets is carefully and analytically. Who is speaking in these days about the Ukraine, speaks about the crisis in the Azov sea. Belorusets looks her Over insistently in the eyes: “For the first Time since the beginning of the crisis, I have a huge fear of a bloody war,” she says.

In November, had blocked the Russian coast guard in the Strait of Kerch in the Crimean Peninsula and access to the Azov sea. The Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called subsequently, with the support of the Parliament, the laws of war. It is initially valid until the 26. December in ten regions on the border with Russia.

in Front of the Azov-crisis Belorusets still believed that Russia would maintain in the conflict. In Kiev, a monument to the friendship between the “brothers” of Russia and the Ukraine, is still symbolised by a rainbow of 60 meters in diameter. But the myth of the friendship of peoples is over, now final, says Belorusets. The people in the border regions felt lost. “There are not so many wrong information, you know which side to believe.“ To have to decide whom you declared to be guilty of, Ukraine or Russia, the traumatized.

The mining industry is important for the people in Donetsk

Yevgenia Belorusets – the victories of The defeated view more images of 1 of 12Foto: Yevgenia Belorusets06.12.2018 18:25Frau in the mines of Dimitriv/Myrnohrad.Back Next

Belorusets has visited people in the mining towns Lissichansk, Vuhlehirsk (in addition to Debalzeve) and Pokrovsk. All cities are located in the Region of Donetsk, near the Russian border, and about 900 kilometres East of Kiev. The men and women with whom she spoke, mostly work in the mining industry. The women, by the way, just as hard as the men, even if the Jobs are different: “All of them have at the end of the day, soot in the face and coal dust in the lungs,“ says Belorusets.

coal is important for the Region, the cities here are developed around the mines and railway tracks. You, the Soviet myth of the working-class town of. Once the work offered compliance: residents could hope to make after work in the mines, a further education or a University degree. In the end, this is now, the University’s Connections between the cities of the Eastern Ukraine and Kiev are mostly capped.

Escape, even if only in thought

Many people from the regions have to draw for bread, jobs to Kiev, or even further to the West to emigrate to Poland. However, not all can afford it and many are afraid to give up their homes, often their only property. So you are looking for other ways out of this Situation, not in Donetsk or Lugansk, but in Kiev, Minsk and Moscow will be decided.

On the search for these solutions, met Belorusets with the coal workers. You let your conversation partner speak. “It was important for me to let her tell you and listen to how they see themselves.” You caught the stories and fantasies they tell themselves and others, to flee to the inside of your Situation. “The women have talked a lot more open with me than the men. Don’t you feel so important and have such a great fear of the impact of your words.“ They have revealed many of the unresolved problems that have Ukraine. Part of this is that IDPs and people living in or near the war zones of life, not getting enough from the government to feel protected.

The solidarity fades with internal refugees

“There is a great solidarity with the IDPs,” says Belorusets. However, this is now by the populist ideology of the war in question, which explains the residents in the occupied territories to Pro-Russian separatists. Belorusets criticized the political Propaganda of the government, the follow-up to extreme-right tendencies. For the upcoming presidential election, Poroshenko’s Slogan: “army is. Language. Faith.” Of course, there is the Ukrainian language and the Ukrainian Orthodox Faith.

“I was always critical of the Ukrainian government,” says Belorusets. The work in the Donbass have made them even more critical, because she has seen what works there, everything is nothing. Since 2014, Petro ruled Poroshenko, he was elected to the Pro-Europe Maidan Revolution in the Winter of 2013/14 to the President. The billionaire Oligarch has promised major reforms, said the fight against corruption and wanted to make the electoral system fairer. However, the changes are slow. The international monetary Fund and European Union pressure, for example, should be before the end of the year, a court for cases of corruption. On accession to the EU Belorusets at the Moment, does not believe. But she hopes that he comes sometime.

Clear attitude of Germany

Now you wish you wishes that the peace process between Ukraine and Russia, the countries involved – France and Germany – to adopt a clear stance. How many Ukrainians believe Belorusets, that pragmatic, economic reasons could prevent an escalation from the Russian side. The new gas pipeline “Nord Stream 2” is a more important factor. There should be this alternative supply of energy, would the Russians have less qualms the tires Ukraine suit. Currently, Russian Gas is supplied in addition to the Baltic pipeline through the Ukraine to Europe.

The proclamation of martial law Belorusets explained by the coming elections. The Slogan of the President shows that he wants to show himself strong. She hopes that it stays really in the 30 days and that the people, the basic rights remain the same.

More about

the Ukrainian-Russian conflict chase in the narrow sea

Frank Herold, Julia summer Bauer

change But a war. Even if the conflict has gone on for years, would now be all the things you think and the basis for their work – the social security, the working conditions of the people in the Donbass, the observance of human rights – to be banal. “I can’t focus on what concerned me originally. If there is war, it’s life and death.“