Thousands of Ukrainian civilian laborers came
together in patrol groups and tore down blockades set up
pro-Russian militants in the eastern region of Donetsk yesterday.
At the same time, a train car adorned with images of cats set off
from the western end of the country with a message of peace to the
east.
Around 18,000 steelworkers and miners are taking action against
the so-called “People’s Republic of Donetsk.” The New York
Times highlights their
small success in the city of Mariupol:
The workers, who were wearing only their protective clothing and
hard hats, said they were “outside politics” and were just trying
to establish order. Faced with waves of steelworkers joined by the
police, the pro-Russian protesters melted away, along with signs of
the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and its
representatives. Backhoes and dump trucks from the steelworkers’
factory dismantled the barricades that separatists had erected.It remains possible that the separatists could regroup and
challenge the industrial workers, though few were to be found in
and around Mariupol on Thursday, even in the public administration
building they had been occupying.
The Associated Press
reports seeing no separatists in the city this morning.
Many of the laborers work at plants owned by Ukraine’s richest
man, Rinat Akhmetov. He has been critical of the western-leaning
interim leadership in Kiev, but recognizes the importance of
keeping peace for the sake of his business. If these types of
civilian patrols work, he
intends to initiate them in other cities.
In the last week, much attention has turned to the standoff in
Mariupol, the second largest city in Donetsk. Exact numbers are
hard to come by as the opposing sides contradict each other, but
estimates indicate that
several dozen people have been injured or killed and a few have
been
kidnapped. The situation is grisly. One parliamentarian claimed
that the separatists took the dead body of a brigade commander and
cut off his ears and gouged out his eyes.
Throughout the crisis, Russian media has been
pouring out anti-Ukrainian propaganda, such as
filming a
construction site and calling it a concentration camp, to
persuade people that Ukraine is run by neo-Nazis.
On this front, Ukrainians are now fighting back with kindness.
An activist group called the Public Sector of the Lviv Maidan
plastered pictures of cats on the outside of a train car that
yesterday began a journey to Odessa, where violent clashes between
pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian protesters led to the death of
48 people.
Public Sector states on its
Facebook page that it hopes to initiate dialogue among the
politically polarized regions of Ukraine and restore the “long
forgotten feeling of confidence tomorrow.” As tokens of good will,
they are bringing donations, such as children’s diapers, and
medical supplies, to the battle-scarred city.
Read more Reason coverage of Ukraine here.
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