The Rebel Governments In Eastern Ukraine Are Facing A Social And Economic Catastrophe

Scott Peterson, CSM: In eastern Ukraine, hotline calls soar as breakaway government flails

With cash and food resources dwindling, local administrators in the 'Donetsk People's Republic' are struggling with day-to-day issues of survival – and bitter residents.

NOVOAZOVSK and DONETSK, UKRAINE — The hotline rings 50 times a day in this remote outpost of eastern Ukraine’s breakaway rebel republics.

The angry queries pour forth: When will payments or salaries be paid? When will the self-declared, pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) restore normal food supplies and jobs? And can the new guard get factories and mines working at pre-war levels?

“People are desperate, we can hear them crying,” says Yevgenia Gorbinka, an official who works in the southern Novoazovsk regional administration building, which overlooks the blustery Sea of Azov and has a stark, Soviet-style sense of functionality. “Some people understand that it’s a new government, and a new country is being built. Some don’t."

WNU Editor: To say that the situation is dire is an understatement, and while I do believe that the region will quickly recover after this war is over, the bitter and anger will remain for generations.