RTDocumentary

In 2014, the city of Slavyansk in the Donetsk region was being fought over by Kiev-controlled security forces and local militias who did not recognise the new Kiev authorities. ‘We wanted to secure our city against being invaded by pro-Nazi elements,’ Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the former people’s mayor of Slavyansk, told us. The militia took control of the town in time. The Ukrainian military then tried to retake it without thinking about civilian casualties. They hit straight at residential buildings. June 1 2014, was one of the most challenging days in the military chronicle of Slavyansk. After artillery shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces, one of the Slavyansk Heavy Engineering Plant workshops caught fire. Another shell hit an orphanage whose pupils had been evacuated just the day before. An excerpt from our documentary Donbass War: Summer 2014 is about how Slavyansk residents defended their hometown. #Donetsk Follow: https://t.me/rtdocumentary

‘Ukrainians had mortars and they tried to push us out of the position. The machine guns were located at the terminal, on the tower. If they had taken up this position, they would have had a direct path to the village’. With the call sign ‘Shisha’, volunteer Victor defended the Donetsk region from the Ukrainian army in 2014. The fighting occurred near the Holy Iberian Monastery, opposite Donetsk airport. For all the time of hostilities, Victor was never wounded. According to him, ‘God saved me, for certain. I spent a lot of time there and have not been wounded. Lucky me! An angel was guarding me. That was very pleasant!’ Learn his story in our post. Viktor is one of the subjects of the documentary Portaitissa of Donetsk. This tape is about how the monastic community became the epicentre of hostilities. #video#Ukraine#Donetsk Follow: https://t.me/rtdocumentary

‘They provide medical care, make dressings, feed. Not everything is as they tell us on TV’. The captured Ukrainian Navy sniper Andrey Kavyuk was frightened by tales about the atrocities of the DPR militias. They said, ‘in captivity, they cut their ears and noses’. How the surrendered enemy is treated in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Kavyuk himself saw when he laid down his arms together with his colleagues. Kavyuk was a sniper at the Ilyich plant, where 1,300 marines of the 36th brigade of the Ukrainian Army surrendered in April. During the retreat, he came under fire, and the car turned over. Together with other Ukrainian soldiers, Kavyuk fled. The Marines reached the river but could not cross. They were found there. This story will be included in a new RT Documentary film about doctors who work in a war zone. They save the lives of civilians and militias and operate on captured Ukrainian soldiers. The premiere is coming soon. #video#Ukraine#Donetsk Follow: https://t.me/rtdocumentary

Instead of musical instruments, he took up arms. A hero of his city of Donetsk and our post, Viktor Petenko, worked in the local philharmonic. But in February, when mobilisation began, the man and many of his colleagues were drafted. After a month of training, they fought street battles for Mariupol. Now the city is returning to civilian life. Viktor showed a RT Documentary crew the streets and buildings where he fought Ukrainian soldiers. There was a piano in one of the destroyed houses. The musician couldn’t get past it and played it for us. Viktor Petenko is one of the protagonists of our new film about artists who defended Donbass with weapons. #video#Donetsk Follow: https://t.me/rtdocumentary

#video#Donetsk ‘We’ve been hiding in the cellar this whole time. There’s an old lady with a walker there and one with crutches here’. In 2014, a woman hurriedly told an RT Documentary film crew she was only going for humanitarian aid. Then in the Donetsk region, there were battles for the city of Ilovaisk. This episode is included in the film Donbass: Summer 2014. The battle for Ilovaisk was the first significant victory of the DPR militia over units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and volunteers. The Ukrainian military stormed the city but was completely surrounded. Follow: https://t.me/rtdocumentary

#video#Donetsk - What scares you most, a drone or…the mines? - Mines. - Why? - Because you walk, walk, walk…suspecting nothing. Then boom! And you’re gone. Little girl Masha, like every kid in the Donbass, knows the difference between types of ammunition. Local children are used to shelling, while grown-ups try to protect them from the horrors of war. The full story in the documentary, Trapped. Follow: https://t.me/rtdocumentary