By Olena Stepova
05.04.2014 Facebook
Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine

Yesterday in Anthracite [a town in Luhansk oblast] Russian Cossacks were distributing a massive amount of weapons. People were gathering from everywhere. One just signs a receipt, gives a photocopy of one’s passport and gets: a radio, cell phone, uniform, a knife and a handgun. Russian flags [are] everywhere. The 25% pro-Russian population joyfully welcomes its “liberators,” the rest just lower their heads and leave. The city is at a standstill. That night, all those who received weapons were gathered together, loaded onto buses (loading continued until 12 noon on Sunday), and the buses drove towards the town of Debalcevo in Donetsk oblast (towards Sloviansk). The guys were depressed–no one was planning on doing any actual fighting. There is a report that one of the buses is filled with women and adolescents–to provide a “human shield.” Those who just wanted freebie weapons and didn’t want to go anywhere, had not responded to the call to the assembly point. The people with guns were sent to their homes.

Sverdlovsk. Our “defenders” were also saddened. They enlisted solely to protect their city from Right Sector, to remove the Sverdlovsk mayor and to kick out Akhmetov (and his company), but not everyone wants to go to war and shoot. There is a group of radicals, but it is small. Today a group of 700-800 people demanded a session of the city council and a referendum. The Mayor agreed to hold a session tomorrow, to ensure peace in the city. The city is quiet, life goes on. People are scared because of events in Luhansk. Russian TV channels repeatedly broadcast that yesterday their troops rescued Luhansk from the Right Sector. Not a word about the fact that Ukrainian soldiers were threatened by militants to be burned alive in the recruitment office in retaliation “for Odessa.” Many more people are scared by the talks that all who enrolled are being sent to fight, whether for Putin or for Yarosh, it’s unclear…….. There are checkpoints on the highway between Sverdlovsk and Luhansk. The one in Krasnodon manned by Cossacks is the most aggressive, searching cars and people.

Source: Olena Stepova FB