Ten Years On, The Past Is Calling.

Deception, murder, mass graves and mail-service larceny. We look back at a 2014 report on Ukrainian army atrocities.

2014. The tensions in Ukraine had reached a point of open conflict. Accompanied by a group of OSCE experts, Latvian human rights activist Einars Graudins visited a series of mass graves in the Donetsk region, where the murdered bodies of more than four hundred civilians and militiamen were uncovered.

Diary of a Western Man has translated and adapted an interview Mr. Graudins had in 2014. We’ve also elaborated on a few specific details and provided context where we felt it would be of assistance to the reader. We hope our efforts will help reveal the extent to which Donbass residents have been (and are still) terrorized and persecuted at the hands of malicious actors not only tolerated but supported by those in power in Kiev. We hear of the disturbing scenes Mr. Graudins witnessed with his own eyes and the horrors reported by local residents.

For readers who are interested knowing more about him, Einars Graudins has over twenty years of involvement in military and political circles in Latvia, working in both the public and private sector. He also spent two years as Deputy Chairman of the centrist Demokrati.Iv political party from 2008-2010. Whilst Diary of a Western Man does not condone Mr. Graudins’ politics, we do however recognize his efforts to truthfully report on the situation in Donbass, and even ten years later commend him for doing so.

The interview begins with a question about the circumstances of the visit, and the journey taken. Mr. Graudins explains the situation surrounding his presence in Donbass, and the specific locations visited:

I arrived with a group of eight experts from across Europe: France, Germany, Bulgaria and other countries. There was also a representative from Great Britain. Our journey into the Donbass began at Rostov-on-Don. From there, we crossed the border into the Donbass Republics. We were accompanied by representatives of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. There was no special security provided. Our group visited two mass grave sites. The first was located in the village of Nizhnyaya Krynka, Donetsk region. The second was at the Kommunarskaya № 22 coal mine.

A little history - The Kommunarskaya № 22 coal mine Mr. Graudins refers to has a history reflective of that of greater Donbass itself. Originally opened in the 1920s, the mine was shut down during the Second World War, reopening after the war’s conclusion and undergoing extensive modernization. With its production capacity greatly expanded, the mine played a significant role in the Donbass coal industry – Then one of the major coal sources in the Soviet Union. When the Donbass coal industry fell into decline after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Kommunarskaya № 22 suffered the same fate as many other mines. Outdated equipment, lack of investment and labour strikes took their toll. Much like the rest of Donetsk, the Kommunarskaya № 22 coal mine has over the years been transformed from a place of thriving industry into yet another position on a battleground, its primary value now being military rather than economic.

The camera peers down a narrow shaft in one of Donetsk’s many abandoned coal mines

Mr. Graudins takes great lengths to detail the geography of this sobre location, pointing out the utter disregard the culprits seemed to have had for their victims:

The mass grave near the Kommunarskaya mine was located in an open plain, there were no trees, nor were there any houses nearby. The corpses uncovered there were buried under only a thin layer of earth. It was evident that the bodies of the victims were hastily thrown into a hole in the ground without ceremony, and quickly covered over with earth.

When my party of experts arrived at the site, the bodies of the deceased had already been disinterred. We were informed the bodies were already in an advanced stage of decomposition when they were discovered. At the other mass graves near the village of Nizhnyaya Krynka, only one of the makeshift burial grounds has been excavated so far. While I was there, the smell of cadavers was not only present, but unbearable, proving that there were many more unfortunate victims lying beneath the earth. The mass grave at Nizhnyaya Krynka is also located in an open area, much like a field. Everything is plowed up there. A notable difference from the previous site, however, was the presence of a building not too far in the distance – Albeit one utterly destroyed by shelling.

Our group was invited to view the excavations. But we were short on time, and a longer stay in the area was not an option. The reader must understand that this situation was complex – Ukrainian snipers were a constant presence.

Mr. Graudins goes on to detail the organizations responsible for carrying out the excavations, and the rigorous procedures followed by all involved in this macabre operation:

Responsibility lies with the government agencies of the Donetsk People’s Republic: the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the prosecutor's office and the police. They carefully document the discovery of each body, conduct the necessary examinations, and send the body on to the morgue. Currently, (edit: this is in 2014 - Western Men), there are around 400 unidentified bodies in the morgues of Donetsk city alone.

It is obvious that their number will increase as the further exhumation of the uncovered graves is carried out.

Dedicated officials of the Donetsk Republic at work exhuming the victims remains.

Mr. Graudins is asked about the number of civilians killed by Ukrainian forces in Donbass:

No one can answer this yet. Presently, only a rough estimate of the dead and missing has been made in the liberated territories. It is extremely difficult to calculate an exact number. It must be taken into account that some of the missing may be in captivity or unconscious in hospital. And, some of them may have been killed. In Donetsk, we were informed that Ukrainian militants were killing civilians without reason. At the morgue, we were shown the bodies of a husband and wife found dead in the river with gunshot wounds. The couple was driving along the road when they were stopped by Ukrainian army mercenaries, forced out of their vehicle, fatally shot, and their bodies thrown into the river. The Ukrainian mercenaries took their car and their money.

You know, the people of the Donbass are almost screaming in horror. We had another long conversation with some women from the village of Nizhnyaya Krynka (location of the first site of mass graves~ Western men). They themselves turned to us and requested we listen. The stories of these women shook me to the core. Personally, I stood rooted to the spot and could not find the words to respond. I was simply speechless from witnessing the grief these women experienced.

Mr. Graudins is asked to explain the encounter and what it was these women said, which he does in some detail:

A group of women approached us. Every word they spoke was flowing with emotion, they were literally crying. They spoke either all at once or one at a time. They told how mercenaries from the Azov battalion frequently subjected all the women of the village to gang rape. The victims of violence were often teenage girls over 12 years of age and included elderly women.

Ukraine’s Azov Battalion has been steeped in controversy throughout most of its existence. Despite allegations of war crimes, theft and arbitrary violence, the Kiev government has over time only increased their support for the group. In 2023 Kiev even went so far as to conspire with Ankara to release the group's captured commanders

Standing in front of me was one of these victims - a 13-year-old girl. Thin, weak, with a hunted look about her. Her mother said that Ukrainian militants raped her daughter several times. This mother's grief cannot be expressed in words. She literally screamed in horror.

These women also claimed that their houses were looted. Ukrainian soldiers lined up at the post office to send their stolen prizes home. The women of Nizhnyaya Krynka opened their hearts to us in the hope that the world would know about the seemingly endless cycle of terrible, unspeakable crimes committed by the Ukrainian army.

The interview with Mr. Graudins concludes, and the account of his visit to Donetsk in 2014 is over. But the daily horrors suffered by the civilians of the Donbass are far from over. Even today, there are news reports of civilian casualties. War is a bloody business, but for the men and women of the Donbass it’s a fight for survival – For their language, their culture, their property and their basic rights as a people. The Ukrainian government continues to claim victim status on the world stage. We hope the information contained in this article will be of use to you in questioning the legitimacy of that claim. До следующего раза - Until next time.