We had a chance to speak with Lyubomir Dankov, the director of Children of Donbass about his documentary. The film is a series of interviews with civilians who’d been affected by indiscriminate Russian shelling in the Donbass region of Ukraine, as well as footage of the wreckage that followed this shelling. The conflict, largely ignored by the media, has been raging between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists, as well as Russia, since 2014.
UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): In doing research for this interview, I was able to see what you mean about the lack of media attention to this conflict. It was difficult to find a succinct explanation about what’s been going on. Would you be able to provide a quick explanation of the conflict in Donbass?
Lyubomir Dankov (LD): Yes, I know very well that the people who will watch this film will not understand anything about the causes of this military conflict and how it has developed over the years. This is quite intentional. The film was made for Western audiences – for people from the European Union, the United States and Canada. The people he targets are flooded with propaganda and are not ready to accept the truth about the conflict easily. My idea was to show them the most important thing – namely that the part in the conflict, which is supported by their governments, is committing horrific war crimes and using terrorist methods. Those who are able to understand this will be ready to look objectively at this conflict and look for the reasons for this war in the geographical center of Europe. I myself intend to make at least two more films on this topic and I will already address these issues in them.
If I have to describe very briefly what is happening in Donbass and in Ukraine in general after the 2013… There was a clash in Ukraine between the interests of oligarchs on the one hand and geopolitical interests on the US – Russia axis on the other hand. Unfortunately, people are easy to manipulate and have been used for extremely dirty purposes.
Society in the country has been divided over one issue – how to continue Ukraine’s path – by maintaining ties with its main economic partner, Russia, or by launching a process to join the European Union. Both sides had their arguments, and it should be noted that EU accession would have a different effect on different parts of the country. Such an accession is always good for the capitals, but it can cause complete destruction in some industrial areas, which due to the rules of the Union will simply lose their markets. This conflict was cleverly used both by the oligarchs who wanted to come to power and by the United States and the European Union, which wanted to “pull” Ukraine into their orbit during the new Cold War. Accordingly, Russia has also taken reciprocal action.
The aggressive tone in both the media and politics provoked the radicalization of the people, led to hatred and intolerance towards the opponent. In such a situation, there is only one step to the civil war.
Seizure of administrations, police departments, looting of weapons by army units – this started in western Ukraine and spread to the east. The peaceful protests of the people were “conquered” and bloodied by people who apparently had the task of provoking tension and provoking war. The then government could not cope with the challenges to the national security of the country, did not dare to use adequate force against the serious violations of order during the protests in the 14th year. The replacement of President Yanukovych in the same year could easily be called an armed coup, after which people who simply wanted war came to power.
The conflict in Ukraine is a purely civil war, and as in all such wars, both sides in the conflict are aided by external forces. One of the sides is supported by Russia, the other by the United States and the European Union. / For information – the EU has given over 15 billion euros to Ukraine since the start of the war/. At the level of media and propaganda, the Ukrainian authorities have always tried to present the conflict as a war between Russia and Ukraine. Legally, the conflict is defined by the same authorities as an “anti-terrorist operation”, and about two years ago they found a new wording – “Joint Forces Operation “, whatever that means.
I deliberately do not mention anything about Crimea, it will take too long, and the situation there is very different, compared to Donbass.
(UM): Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
(LD): I don’t think I can say anything particularly interesting about myself. I am a chemical engineer by education, now I work in a trading company. The Donbass Children is my first film. I would say I felt obligated to do it. Until the beginning of the 2015, when I first went to Ukraine for personal work, I knew almost nothing about this war. I knew that there was a military conflict in Donbass, but I did not even suspect that so many war crimes were being committed there, which are silent in the so-called civilized world. I decided to make an information project about the conflict, reflecting equally the positions of both sides. This project was not very successful, so I decided to try documentaries. Meanwhile, it turned out that one of the parties – the so-called separatists, showed some desire to communicate with me, while with the other side – Ukraine, things were going quite hard, and finally they denied me access to the country. My first film is ready, and the second is delayed due to the difficulties that come with the new virus.
(UM): Why do you think there is so little media attention?
(LD): I can only comment on our country – Bulgaria, but probably things are not much different with you. Information is an expensive product. We as a society have not fought for strong independent media to which we pay enough to receive objective information in return. We have a saying – who pays, he orders the music. The mainstream media in our country are under the financial control of people who have an interest in participating in the new Cold War in the world and provide us with one-sided information or outright misinformation.
The situation with product „information“ is not much different from that with any product. For example, I can make an extremely tasty and useful drink, but if it somehow “gets” to the store, probably no one will buy it. People will prefer one of the world-famous carbonated drinks, for which huge funds are spent on advertising. In reality, there are no logical reasons to drink such a drink, but people easily give in to suggestions. The situation with my film is similar. He does not have access to the mainstream media because they are busy “advertising” a parallel reality in which these war crimes do not exist and only one party to the conflict, Russia, is to blame.
Probably all of you know very well who Alexey Navalny is. But you do not know who Nastya Kovtun is, nor the names of all the thousands of civilians killed in this conflict. Their lives are not less valuable. It is unfortunate that the mainstream media has become a tool in the new Cold War.
(UM): Could you tell us how you found the people you interviewed?
(LD): You know, I had to go to Donbass six times to get what I needed for my film. At the beginning of the conflict, many journalists from the countries west of Russia came to Donbass, but a large number of them wrote commissioned materials after their return that had nothing to do with the truth. This is very demotivating for the local people and it is very difficult to count on any enthusiasm for their cooperation. Not so much because of distrust in the particular journalist, but because of distrust that somewhere an objective analysis can be published and the facts about the conflict can be presented objectively. In the end, I met a local human rights activist and lawyer – Ivan Kopyl, who helped me a lot with information from the lists of injured citizens. But on the other hand, the many visits to the both sides of the line helped me to understand a lot about this conflict, which allows me to stand behind every single word of the characters in my film.
(UM): Why did you decide not to include any narration?
(LD): I wanted people to see for themselves through my camera what was happening in the conflict zone, without any suggestions from me. The people who told their stories, they are important, not me. My position is not so important. I would be very happy if I helped the viewer to build his position on the basis of what he saw, as well as to seek additional information from both sides, not only from the mainstream.
One of the many shocking things about this film is the constant noise of gunfire and shelling. There is even a shot where we see the flash of artillery. You must have put yourself at great risk to make this film. Was this a terrifying experience?
Well, the hottest phases of the war, when most people died, were in 2014 and in the early 2015, until the signing of the Minsk agreements. I went there for the first time in 2016. The war was already positional, in the center of Donetsk the risk was too small. Well, a bullet whistled past my head as I photographed the destruction of the cemetery near the airport… I heard the shelling when visiting places close to the line of demarcation, but the locals are very well versed in the situation only by the sounds of gunfire, my companions and I left quickly when the situation worsens.
Only once did I manage to get on the very front line, the local authorities in the Donetsk People’s Republic, which seceded from Ukraine, are reluctant to take risks and let foreign journalists into very dangerous places. Then I had to spend about half an hour in an underground shelter due to unprovoked and massive shelling with grenade launchers from the Ukrainian side. Yes, it was a memorable experience. They explained to me that there were logs above us, nylon and a layer of soil on them, but if a mine fell just above us, they would only be able to recognize us by our DNA… During the lull we did a rather long sprint with a heavy bulletproof vest and helmet to get out of range…
(UM): I assume you had to cut out a lot of footage for the final version of the film. Were there any moments you wish you could have included?
(LD): I have too many materials, interviews with intellectuals, journalists, analysts on both sides of the line. These are many, many hours. It will be difficult to choose the best for my next films, but for “The Donbass Children ” there were no such problems, it included almost everything from the interviews with the severely injured locals that I had during its editing. Now I have new such materials, they will be included in my next film.
(UM): What do you hope the resolution of this conflict will be?
(LD): The information darkness is a good environment for committing war crimes and terrorism… I want the people in the so-called civilized world to understand the truth about the conflict, it will worry their governments and force them to stop unconditional assistance to the Ukrainian government. I know very well how easy it is to force a country in the situation of Ukraine to implement its part of the peace agreements quickly. Unfortunately, more than six years after the signing of the Minsk agreements, Ukraine has not implemented almost any of them, and the reason is that the country is being used as an instrument in the Cold War against Russia.
After all that has happened in Eastern Ukraine, it is impossible to simply forget everything and settle things quickly. My personal opinion is that the future of the region that seceded from Ukraine must be decided by future generations, now military action must simply be stopped and an international criminal tribunal must be organized to punish all war crimes committed.
by: Darida Rose