DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) – Since April, when pro-Russia rebels took over her city, Maria Oleinik hasn’t slept in the same house for more than one night running.
Fearing abduction at the hands of separatists, thousands of residents have fled Donetsk, an eastern province where separatists have declared independence from Ukraine’s new, pro-Western government.
But not this spry, spirited 70-year-old. Oleinik says she is going nowhere and is determined to help people who run afoul of the rebels, no matter what the risks.
“Eastern Ukraine is turning into a black hole where people disappear without a trace, where daily theft and murder go unpunished,” said Oleinik, who runs the local branch of a Ukrainian cultural organization.
The insurgency in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk began this spring after protests drove the pro-Russian president of Ukraine from office. What began with poorly attended protests over the new government’s perceived bias against Russian-speakers snowballed into the armed takeover of dozens of town and cities by rebels.