Presenting the outcomes of the project “The Future of Donbas. Information and expert support for reintegration”

On 26 November 2021, the team of the project “The Future of Donbas: information and expert support for reintegration” presented the outcomes of their work between April and November 2021. The presentation took place at a round table within the Third International Forum on Eastern Ukraine organized by the international civil society platform CivilMPlus.

The project was implemented to address the deepening divide between people living in the Government-controlled territory and people in temporarily occupied territories in eastern Ukraine.

The project consisted of two components: (1) producing a series of videos targeting people living in the non-government-controlled areas (NGCA) of Donbas and (2) developing policy recommendations on the best approaches for the effective communication of the Government of Ukraine with people living in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

«This project is unique because we managed to conduct an information campaign (video production) and to prepare a set of recommendations aimed at improving communication with people living in the non-government-controlled territory. The videos covered the key challenges faced by people living on the other side of the contact line and gave practical advice on legal issues and access to state services. The recommendations produced within this project is a result of joint work of experts coming from various fields – journalism, human rights, academia. We believe that these recommendations will contribute to overcoming the division and other negative consequences of the war in Donbas», said Valerii Novykov, the head of the Luhansk Regional Human Rights Center «Alternative» that implemented the project.

Journalists of “Realnaya Gazeta” produced eight videos about the lives of people in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the peace process and reintegration. Based on the interviews with people on both sides of the contact line, each video gives practical recommendations to the residents of occupied territory to help them maintain social and administrative connections with people and institutions in the Government-controlled territory (GCT) of Ukraine.

«The work of Ukrainian journalists in NGCA is dangerous and ungrateful, but absolutely necessary for those who care about the fate of Donetsk and Luhansk. Each time our reporters risk their freedom to collect and verify information about the life in temporarily occupied territories. The fear and distrust of the respondents, the indifference of local pseudo-authorities to the problems of ordinary people, and the likelihood of ending up in the basement – all this should have made us give up long ago. But we understand that if Ukrainian journalists leave Donbas, the life there will become even worse, and the gap between the two sides of the contact line will become insurmountable. Therefore, we continue to work there to be able to speak about it here», – said Andrii Dikhtiarenko, editor-in-chief of “Realnaya Gazeta” and the head of the NGO “Frontir”.

The videos provide analysis of social, economic, and political developments in GCT as well as contribute to countering stereotypes, promoting reconciliation and tolerance.

The themes of these eight videos are: compensation for destroyed housing, employment opportunities, access to social payments, transitional justice mechanisms and their effect on people’s lives, crossing the contact line, entering Ukrainian universities, getting an IDP status, selling real estate in the occupied territories, getting mortgage according to the state program of affordable housing for IDPs, environmental threats.

As of 26 November, 6 videos have been broadcasted and reached nearly 300000 – 400000 people through Youtube and Facebook. The videos will soon be posted on the CivilMPlus website, and are already available on the YouTube channel of Realnaya Gazeta.

To elaborate policy recommendations on communication with people living in temporarily occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, the project team conducted an online discussion to collect the variety of expert opinions, and engaged prominent experts from different fields (journalism, academia, human rights, local activism) to work on the document. They analyzed key challenges for reintegration and for maintaining social contacts between people living on different sides of the contact line. While the Ministry of Reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories is considered the main addressee of the recommendations, they could be useful for other state bodies, international partners and donors, civil society.

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The project “The Future of Donbas: information and expert support for reintegration” was implemented under the auspices of the CivilMPlus platform and by the Luhansk Regional Human Rights Center “Alternatyva”, NGO ‘Frontir’ and journalists of “Realnaya Gazeta” with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The content of the videos is solely the responsibility of the NGO ‘Frontir’ and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the US Government.

The content of the videos and of the other project deliverables does not necessarily reflect the views of all member organizations of the CivilMPlus platform.