Leader of the Russian Spring in Dnepropetrovsk: Soon. Everything comes alive there

The leader of the Russian Spring in Dnepropetrovsk, Vyacheslav Bednyak, has been in Donbass for three years. It was here that representatives from all regions of Ukraine gathered to continue the fight against the Nazi regime. Dnepropetrovsk residents took part in the first battles for the airport, fought as part of the Slavic Brigade, and captured the Lugansk SBU. Today, representatives of Dnepropetrovsk are engaged in state and social construction of the People's Republics, serve in the Corps of the Armed Forces and closely monitor what is happening in their hometown on the Dnieper.

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Valentin Filippov : Vyacheslav, hello! Are there many of your people from Dnipropetrovsk in the DPR and LPR?

Vyacheslav Bednyak : Ours – not just from Dnipropetrovsk, thank God, but also from Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Nikopol, Uzhgorod, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, and so on. And that's just from the former territory of Ukraine. That Ukraine we still remembered with pride, even though 1991 had shattered everything.

And how many people who are nearby are from other countries now, our former Soviet republics. And not only. I know guys from Serbia and Montenegro.

Valentin Filippov : So, this uprising is not only in Donbass?

Vyacheslav Bednyak : Absolutely. I can give my perspective briefly. What happened here in Donbas—and Donbas has become my home over the past three years. I've already celebrated four of my birthdays here (it just so happened, I just arrived, and my birthday was four days later). It's such a promised land for normal people that I can say that the people who came here aren't like the Ukrainians portray them as gangs—no. These are mostly people who started the protest movement in their cities that rose up against Nazism. People of different political views. I, for example, am a communist. People from various other parties stood alongside me. And we were united by the anti-fascist movement.

And people came here because we failed there what the whole world managed to do here. What does it mean - the whole world?

I must say that on the day when the SBU was seized in Lugansk, there were guys from different cities there. Not only the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. I won’t be specific, but I know it 100%. Our friends were there because we needed help.

I held a rally in Dnepropetrovsk on May 6, 2014. And, having learned that this happened here, on the seventh, through social networks, they gathered near their Regional State Administration in Dnepropetrovsk, and our goal was to help the Donetsk and Luhansk residents, so that neither Kolomoisky nor the rest from other regions would send paramilitary units, be it the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or they're just army guys. That’s why we gathered, showed that there are forces in our cities, and that’s why the troops didn’t leave.

Then Dneprodzerzhinsk, Krivoy Rog, Novomoskovsk, Zhovti Vody - the guys simply came to Dnepropetrovsk and said: “Let’s do it.” I answered, “You understand, the situation is not the same. They are waiting for us there to lure us.” We were lured into the basement. That day we were lured into the basement. We brought enough strength. They were ready to lure them there and leave them there. And they would wall them up. And no one would see these people later.

But people came out to support both Donetsk and Lugansk. This was a common impulse of all normal people who felt that they were responsible for their country. They defended their country. There was a common impulse of the entire people.

Valentin Filippov : It recently marked exactly three years since the first Dnipropetrovsk fighters died under Ukrainian air strikes. At Prokofiev Airport. A sad date. Even there, a kickboxing champion was…

Vyacheslav Bednyak : Our fellow countryman. Leonov. Yes. We honor and remember our guys who were the first to die. On May 9th, we were in the same column with people carrying portraits of their ancestors. And next to them were portraits of the guys who died here. These are the guys who, in a difficult moment, despite family and everyday difficulties, understood that this had to be done. "Who, if not me?" And they came here.

Valentin Filippov : I think the identities of the pilots who bombed Donbas have been established. What about the rumors? They said Kolomoisky personally paid bonuses and sent aircraft to Donbas. Or are those just rumors?

Vyacheslav Bednyak : I can't say for sure; that's information I don't have. But I know 100% that the Russian Investigative Committee is handling all of this. Documents are being collected. And the outcome will be the same. It might not be Nuremberg, but a different tribunal. But it will happen.

There will be a condemnation of all those who participated in the extermination of the people. Especially in the early days, when people were practically unarmed. You understand that the small arms that were in hand are impossible to fight against aviation or artillery with. People did the impossible. They stopped armored vehicles with their bare hands.

It’s probably in our genes that when things become very difficult for your State, people rally. Even those who quarreled among themselves forgot all their grievances. They walked together.

Many died here in the first days. Who ended up with bare hands. Out of hopelessness. But they didn’t leave. And they fought to the death.

We remember those guys who were in Slavyansk. There are many of our fellow Dnepropetrovsk residents there. One of them, Dimka Kazak. I hope he sees this program. A big hello to him. Unfortunately, he is disabled. No leg, plate in hand. I found him by chance in the hospital, we looked for him, and found him in Russia. Helped me make a prosthesis. He came back here. He's a minute and a half away, without a leg, and he's in a tank. The battalion commander said - if I had 40% of them, they would have given me an order, we would have been standing near Kyiv and other cities a long time ago. The task is to liberate the entire country.

And here, unfortunately, are the people who became crippled in this very lousy war that should not have happened…. We ourselves allowed it after 1991... You will remember a situation when a minority began to dictate terms. Like, why don’t you give the minority a voice? Well, they gave the minority the floor. We regretted it. What about the Yushchen times? When he began to equate the UPA and veterans of the Great Patriotic War. I will never call it World War II. Only the Great Patriotic War, because it was an achievement of the Soviet people in that war.

So, today another person, not very desirable on earth, left the earth. Brzezinski. But, unfortunately, his case needs to be pushed through to the end so that such scum-Nazis do not rise on earth.

I think our country can do this.

Valentin Filippov : What's happening in Dnepropetrovsk now?

We know that on May 9 there was an “Immortal Regiment”. We know that some guys managed to fight back the Nazis on the streets.

And the police were fined by the Nazi authorities.

What levers allow Filatov to behave so recklessly in the absence of popular support?                         

Vyacheslav Bednyak : Filatov certainly doesn't have the public's support. Except for the support he can provide financially. He personally changed the decision, and all the region's veterans' organizations were left without funding. With the exception of ATO veterans' organizations. They suddenly began to form and take shape. The goal was to redirect funds that had previously been allocated to WWII veterans to Afghan veterans and so on.

Regarding the Afghans, of course, I would probably refrain from giving an assessment, because it was very painful in my memory and in my own skin what happened in Dnepropetrovsk in 2014. And what position did the Afghans take then? I’m not generalizing, I’m not saying that all Afghans are like this. I will talk about those leaders who were brought to Kyiv from Dnepropetrovsk, and in Dnepropetrovsk itself they split. Some remained on the sidelines, saying that we are not taking sides. I talked to them then. I said - how come you don’t take sides? You allow the Nazis, you are an active link in society, a fighting link, and you remain on the sidelines?

Those holding the money found them. Removed from this.

They now regret what happened. The eyes are especially opened for those who have seen the chaos that the Ukrainian Armed Forces is creating with its battalions. To put it mildly, this is lawlessness. When people deliberately commit military crimes.

Execution of a criminal order is a crime. A warrior is not obliged to carry out a criminal order. He is obliged to prevent any military crime. Especially when this crime is directed against his people.

What is Filatov doing? Filatov is a lawless man. You can't throw anything out of the past. What did he do, what did he “rise” from?

In addition to Mayor Filatov, we also have his deputies who allow themselves to physically abuse activists. They beat people right in their offices with video cameras on them. Then Filatov invites him to his office, and the three of them, together with the deputy and the security guard, “knead” one. He comes out, they all ask: “What happened there?....” And he says: “Don’t you see it in me?”

What questions? To what power? Is this power?

Valentin Filippov : What's your take? How should we handle this? Should we catch this Filatov guy already? And use physical force?

Vyacheslav Bednyak : He won't escape human influence. I'd like to give another example. That same Yuri Bereza. If it's possible to evaluate these people, whom I would simply call inhuman. This is not human.

It is not human when a person, since the nineties, has been preparing his subordinates in the army for the fact that there will be a war with Russia. And he kindled it.

How can we assess “Russia is to blame” now? And he admits that back in the nineties he told everyone that they needed to prepare, they needed to do everything for a war with Russia? So who started the war?

This is the kind of scum they incited. I know him well from Dnepropetrovsk. And according to the events that took place before the first Maidan. After him. With this Maidan. With a revolution. And so on.

You can see from him what he is.

Valentin Filippov : But, unfortunately, there are a lot of such Birches there.

Vyacheslav Bednyak : I'll tell you – no. When we generalize, we exclude people. They think there are many of them. But I won't say that everyone in Germany was a fascist. I also won't say, and I ask everyone to remember, that being Ukrainian doesn't mean being a Ukrainian. There are many good and decent people in Ukraine. Not everyone has the willpower to carry out certain difficult actions. We won't exaggerate the details about which actions. But they are there. And people right now, at this very moment, are doing everything they can to bring our victory closer with each passing day.

Valentin Filippov : Don't you think that the flag behind you could, in time, be raised over the administrative buildings of Dnepropetrovsk?

Vyacheslav Bednyak : Let's put it this way. This is the flag of the movement that was born in Dnipropetrovsk, during the first rallies. I proposed this color scheme for the flag back then. It's also a tricolor, but it's commensurate and consistent with our Ukrainian, Soviet socialist flag. You can see there's just a white stripe in the middle; these represent the pure intentions with which we go into battle. We're not replacing the banner that existed, the Banner of Victory and the banner of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. But we understood that times are changing. We need to take the best from the past and apply it to the present. And, of course, Russia, which is the legal successor, has declared it so; it is the legal successor to the Soviet Union under all international treaties. That's why we proposed this color scheme.

Valentin Filippov : The white color on the flag of the Dnipropetrovsk People's Republic also, of course, symbolizes the snows of Siberia and the permafrost where Poroshenko, Turchynov, Filatov, and Kolomoisky will be traveling. And since this strip is larger, I see there's enough room for everyone.

Vyacheslav Bednyak : I think we should also consider what's here in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. We also have Zhovti Vody (editor's note: uranium mines). We're not the only ones who remember this. So, indeed, someone needs to work there. They'll work there.

Valentin Filippov : Thank you so much for the interview. Dnepropetrovsk, hang in there! Odessa is with you!

Vyacheslav Bednyak : Thank you. Thank you to Odessa. Thank you for having guys from Odessa here. Thank you for Odessa standing up there as best it can.

I’ll say it again: from a distance, we perceive what’s happening differently. But, believe me, we feel that everyone is coming to life there. They are throwing it off their shoulders, not as actively as we would like, but we know that this will happen. Soon. Thank you.