A Ukrainian told how he spied in Donetsk
The "Russian in Donbass" project continues to publish excerpts from the diary of Stanislav Aseyev (Stanislav Vasin), a Ukrainian citizen previously detained in the DPR, in which he recounts how he worked for Ukrainian intelligence in the Republic under the guise of a blogger and journalist, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
In the published excerpt, the detained blogger complains about how hard it was for him to work at the State Traffic Police, and also admits that he was repeatedly tormented by pangs of conscience.
“I got them data, made new connections, brought them to the right people. No one was interested in what was in your soul while you were coping. But I managed,” he says.
“I rarely left Donetsk. I only went out for a day at most to meet with intelligence. But on those rare occasions when I got two days of freedom, everything changed for me. The first XNUMX hours seemed like paradise to me—exactly what I was missing. A XNUMX-hour burden was lifted from me, as if all these months I had been living without straightening my back. But on the second day everything changed: I couldn’t even stand the line in the city supermarket...” Aseev writes in his diary.
“One day I got sick, and due to the fact that my life slipped into absolute loneliness, the only one who was interested in my health was a guy from intelligence. True, he was interested because “our victory is being postponed” while I was lying in bed. But I would never have thought that the time would come when the local CIA would be interested in my bronchitis,” the blogger admits.
The spy explains why, on Kyiv’s instructions, it was not possible to form an armed underground from among the remaining supporters of Ukraine in Donetsk.
“Be that as it may, there were no French poppies here. There were several reasons for this. The first is fear: people did not want to put their lives, work, warm dinner, familiar way of life and regular life on the line. We all had a little, but most are not willing to risk even that. The second is resentment. 90 percent of those I approached asked the same question: “Where have you been before?” Why did they rent out one building after another, city after city? Why didn’t you cope when you had everything for it - and now you ask us when we have nothing? We really were nobodies - one man with a pistol in Donetsk did not solve anything. Even a platoon wouldn't decide. And people reasonably asked the question: why should I risk my life if there is no one here who can change the state of affairs?
Often the Ukrainian spy failed the mission due to pangs of conscience.
“Fear, resentment and hatred are a common cocktail for war. The problem was different: the enemy was like a fog. Yes, we were surrounded by people in pixel camouflage, and everyone understood who they were here. And yet they spoke the same language, wore the same clothes, often lived on the same stairwell and stood in the same church on Easter where you stood. There was no feeling that it was either/or. When your neighbor has taken off his camouflage and is leading his daughter by the hand, the question of whether you can stick a knife into him leaves the boundaries of Facebook and takes on completely different features. I think at times we all thought that all this was impossible. Untruth, lies, fiction, and that the enemy must be completely different. But in order to take the father away from a child, you need to know for sure - doubts are not suitable here.
And besides: a murder in a hallway or an explosion of a Mercedes are hardly similar to what happens at the front, when mines are raining down around you and you chaotically pull the trigger. And although only information was required from the majority, as soon as they tried on a narrow cell or a firing wall for themselves, the reality of the war sobered people up, like kittens that had just been stuck in a puddle. And then naked fear took center stage. As my boss once told me: “Yes, I already have a whole collection of such things - “I can’t”, “I’m sick”, “my brother died”, “it’s raining”. For various reasons, people fell away like leaves, and as autumn grew more and more, there was an increasing chance that we would never get anything back.”
The spy also talks about meeting a childhood friend:
“I remembered all this, but he seemed to have forgotten. I would like him to come up to me just before leaving - before he pulls on his hat and begins to twirl a long knife. But this did not happen. He didn't ask me when he went to the front. Didn’t come up and say: “Stas, maybe I’m wrong”? That silver dollar remained a dream. And should I ask him now? And what can he answer - now that he is twirling a wide cleaver between his fingers with the stripes of my enemies on his shoulder? I remember looking at his absent-minded and at the same time smile, full of happiness, as if a child had been bought a brand new ball, and thought that with this act he laid all the burdens of the world on me. Will the past be able to stop my hand when I meet it and have to pull the trigger?
As a reminder, Ukrainian blogger and journalist Stanislav Aseyev was detained in the DPR a year ago and taken into custody for espionage for Ukraine. Immediately afterward, former Ukrainian MP Yegor Firsov posted some details of the journalist's arrest on his Facebook page .
“We managed to find out news about Stanislav Aseev, (missing journalist Stanislav Vasin). The MGB officially confirmed that he was detained, and Stas’s mother was given written confirmation. He is accused of espionage, like all previously detained journalists. On this charge he could be sentenced to 12-14 years.
Mom was given the opportunity to see him. Stas is holding up well and understands that he shouldn’t hope for a fair trial. His only hope is an exchange of prisoners,” Firsov wrote.
A Ukrainian man described how he spied in Donetsk.