EXCLUSIVE Survivors describe the horrors of falling into the hands of the 'Russian Orthodox Army'

IT HAS BEEN almost a year now since dramatic events began unfolding in Ukraine.

They started with the protests that were later called 'the Revolution of Dignity', followed by the Russian annexation of Crimea and a conflict in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.

The war has turned the life of local people into tragedy and put a weight on the shoulders of the religious communities within the Donetsk region, especially the less traditional denominations. Yet many believers have chosen to remain in the heart of the crisis, risking their own lives to help those in need. Kidnappings, murders and the seizure of church buildings have been reported regularly through this time over social media channels.

Hundreds of thousands of people have suffered because of the war in the east. Many were displaced as they ran away from the threats, searching for a safer place.

SERGII KULBAKA (Father Tyhon) was easy to recognise in the crowd when we first met. His face became famous in July 2014, when he was kidnapped in the city of Donetsk. His friends knew he had previously received threats from the separatists so put up posters with his photo calling for his release. These were re-posted by many online.

Kulbaka had been one of the organisers of a 'prayer marathon' in Donetsk, which became well known throughout Ukraine. Believers met together daily to pray for peace and unity within their country. The prayer marathon took place in the centre of Donetsk during the Maidan Revolution in Kyiv and the Russian annexation of Crimea, when pro-Russian armed separatists pressed forward in the region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine. 'Maidan' refers to Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square - the main square in Kyiv.

The people who kidnapped Kulbaka call themselves the ‘Russian Orthodox Army’. He spent 12 days in captivity in an unknown location, with his eyes covered most of the time. He was forced to leave Donetsk afterwards and now lives in Lviv, which is known as a Ukrainian ‘Western capital’. He describes his ordeal below:

What happened to you when you were kidnapped?

‘The first two days were bearable. I asked my captors to bring me my aid kit and they did so I was able to take my medicine. 

‘Separatists learned that I have diabetes from internet announcements about me. As a result they came and took away my medicine. 

‘I was fed with bread, which is poisonous for a person suffering from diabetes. I was eating that bread and killing myself. The sugar level in my blood was rising, so I became very thirsty but they wouldn't let me drink fresh water. I could only drink from a tap in the toilet and if the guard didn't allow that I drank from the toilet bowl.’

Who kidnapped you?

‘The people who kept me in captivity were part of the “Russian Orthodox Army”. Many of them are our own people from Donetsk. They had always lived next door to us but within three or four months became hostile.

'They told me that there's no God beyond the Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate. "God is with us. We will take your medicine away and you will be dying and learn that God will not help you. There's no God with you", they told me.

What was their motivation?

‘They kept repeating again and again: “You are enemies, all of you who are not from the Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate are enemies. It is time for war now and and when there’s a war, what is done to the enemy? They are rooted out.”

‘It is this logic, this ideology, that inspires them. They feel like heroes, fighting for the Holy Rus but I am sure if they were asked to recite a credo, they wouldn’t be able to do it.  

‘I saw the advertisement that the “Russian Orthodox Army” used later. It recruits new fighters by guaranteeing allowances, arms and documents. I met some new recruits in the supermarket, still armed although they told me they had a day off. In answer to my questions, they said they are not going to give up their arms, as they have only just started living, only just started feeling themselves like they have a sense of a worth now. One of them had previously worked at the supermarket while another had been unemployed. People are also watching Russian TV, which is often how they get ideologically involved in the first place.’

Tell me about the mock execution?

‘On the fourth day of my captivity I was taken outside. I smelled fresh air and rotten leaves, which made me think perhaps I was in the forest. Someone pushed my shoulders so I spread my hands in front of me to break my fall and touched a wall, then I touched it with my forehead. They told me to pray so I started to pray the Lord’s prayer. In that very moment I heard a volley of automatic gunfire. I hadn’t expected it at all so I fainted. When I awoke I was on the ground, and they were pouring water on me. The first thing I heard was their laughter. 

‘This mock execution happened to me three times in three days. I can’t say that on the second day I was less scared. How could I be sure I would be safe? Maybe they would shoot my legs, or my hands or my head. You never know what to expect from these people.

'Since reading about other people who were kidnapped, I now realise that many people have the same experience in captivity, with separatists carrying out imitation executions.’

‘During the second part of my captivity they almost never talked to me. On the occasions they did, they just repeated: “You are the enemy, we are Holy Rus, we are with God, you are against God.” 

‘On my seventh day in captivity someone new came to see me. I never saw who it was, because my eyes were always tied up with tissue when someone talked to me, but he had a very strong Russian accent – I would even say a Moscow accent. He started explaining to me why I had been captured. He said that everything that is going on in the east of Ukraine is the fault of the Greek-Catholic Church. He was very aware of church affairs in general, in the Russian-Ukrainian context, and also of Orthodox-Catholic relations. It was not a questioning; rather it was a monologue I was being forced to listen to. 

Why do you think this happened to you?

‘I thought a lot about what the point of the monologue was. And I think they needed to transmit a message through me to the Catholic Church or to threaten us. But we still have our believers there and we will try to come back – though I don’t know how.

‘My captors talked to me about “my conversion back”, meaning that I now needed to join the Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate. “We would give you back your medicine and you would see that God helps you,” is what they said. It became a great psychological and physical pressure.

‘After me the “Russian Orthodox Army” kidnapped a Roman-Catholic priest. They didn’t beat him, but when they kidnapped two Protestant pastors they were beaten very badly – they were tortured.’

‘There is now only one Greek-Catholic priest left in Donetsk. All the others left in fear because the law can't protect them. When I was freed, I fell into a diabetic coma and was hospitalised. While there, my captors sent me an SMS demanding I leave the territory of so-called “Novorossia” (New Russia – a part of Ukraine that was conquered by the Russian Empire at the end of the 18^th Century) and not come back, otherwise my parishioners will suffer. A month ago I went to Kyiv to see my doctor and I received a message from them again, saying: “Don’t you dare to come back to Donetsk”. Somehow they still manage to track my movements.’

What is the situation in Donetsk now?

‘Donetsk is currently occupied by a few gangs, which seize power and divide territories between themselves – and sometimes even fight each other. To ‘rule’ over the territory involves stealing cars from people and robbing from the supermarkets. The separatists ruling the area are creating the new taxpayers’ database - the system is a rip-off. There are Donetsk people, Russians, also the Kozaks from Rostov and Chechen people within the gangs. Even if we wanted to negotiate with someone about any of this, there’s no one to talk with. One day you can try to speak to a person, but the next day he is gone.

‘Day by day the situation is getting worse. The peace plan that was signed in September didn’t work. People have told me that it actually got worse in Donetsk afterwards. My parishioners call me when the situation intensifies and ask for prayer. They are hiding in their bathrooms or in the corridors that have no windows, so they won’t get injured by broken glass.

‘The information provided by the media is very different from reality. There’s a cynicism within the people about this. We feel that even the Ukrainian media does not provide all the information. What is going on is much, much worse than they say. Some say that it’s better (psychologically) for the people if they don't fully know what's going on, but people who actually live in the area feel it’s unjust for the truth not to be fully told.

‘People pinned much hope on the general Ukrainian elections, which happened on 26 October, as they had hoped for some relief following the presidential elections in May that brought in the new president, Petro Poroshenko. They desperately need some hope to cling to...

Where could the help come from?

‘Maybe some international institution could help Donetsk, some third party? But it would need to have real influence and credibility and, frankly, I’m not sure what organisation it could be.’ 

What was the church life like in your region before the recent events?

‘Religious society is diverse in the eastern Ukraine. The Protestant population is high and there are a lot of Orthodox believers - there are 800 parishes of the Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate in the Donetsk region alone. There are also Greek-Catholics like us, as well as representatives from other religions.’ 

‘Two months before I was kidnapped, an interesting interreligious dialogue started. I initiated the foundation of the Council of Churches and Religious Organisations of Donetsk. Representatives from most of the religious communities of Donetsk joined, but, significantly, none from the Moscow Patriarchate. We started meeting together in March, before all the events in the east started. We gave a press conference and signed a memorandum on our cooperation.  When I was kidnapped the Protestant pastors, another Catholic priest and a Muslim Mufti kept asking for me to be set free, risking their own lives by doing so.

‘We have developed a very interesting relationship – ecumenism in the best understanding of the word – and are going to continue with the initiative. We want to create a committee for Islamic-Catholic dialogue like the one that exists at Vatican level. We want to look for points of unity and find ways to serve our community and our state.’

How did the ‘prayer marathon’ start?

‘When all the troubles started we had to resist using our own arms so we went to the streets of Donetsk and started to pray for the unity of Ukraine. 

‘At that time the streets were the only places in Donetsk that people could show up with Ukrainian symbols. If you tied a little ribbon in the colours of the Ukrainian flag on your car, armed separatists would just crash into your car. Those who tried to wear the flag on their clothes were badly beaten. The police would turn a blind eye to this. But our prayer group was able to stand for a very long time on the streets of Donetsk. Of course the separatists did come, sometimes in great numbers, with their guns, and ripped and burned our flag… But we were still standing together.’ 

How did the church communities reacted to what was happening?

‘There has been a different mood in the various churches. In the beginning, when the separatists in the east of Ukraine were getting active, some Protestant churches pretended that nothing was going on. To begin with they didn’t take part in the prayer marathon, didn’t give any comments and tried to remain neutral. They hoped that this would ensure peace and calm for them, but, after a while, the rebels took away their prayer houses anyway. 

‘Eventually Protestant Christians, Muslim Mufti and local Buddhists prayed with us during our prayer marathon. In the beginning we meant the initiative to be for Christians only, but when those from other religions joined us it became a source of joy and blessing. For example a picture of a Muslim man originally from Palestine was re-posted on social media; he was standing with the Ukrainian flag in the centre of Donetsk, praying with us for our country.

What are believers experiencing now in the face of danger? How is their situation changing?

‘It is difficult for people to gather together during the working days of the week now. Sometimes, because of the shellfire, it’s impossible to go outside at all. So each time they gather, those praying have to find a new place and time to meet. If there’s no shelling then the believers gather together, otherwise each one prays at home at the same time. 

‘The separatists became increasingly aggressive. For the first couple of weeks of our prayer marathon a police car came and simply watched while we were praying. But we sensed over time that the armed men began to feel that they could kill a man on the streets of Donetsk and not be punished. So it became too risky for our people to gather openly and the prayer marathon moved underground.’

Statement on the Russian Orthodox Army by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church:

When contacted about their affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Army, the secretary for the External Church Relations Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), Archpriest Mykola Danylevych denied any connection:

‘The so-called Russian Orthodox Army has nothing in common with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Considering the information that comes from the media about this organisation, it's hard to escape the conclusion that these are people that are merely using the elements of the Orthodox Church in their ideology and also the word “Orthodox” in the name of their organisation. At the same time they have nothing in common with the Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Army is in essence similar to the “Islamic state of Iraque and Levante”. We are only left to hope that these people would stop discrediting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church through their name and actions.’

ROMAN KISLYAK is also from Donetsk and actively participated in the prayer marathons set up by Sergii Kulbaka and others. He has given much of his time volunteering to evacuate Donetsk citizens trapped in the most dangerous zones in eastern Ukraine. Kislyak, 35, now lives in Lviv.

Kislyak has cerebral palsy and, as a result, has been discriminated against all his life. With no support or guarantees from the state and living within a society that has very low awareness of his disease his parents had to fight with the system to make his life relatively decent. He finds writing impossible, and speaking is not easy for him either, but nevertheless he graduated from university. Now he longs to find a job and live a calm life, but continues to meet lots of obstacles. He denies help, is afraid to be pitied but hopes to find the way to be treated just like anyone else.

Kislyak became famous just in one day after a journalist from a local news site interviewed him. There was a remarkable feedback as his courage and humble heart inspired many in this difficult time. Kislyak denies he is a hero, saying he has done nothing special. He even apologises for the fact that he is from Donetsk, the region of Ukrainian sorrow and turbulence.

Back in Donetsk, his father, who is a Protestant pastor, continued to work as a volunteer for people in need until he was hospitalised with serious heart complications. Kislyak shares his experiences and hopes for the future below:

How did you become a volunteer?

‘On 22 December the paid hooligans known as Titushky, attacked the Euromaidan protest taking place in Donetsk. It was a national holiday and participators had wanted to walk through the city  with a big Ukrainian flag but the demonstration was forcibly dispersed. Later we started Prayer Maidan - a prayer marathon – then all of us became volunteers.

‘So many things in Ukraine are done by the church. In fact, the authorities contact Protestant leaders to help. This is now how they get volunteers to take food or evacuate those in need. But at the same time the church is excluded from public life, just as God is too. Even the regime was changed to a degree by the church, as believers were there in the heart of the resistance. Recently a massive book called Church and Maidan was published, which describes the remarkable role believers had in the recent dramatic and life-changing events in  Ukraine.

'In the summer I prayed to have a chance to help evacuate people from the war zone. Then my father began to be informed of who needs help. He wanted to go himself, but I said: "No, I will go.”'

Who were the people you met? What are their stories?

'Here is one day I remember very clearly. I was driving to Shakhtarsk, and the fields were burning on both sides of the road. Petrol stations were burning too. I was travelling there to help transport two women to a safe place, but when I arrived I found 10 people waiting. They all jumped into the car, I have no idea how. Then they said: "We need to pick up more people on the way'. I replied: 'That is impossible, how!?".

‘We had to pass by and leave people who were waiting for help. Everyone started crying, both the people in the car and those whom we had left behind. I started to wonder whether I have a right to judge, and the answer is: no, I don't. So I turned the car around and returned. In the end there were 13 people in my car. One of them had Lviv registration in his passport, which would have caused us big problems with the pro-Russian separatists (there were seven checkpoints on the way). People in the car somehow managed to hide him and he remained completely unnoticed, so we could pass the checkpoints safely.

‘My father had another phone call saying that someone needed help in Peski, which is a town near Donetsk airport. There was fighting going on so it took a few weeks before I was able to travel there.

‘Travelling there was difficult as all the roads were closed. The Ukrainian army had entered Peski, so the separatists, the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) blocked and mined the roads. As I was driving I saw rocket shells, cables and fallen trees all around. These are things that are not shown on TV.

‘I saw a road that I hoped would take me to Peski. All along the sides of this small road were signs saying: mines, mines. I kept driving. Then I saw two elderly women and asked them if it was the right way. They confirmed that the direction was correct and got into my car, as they said I would not be able to reach Peski alone. After some time, they told me where I had to stop. We left the car and walked from there. Soon they showed me the tie-rods of the bombs, which I wouldn't have noticed if I had been driving. There were many, many of those…

‘In Peski everything was mined too. I located the elderly woman that we had been told needed help. The bombings had destroyed the roof of her house and she had spent weeks in her cellar, where the water level was knee-high. This woman was 94 but still she ran to my car faster than I did. Everyone wants to live; everyone is very scared. 

‘Once I was driving a young lady with a baby, who needed to reach the city of Kramatorsk where her family was. On the way we saw that the road was closed. Someone moved aside the piles of tyres for us that were blocking the road, so we could pass through. She started crying, afraid that we might hit a mine. I told her: “look over there, on the bridge, there are those bandits with the guns, it’s a good sign, the road is safe then”, but she started crying even harder and we had to turn because of that. We had to find another way out of  Donetsk and it took three hours, while the whole way to Kramatorsk takes two hours actually. When we arrived, her father thanked me with tears in his eyes, for saving his girl. But I didn't do anything, I just drove. As I did so, we passed by the tanks, by the gangsters. And I could not change anything, I just continued to drive, praying and fearing – fearing very much.’

How did you come to be captured by the separatists?

‘When separatists caught me, it was a Sunday at the end of July.  I went to Shahtarsk to evacuate an elderly man from Kazan (a Russian city) who was wheel-chair bound. I had to take him from the hospital to another town, Novoazovsk. When I entered Shahtarsk I got very scared. It was no longer a town. Everything was as black as soot. I arrived at the hospital but before I could even leave my car, separatists dragged me out of it and started asking me questions about who I am and why I was there. I answered and they said: “so you’ve arrived” and put a gun to my temple.

‘Seven people searched my car and found some printed prayers. They asked me: “are you a Baptist?”. I was shocked by the question so asked: “Why?”. “Baptists are our most hated enemies, because they are the agents of the USA,” they said. They put me in the back seat of the car, and kept their guns in the windows, they looked scared…

‘All the way to Donetsk I prayed, cried and talked to them. In Donetsk they let me go, gave back my papers and gave me 100 hrivnas (approximately. 5.8 euros). My friend Zhenya Franchuk was captured at the same time, but he was freed after enduring one month’s captivity. He has told me about the tortures he saw in captivity… He is 63 now – in all the time I’ve known him his eyes have shone but not anymore.’

How did the situation of believers changed?

‘Through all these difficulties we have become closer to God and believers are more united. Muslim believers took part in the prayer marathon together with us to pray for peace in Ukraine. We all were like one. It made me cry. Is this really possible? I also read that Greek-Catholics were let in to the mosque to run their service there. That is unbelievable, a real miracle and bigger than all the evil that is going on now in Donbas region.’ 

Why do you think all this happened to Donetsk?

‘Lviv differs much from Donetsk. Here the attitude to handicapped persons is very different. When I go to any café, they bring me everything I need, even before I ask. In Donetsk when I asked for some help, they responded that they had no such instructions to help me. I am walking in Lviv and I am not able to count all the churches and in Donetsk there is a district of Lenin, district of Kuybyshev, Red Partisan village nearby - all of this is a heritage of the former Soviet Union.

‘I need to change my mentality, because this is a Donetsk mentality, not a Ukrainian one. Unfortunately only a month ago I saw the real Ukraine, the real Ukrainian soul. Donetsk is “something in the middle”. It’s an industrial centre, for business, so everything is about money and vanity there. Today in Donetsk priests are put in prison and church buildings are seized. I graduated from the Christian University of Donetsk but one day it was simply seized by the separatists. People who arrived to work and study there were told that the building is no longer theirs.

How do you see your future?

‘I just want to find work and live normally, but everywhere people tell me I am handicapped. Why do they feel the need to tell me this? I know it already. I solve my problems myself, I don’t ask for help. I just ask that they don’t make things harder for me. I didn’t leave Donetsk because of war, but dejection because the elderly and people who are handicapped have very limited rights and respect there.

‘I am also a part of that Donetsk and I feel guilty that in more than 20 years I didn't manage to change anything. I want to ask for forgiveness.’