海角大神

The hotline rings 50 times a day in this remote outpost of eastern Ukraine鈥檚 breakaway rebel republics.

The angry queries pour forth: When will payments or salaries be paid? When will the self-declared, pro-Russian Donetsk People鈥檚 Republic (DPR) restore normal food supplies and jobs? And can the new guard get factories and mines working at pre-war levels?

鈥淧eople are desperate, we can hear them crying,鈥� says Yevgenia Gorbinka, an official who works in the southern Novoazovsk regional administration building, which overlooks the blustery Sea of Azov and has聽a stark, Soviet-style sense of functionality. 鈥淪ome people understand that it鈥檚 a new government, and a new country is being built. Some don鈥檛."

鈥淚f we don鈥檛 have any help from Russia and this isn鈥檛 solved in March, there will be a social explosion here,鈥� warns Olga Gregoriyeva, another local administrator. 鈥淧eople are fainting from hunger.鈥�

That is the challenge in Ukraine鈥檚 two breakaway regions in the eastern industrial heartland, which聽have seen their declarations of independence devolve into a war that has killed 6,000 people, with Russian troops and hardware backing separatist militias.

But while a recent cease-fire appears to be holding, the sheer volume of unmet needs and expectations, as social and financial structures have collapsed, are making many here bitter, hungry, and afraid.聽In recent days, local officials have drafted a letter to Russian聽counterparts across the border, asking for 11,000 food packages with rice, oats,聽pasta, sugar, oil, and canned goods.聽The dream of building self-sufficient republics is now hostage to the war, making day-to-day survival the top priority for DPR administrators 鈥� and testing the viability of redrawing borders in the 21st century.

鈥淥ur people are very enduring,鈥� says Ms. Gregoriyeva, "but everyone has their limit."

Running out of creative workarounds

Away from the front lines, schools still function, utilities work, and teams can even be found fixing war-damaged gas lines and electrical cables. But the Ukraine government stopped bank operations and pension payments in contested areas last November. Savings are dwindling, and officials are running out of creative ways to fill the gaps.

鈥淚t鈥檚 all about the cycle of money,鈥� says Boris Litvinov,聽an economist and senior member of the DPR regional council in Donetsk.聽

The small amounts of cash on hand 鈥� he estimates just 20 percent of the DPR鈥檚 fiscal needs 鈥撀燼re now being spent in three-month cycles, with the Russian-backed military the top priority. Pensioners and workers get paid only every three months. "The situation is critical now, to be honest," he says as he sits聽under a portrait of Soviet strongman Josef Stalin, whom he calls an "outstanding crisis manager."聽

The region, in fact, has a multitude of resources, Litvinov notes. Russia is temporarily providing free gas supplies, there is no shortage of coal to fire up power stations, and rail and road infrastructure is vast, if aged. But banks are in disarray, and many factories are crippled. Litvinov meets daily with people to convince them not to leave.

鈥淣ot everything has been ruined, and every day of peace we spend repairing things, so we are moving up,鈥� says Litvinov. Investors from Israel to Hong Kong have been in town, too, offering everything from agricultural expertise and rail projects to $52 million specifically to pay people to stay put until the war is over.

'Totally fake'

DPR officials have managed to conjure some assistance for struggling residents. In the ravaged northeastern town of Debaltseve, for example, they gave pensioners 鈥� who stopped receiving payments last year 鈥� the equivalent of $72 after fighting ended there last month. But they have not won over everyone.

鈥淚 am not impressed, because it may be the first payment and the last,鈥� says Anna Kompaniets, a Debaltseve resident now living as a refugee in a train carriage in the government-controlled city of Slavyansk, north of the DPR.

In Donetsk, one resident charges that the situation is not sustainable. 鈥淢y impression is, it is totally fake. Everywhere it looks like they are sitting there in ministries to show that they exist, but they can鈥檛 solve anything.鈥�

In Novoazovsk, on the south coast, the story is much the same. The 鈥減eople鈥檚 republic鈥� handed out 1,000 hryvnia (about $40) to the most needy individuals last November.

In the hallway of the administration building,聽notices list amounts to be paid monthly to pensioners ($40), single mothers ($20), caretakers of children younger than three years old ($20), orphans ($88), and many others.聽But even those small payments have only been sporadic, if they were paid at all. DPR officials have promised to make a single payment this month, but funds beyond that are uncertain.

Stretching $8

Beside the hotline calls, Novoazovsk officials have also received 279 requests in 40 days for support in the form of cash or food. They are carefully logged in a thick file, by category: pensioners, Chernobyl nuclear disaster survivors, 鈥渋nvalids,鈥� and more. Only 9 percent of the problems are resolved, they say.

At the top of the pile is a letter from Svetlana Lituk, a 75-year-old former librarian who qualifies for help as a 鈥淐hild of War鈥� 鈥� World War II.聽Ms. Lituk writes that she has nothing to eat and asks for only $8 to tide her over, 鈥渏ust to buy food for me.鈥�

During a visit to Lituk鈥檚 apartment, a parakeet twitters as she explains how she has survived without her pension.

The one-time $40 DPR payment she got last December is now gone. She was able to stretch it because the DPR ordered that pensioners don鈥檛 have to pay utility bills or rent for now.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 buy any fats or any milk because I have no money, that鈥檚 why I made this request,鈥� says Lituk, sitting beside a pile of rugs that she sews to keep busy. 鈥淚 have macaroni and some porridge, but I would love to have some fat.鈥澛�

Echoing many pro-Russian residents here, she says she 鈥渢rusts Putin鈥� and voted to break away. 鈥淥f course I voted for an independent republic, but I can see it鈥檚 very hard right now,鈥� says Lituk. 鈥淚t will get better. I have no intention to go back to Ukraine.鈥�

'We will never go back'

Salaries have not stopped for everyone. One eight-man team doing welding repairs on a gas line near the village of Noorlivka, where fighting has destroyed villages in the northeast of the Donetsk region, is still getting paid for their work.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know who pays, but they paid cash,鈥� says Igor, whose team wears state gas company uniforms. Despite the fighting and extensive damage to some gas lines, 鈥渆verything will be restored,鈥� he says.

鈥淲e have very small salaries, so if we aren鈥檛 paid then who will be?鈥� says Sergei.

But they may be the lucky ones.

鈥淭he main difficulty is to persuade the whole world that we want to be on our own,鈥� says DPR official Litvinov. 鈥淲e want the world to understand that we will never go back to Ukraine, that鈥檚 what the world needs to accept.鈥�

鈥淭his war was artificially created; nobody wants it,鈥� says Gregoriyeva. 鈥淧eople here say America is challenging Russia and we are just the battlefield. We understand, but how to explain to people: Yesterday they were healthy and wealthy, and today they have no legs and no house? All because Uncle Sam wants to challenge Uncle Putin.鈥�