US Strike Kills Iranian General: 3 Things to Watch Out For

What a way to start 2020...

Stocks volatile after Iranain top military leader killed by US

So what now?

1) As the Fox News says, oil prices are surging and stocks are already slipping.

2) This could easily turn into an all-out war, and it seems that thousands more troops are being deployed in the Middle East.
Fears of new conflict rise after US kills Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian general, in strike on Baghdad airport

3) On a street/local level, terror attacks, lone wolfs, these are all more likely to occur now in response as they do at times, in retaliation. My latest Book, "Street Survival Skills", precisely addresses topics of street awareness, noticing suspicious behavior and various tactics to prepare for active shooters and terrorist attacks.

Happy 2020 everyone and stay Alert!

FerFAL

Check out my new Book “Street Survival Skills” . Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Sweden is encouraging its citizens to become preppers

Gotta love the Swedes. They don’t mess around.



So basically the concern is Russia and its military build up across the border.
The government has distributed a “prepper” manual that is actually more war and cyber-attack oriented which does make sense given the circumstances.

And, yes, before you ask, here’s the manual, its a free PDF "If Crisis or War Comes"

Anyone from Sweden? Let me know what you think.

Take care folks.

FerFAL

Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”

Sarajevo war movie: Shot Through the Heart (1998)

Just saw it and its worth watching. Real life survival folks, and it wasnt that long ago. The big survival lesson here? Yet again, know when to leave.

Gun Ownership in Ukraine and Shopping in Venezuela

Here are a couple interesting links, a glimpse of what happens during real, serious disasters.
The Special Weird Misery of being a Shopper in Venezuela

Venezuela keeps going downhill. While gasoline is virtually free, people suffer the worst inflation in the world and shopping for basic food staples takes half a day. This is what happens when you have corrupt dictators that believe they can change the economy by lying about it.
The photos in the link below show Ukrainians and their firearms.
Photos: war-ready Ukrainians pose with their household guns


Keep in mind that in such a complex situation there are no simple, black or white solutions. Remember the posts not that long ago about how Ukrainian refugees said getting caught in a checkpoint when entering or leaving the Russian occupied region with a firearm, even a radio, maps or binoculars, could get you detained for days for some very unpleasant questioning. A scoped rifle turned you into a sniper, maps, binoculars or a radio turned you into a spy. These two assumptions could easily get you killed. So, while its wise to be armed and capable of defending yourself as a general rule, it may not be as good an idea when escaping and going through checkpoints. We go back to a long held concept in this website, that the handgun is the survivalists main firearm, easy to carry, easy to conceal, easy to dispose of or hide if necessary.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Letters from Survivors in Ukraine Part 3

Part III, looking into various messages from people in eastern Ukraine. Again, I’ve gone through the most interesting parts, posted over at http://www.rferl.org , making some personal comments and remarks. I firmly believe that real-world events such as these present us with invaluable lessons.
FerFAL
Escaping From Donetsk
Olga Astakhov, Anthropologist, Donetsk
I am not going to discuss all the twists and turns of applying for a permit (to cross the boundary between the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and the rest of Ukraine) because there is a mass of cases like these already.
People, who submitted documents at the end of January, still have pending applications.
Not too long ago, my friend's cousin, living in Zaporizhia, ended up in the hospital. Of course it is hard to leave Donetsk without a permit, that's why she first travelled to Russia and from there went to Zaporizhia in Ukraine.
FerFAL comment: This reminds me, get your passport NOW. Even if you don’t plan on traveling, its essential preparedness documentation. For those that are thinking right now “oh, Ferfal, but I don’t PLAN on going anywhere when SHTF…” to those that are thinking that, just stop it right now. The nature of serious disasters dictate that things don’t go according to your own personal plans and preferences, improvising is what its all about, trying to be ready for the unexpected. Those things “you never thought you’d do”, those are the ones that catch people completely unprepared. More on “I never thought” later. If you can get a second passport, don’t give such a powerful tool up and get one pronto!
Is this logical?
The permit system is permanently in effect on territories of the ATO (Antiterrorist Operation, the Ukrainian military's term for combat operations with separatist forces) zone. Thus, it is impossible to go through the Volnovakha checkpoint without a permit, unless you use dirt roads. These are illegally used to transport credulous passengers for large amounts of money.
FerFAL comment: So many lessons there. Having a vehicle capable of moderate off-roading, having a BOB, having a kit in your vehicle. So often overlooked, having the physical capability of actually walking those distances if needed to cover them on foot.
The same applies to crossing the border between Artemivsk and Horlivka.
If you take the risk of going through the Kurakhov checkpoint, you may get lucky. Some get let through without a problem, nothing is asked of them. It's enough to show a Ukrainian passport.
There are many announcements about the permits in Donetsk: permit registration costs 300-800 hryvnya. Is this a little or a lot for a retired woman, who wants to travel and withdraw her 1,000 hryvnya pension?
FerFAL comment: Cash is king, hoe often have I repeated that commenting in these Ukraine letters alone?
This is how people end up abandoned.
For those who wish to register for a permit in cities and regions under the control of the Ukrainian government, offices were opened to issue the necessary documents. This partially relieved the main coordination centers.
Regarding carriers, there are two sides to this coin. On one side, the permit system significantly complicated and lowered passenger traffic, and thus this affected the income of businesses.
Also many carriers, who work in the controlled and occupied areas of Ukraine, are forced to pay double taxes in order to continue running their business. The taxes are paid to the so-called DNR and Ukraine, which is why resourceful carriers have adapted to the situation.
FerFAL comment: “But sir, its TEOTWAWKI, I’m not supposed to pay for fees and government VAT any more because its WROL.” Its cute sometimes to see how naïve some preppers can be. Its cute but also dangerous folks. WROL is code word for no government, and sadly the government will still be there to make life miserable of. Rule of law doesn’t go away when SHTF, its still there to scew you and never to help you.
"Before we sell a ticket, we check the passenger's permit. It's safer this way. No immigration certificates or Donetsk residency are accepted," says one of the drivers who works in the ATO zone. The age group of passengers has also changed. Before it was mostly youth and pensioners, but now the number of pensioners has decreased and the number of young men has declined even further.
Before they depart, many carriers enquire about the passengers' permits and sell them tickets afterwards – the tickets are sold at different rates. Those who don't have the required permit will have to pay an extra 20-30 percent on top of the regular price. This generally applies to the route between Donetsk and Kyiv.
Travel tariffs are the other factor that affects passengers' expenses. The chaotic exchange rate of the U.S. dollar has had an impact on fuel prices in Donetsk – petrol and gas cost 5-9 hryvnya more than in Ukraine.
This is why the number of trips has been cut down, and passengers spend hours waiting in line to travel out of Donetsk. The price hasn't changed for now, but shuttles in Donetsk and Makiivka no longer accept Ukrainian coins. In front-line cities they only accept amounts up to 1 hryvnya.
In this situation, only one thing is positive – the transportation infrastructure is still trying to survive through the horrible wartime conditions. Some carriers are even helping get people out of dangerous areas for free.
What's In A Name?
A Ukrainian Teacher From Donetsk
'Donbasivtsi' (citizens of Donbas) – this is what some of my students now call themselves.
Adults have come up with other names: Novorossian, or New Russians.
I can't explain why they don't like the more generally accepted name 'Donetchan' (resident of Donetsk), although sometimes they use this word. Maybe, the revolutionary wave that has driven them since last year, demands the creation of everything from scratch, even something so tactless.
The creation of words is generally positive; it mirrors changes in the life of a nation and for that matter, in its spirit.
What can be said about people, referring to themselves with a name originating from a geopolitical region, no bigger than the territory that they occupy?
Psychologists will probably find the teenage complex regarding the extent and signs of delusions of grandeur. Philosophers may point to the characteristics of lazy-spirited people's desire to exaggerate their accomplishments in order to affirm their existence.
The newly created 'Donbasivtsi,' the new citizens of Donetsk, remind me of people who put on colorful contact lenses and will insist that their eyes were always bright emerald.
Dear Donbasivtsi, you can try to convince others of this, and they will probably believe you.
Suck-ups will sing the praises of your "naturally green" eyes; you can even convince yourselves of this. However, you will not be able to change your own nature. I know that your eyes are gray, like your soul. You are gray-eyed and gray-spirited; you betrayed your ancestors and your entire essence of being by tolerating evil.
Now you express many complaints about Ukraine that should instead be addressed to various jurisdictions; but the government is made of people, meaning specific problems need to be resolved with specific people. Why blame your homeland and distance oneself from her?
If history had a sense of humor, she would give you time to develop. In 100 years, you could even become a nation – a nation of traitors. There is but one answer to the question: "Who are Donbasivtsi?" They are former Ukrainians, who denied their people; they are former Russians, who don't know their own customs; they are Tatars, Armenians, and Greeks who forgot who they are.
But history is a fair but tough judge, who won't give such people a chance.
You claim that in general you are doing okay.
Look around, what you refer to as the laws of your new "republic" are just a pathetic lookalike of the regulations of another state. Your freedom with a weapon in your hands prohibits me from referring to my Homeland (and yours) by name and from communicating with her, not letting Ukrainian media in, and basically doing everything possible so that residents don't desert the supervised basements.
FerFAL comment: Censorship, media control, sounds familiar. reminds me of the “Secretary of Strategic Coordination of National Ideology””, created by Cristina Kirchner in Argentina. Since when do we need the government to explain the population how they are supposed to think? Guess we’re now calling that freedom.
Your "prosperity" looks out from underneath empty supermarket shelves, boarded-up windows, closed stores, and half-empty markets. Your salaries resemble sop, just to keep you quiet.
And you -- having surrendered many civil rights, all benefits, allowances, social protections, the opportunity to plan your futures -- are silent. Even you cannot look at the destroyed medical industry -- that is hanging on by a thread thanks to the heroism of everyday doctors and nurses -- or at the disorder in education, closed business or unemployment, through rose-colored glasses. Was this the life you dreamed of?
You say that your purpose right now is survival. What sort of people do you plan to become in order to survive? What sort of people will your children become?
Those who were Ukrainian yesterday (If you've forgotten, look at their birth certificates, and at the same time look at your own passports that read 'Ukrainian citizen' in two languages!) and call themselves 'Donbasivtsi' today because they hear that being Ukrainian is unworthy, either out of your mouths or out of your illegitimate silence?
You say that it hurts you to hear the words 'Ukraine' and 'Ukrainians', because your husbands are dying in a war with Ukraine. But you started it! Did you not realize that the gun that you were holding in your hands could kill?
It's not Ukraine that hurts you; it's your drowsy consciousness attempting to awaken your soul. Wake up!
People queue for free food distributed by pro-Russian rebels near the town of Debaltseve last month.
Debaltseve After The Fall
Nadezdhia, Sociologist, Horlivka
This story is of an acquaintance, who surprisingly left the city recently and managed to get herself to Ukrainian [controlled] territory. The horror came later, when the separatists took over Debaltseve and the flags of the executive committee changed.
I was remaining in Debaltseve until the end, even during the evacuation. It was scary to leave.
The city died. It was razed to the ground, yet I was still trying to find a way to survive in conditions unfit for life. My countrymen are trying to restore their homes after the shelling and they are trying to recover property that remains in the buildings. But that's impossible.
Everything has been looted and destroyed.
People stand in long lines to get humanitarian aid and prepare food under the open sky. Practically all the buildings in the center have been seized by Debaltseve militants, destroyed or damaged. To assess the humanitarian situation, it is enough to look at the gray-with-hunger faces of its residents. There is also nowhere to live. People live in basements, get sick, and die.
There is no medicine. According to my calculations, more than 80 percent of the buildings in Debaltseve were destroyed during the war. The kindergartens and other institutions are closed. They have been promising to reopen the central city hospital since February 25.
There is another hospital by the train station, completely destroyed.
FerFAL Comments: Always the basics folks, dont forget to cover medicine, water, food and shelter. These you will always need!
The city is full of mines; it's dangerous to walk anywhere. There is no electricity. Every day they bring in bread and hot tea and distribute it for free. Under Ukrainian control, we even got canned food, grains and potatoes. For now, we are still getting bread and tea. However they said that something was delivered by the International Red Cross.
My countrymen are living in unsanitary conditions; they are hungry and cold. In Debaltseve the problems don't end with electricity. There is no gas or water. Few people have stayed. Usually no more than 200 city residents wait in lines to receive humanitarian aid. All these people are elderly.
The last weeks before the departure of the Ukrainian army, the attacks did not abate – a number of buildings came under fire. Since the end of January, Debaltseve has been without heating. Since the beginning of February, it has been without light and water.
Around 6,000 or 8,000 people remained in the city. This is around 30 percent of the original population. They mainly sit in their basements because it is cold in their apartments. They prepare food near their driveways on a fire, outside. In addition to this, most of them don't have any money at all, which is why they can't leave the city.
I'll tell you about the basement, that I had to live in. It's dark inside and damp. There is a table with a candle in the middle of the space. Women sit at the table feeding their children.
Before the departure of the Ukrainian Army, the residents of Debaltseve left the city in masses. They fled to Kharkiv in particular. Women with children and the elderly mainly went there, some left with their entire families, men included.
There is no rush to deliver groceries to the territories occupied by the Donetsk People's Republic. Other cities and villages are collecting food for Debaltseve. Other than food, medicine is also vital. The people, who weren't able to leave, now have to wait in long lines just to get water. Very often they collect water directly from puddles on the street. Fortunately the snow has melted. There is risk of intestinal infections.
Everyone who gets the opportunity will probably attempt to leave the city at the soonest possible moment; just like us.
Oleksandra Samoylova, Student, Luhansk
State universities in the occupied territories of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions have come under separatist control. For students, that means changes in everything from class size to curriculum.
Here in the Luhansk People's Republic (LNR), the first lesson on Mondays usually begins with the question, "How are you?" The teachers aren't asking about course work or whether we're prepared for class; they're asking about our domestic life. Is everything OK with our homes and families? Did everything go well on our trips back home?
There are so few students going to lectures these days that teachers have time to pay attention to each individual student. It turns out they're not only capable of reading out loud from a book; they can actually communicate and express human emotions. Only now have I begun to see the human side of my teachers.
The small groups are very interesting. Every student gets maximum attention; everything is explained to them, and all their questions are answered.
At the same time, while communicating with their students, lecturers often slip up and inadvertently talk about politics. Topics can include: dissatisfaction with the Education Ministry, problems with salaries, and working overtime because rising debt has forced them to cut back personnel.
Compared to previous years, studying has gotten easier for me. Now we can spend more time on interesting core subjects, and less on general topics like religious studies. A lot of students elsewhere probably lose interest in their studies because of a lack of financial incentive or scholarships. That seems sort of funny to us now.
Student Life Outside the Classroom
At the start of winter, the university had organized a lot of concerts and events and assigned us to volunteer duties. They did this to create the illusion of a flurry of activity.
The various tasks associated with bringing an Orthodox element to higher education were especially absurd. Talks about the friendship between science and religion were full of cliches. The female heads of various student committees, all blonde atheists tired of the long, boring conversations we were subjected to, lied depressingly about "broad support for useful student initiatives."
But students these days embrace the Orthodox Church about as much as wolves do vegetarianism. At the bus stop near our "temple of science" it's not uncommon to hear conversations like this:
-- How did you celebrate Easter?
-- With three beers!
-- Oh, and I drank wine.
Students are used as "extras" at rallies. This has always been true. But while once there was only a limited range of gatherings, now they call us out for any number of reasons. Once I saw a coordinator of a so-called "initiative group" get into an argument with his teacher. The point is that students are being dragged away from their classes to attend events that even their lecturers haven't been told about.
Incidentally, all the different departments have been forced into new formations due to the low number of teachers. The concepts behind these new "associations" are pretty unique. Translators, for example, are now part of the Philosophy Faculty.
'Liquid' Teachers
In our department there's just one teacher left from the old staff. She's the one person with whom I feel free to openly discuss my views. True, I can see with a kind of horror that if she hadn't persuaded me to enroll, I'd now be considered "on the continent," as they say -- pro-Kyiv, in other words.
Many other teachers flow in and out of the university like water. You don't have time to get your grades or finish a project for one before you have to get used to the personality and questions of another.
The first reason for that is the salary. They get paid only twice in six months. Other reasons include the incredible amount of paperwork (the transition to Russian standards, translating documentation), problems with co-workers, or dim prospects for certain subjects -- particularly for those specializing in Ukrainian history or Ukrainian language and literature.
The Price Of A Russian Diploma
Almost every day students ask their teachers for guarantees that they'll receive Russian diplomas. No one is talking about "local" diplomas from the Luhansk People's Republic.
But we worry that's what they're going to give us, although they're of no use to anyone. Even the rare ardent fans of the "blue, blue, and red" -- as the separatist flag is known -- say they're "out of here" if there aren't going to be any Russian diplomas.
They've apparently already received Russian diplomas in some universities around here. I haven't seen photographic proof. There are different ways of getting them -- you can defend your degree there in Russia, or from here by Skype. Some people get sent elsewhere to take their exams.
The teachers say that everyone will get their degrees. But how much value will these diplomas have, if.... students are studying unsystematically: gunfire and explosions can prevent them from going to class. A majority of those enrolled this year can't call themselves university students without embarrassment. Many of the upperclassmen have come up with their own individual schedule for finishing their course work and are located in different countries. Studies are the last thing they're thinking about.
It's a complicated question: for what accomplishments, and according to what criteria, is our generation of students going to receive its diplomas?
I hope that the labor market will dump us in the service-industry niche of Slavic fast food -- or whatever they're planning to build instead of McDonald's -- and that no catastrophes will ensue.
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Letters from Survivors in Ukraine Part 2

Trucks carrying Russian humanitarian aid cross the Ukrainian border at the Izvarino custom control checkpoint on August 22.
More accounts from people living in occupied Eastern Ukraine. Part 2 with some more comments and thoughts, check part 1 as well in the previous post.
FerFAL
Pyotr Ivanov, psychologist, Luhansk
In no way do I intend to portray myself as a great visionary. There are more than enough candidates for the role of "civil war prophets" as it is. What I want to say is that, as early as June, I intuitively felt that all this would not end quickly, that the conflict would inexorably cause the destruction of infrastructure and the loss of livelihood.
FerFAL Comment: Its interesting to notice how often people will tell you they “felt” this of that yet didn’t act. While you can’t always run scared every time you think something may go wrong (and many preppers do this, bordering paranoid behaviour) a survivalist haw to know when to act on those gut feelings.
War is most disastrous for city dwellers. Their survival depends not on whether cherries ripen on time in their garden but on whether they receive their salaries or pensions.
I lost my job in June when my company shut down. Despite the shelling, I decided to look for another job in Luhansk. I turned to friends who were in a position to help. In other words, I acted according to my own stereotypes.
Other people who are, like me, hostage to the situation have other stereotypes -- for example, a World War II veteran who lives close to my home. Until September, he survived on his savings and counted on his relatives for help. His relatives, however, left in June. In early September, he pinned his medals to his chest and went to the "Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) authorities" to demand the immediate payment of his pension (although no pensions have been paid to anyone since July). The LNR leaders simply shrugged their shoulders and said they couldn't do anything for him.
In August, rumors began swirling that a humanitarian convoy was on its way from Russia. Everyone in the city began thinking about this convoy. People forgot about the war, about the bombs. All thoughts and conversations focused on the impending humanitarian aid.
Finally, the white trucks arrived. Residents were told that receiving the aid was very simple. All we had to do was show up at distribution points with our passports.
People almost murdered each other queuing up for these parcels. Rebels with machine guns restored order; there would probably have been casualties otherwise.
FerFAL Comment: Also common is that the grass is greener on the other side of the hill. The city dweller think he has it tough because of unemployment while other people in Eastern Ukraine living outside city limits complain that they never get to the food distribution trucks in time. The economic mess also affects farmers, just like everyone else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr38Sh1NKFE
What does a humanitarian parcel look like? It consists of two kilos of buckwheat, three cans of corned beef, half a kilo of sugar, and a pack of tea. I received humanitarian aid twice, and only because my neighbor queued up for me. Honestly, I could not have withstood a line of 300 people. This was the first time.
FerFAL Comment: Take note: Flour, canned meat, sugar, tea. Also dry pasta, sauce and rice. The stuff that will keep you alive.
The second time, the line had grown to 700 people. I know this because people wrote their queue number on their hands.
My neighbor had a seizure because of the heat and I took him home. We eventually got the humanitarian parcels, three days later.
I don't know how many people received these parcels, and how many times. I've heard that some people had permanent coupons.
At some point I realized that this humanitarian aid wasn't worth the calories spent on receiving it and I stopped thinking about it.
I held two jobs in the course of the siege. Then autumn came. Refugees started returning. Hospitals and schools reopened; many businesses resumed their activities.
Entrepreneurs, whose livelihoods relied solely on cash inflow from customers, enjoyed the most advantageous situation. I won't go into the problems tied to running a business nowadays in Luhansk; they do exist.
The situation for public-sector employees was, and is, much worse. The most fortunate receive their salaries in the shape of food rations similar in content to the humanitarian parcels.
The question of public-sector salaries is still up in the air, since the legal status of schools and hospitals is unclear. The Ukrainian government's decision to relieve itself of financial responsibility toward employees of state-run institutions in Luhansk and Donetsk put an end to any hope of help from Kyiv. On the other hand, there is obviously no local source of funding for public-sector agencies in Luhansk.
Many nonetheless continue to act in line with their stereotypes. They go to work in the morning, although they haven't been paid for almost six months.
FerFAL Comment: Expect denial to be very strong. People just keep doing their thing desperately trying to gasp normality.
Viktor Alanov, social worker, Donetsk
It has unfortunately become fashionable to consider that all those who stayed back in the rebel-controlled territories are pro-Russian morons and accomplices of terrorists, that all decent people fled a long time ago.
It has become fashionable to state that this "cut-off slice" must be left alone, that there's no point fighting for it. Let them die out there in their "Russian world" they wanted so badly.
Unfortunately, this stance is not only misguided, it is also harmful -- both for those living in the occupied territories and for Ukraine as a whole.

A nurse cooks on an outdoor fireplace due to the lack of gas inside the Mental Hospital N1/4 2 on the outskirts of Donetsk in December.
Firstly, as long as these armed pro-Russians continue to run the show here, there is a real threat of war for the rest of Ukraine. This cannot be denied. Freeing all the territories is the only hope for solid and lasting peace in Ukraine.
Secondly, there are, indeed, many of these morons here. Many more than some would like. But there are also numerous pro-Ukraine residents here who didn't participate in the referendum and the pseudo-elections.
Yes, we in Donbas have our "own way" of loving Ukraine. Not all of us approve of monuments being knocked down in our cities. Far from all of us regard the [World War II-era anti-Soviet] Ukrainian Insurgent Army and [Stepan] Bandera as heroes. Many of us believe Russian should enjoy the status of second national language in Ukraine. And no, let's be honest, not all of us supported the Maidan protests.
We are, however, united by the desire to live in Ukraine, and we have not backed the separatists in any way. Today, in occupied Donetsk, former "anti-Banderas" supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity shake hands with "Banderas"; advocates of dual-language status shake hands with supporters of Ukrainian as the sole official language.
Do you understand what is going on here?
Here in Donetsk, we are uniting, which is almost unprecedented, while in "mainland Ukraine" we often hear that we don't exist and that we must be "let go"!
On December 26, the rebels released about 150 Ukrainian fighters. Many of them were local men. Just look at pro-Ukrainian local groups on Facebook and Twitter! You will find very few (if any at all) real names and surnames, but behind every pseudonym stands a real Donbas resident, a Ukrainian citizen who wants to live in his country! Read what they write! Feel the mood that radiates from their conversations, which offer them a psychological escape from what is unfolding in our cities.
Please answer this question: What do these people, who are not guilty in any way toward Ukraine and its people, who live in areas where their country cannot protect them, who wake up and go to sleep every day with the knowledge they can be "picked up" and killed any minute, who are robbed and humiliated by pro-Russian militants, who have no means of publicly voicing their opinions, who are still clinging to the hope that their land will be reunited with Ukraine, what do these people feel when they hear that "all of them out there" must be barred from either entering or leaving, that they must be contained by moats and barbed wire, and deprived of electricity and gas?
You must answer this question not to me but to yourself.
An elderly woman pulls a cart with firewood near the Donetsk airport in November.
An elderly woman pulls a cart with firewood near the Donetsk airport in November.
And why then, when some claim that "only accomplices of terrorists remain out there, all the decent people have left," are these "decent people" unable to find rented accommodation and employment? Where are they supposed to go when citizens of this united Ukraine treat them like lepers and don't want to have anything to do with them?
Thankfully, such behavior is not the rule, although it's far from rare.
Sooner or later, the occupied parts of Donbas will return into Ukraine's fold. We have absolutely no doubt about that. Our country will be united again. But every one of you, brothers, must understand that, while we wage a ruthless war against terrorism, efforts must already be made to win the minds of residents in occupied territories instead of thrusting them aside -- even of those who are now hostile to Kyiv.
With those who have illegally taken up arms, the talk can be short -- they must, and they will, bear responsibility for participating in a terrorist organization. But sooner or later, a peaceful coexistence will have to be established with the others, those who did not hold weapons in their hands, however "strange" these people may appear today.
FerFAL Comment: Probably fuelled by a strong dose of “The Walking Dead” , common among American preppers is this WROL idea, thinking that during this “without rule of law” period everything goes. Not true. Eventually law is restored and eventually you will have to answer for your actions. That’s how it always goes, sooner or later. The lesson? Always stay on the right side of the law. If you have to defend yourself, make sure to take pictures, names of witnesses and make sure you know who you will call to back your side of the story when the police eventually knock on your door. Forget the WROL nonsense, they will knock on your door eventually.
The battle for Ukraine is not only waged on the front lines. It takes place in heads and hearts. Let's decide what is more important for us: that Ukraine be united again or that "people out there die from their stupidity"?
Believe me, it's much more difficult for us here to watch this "stupidity" than for you. But it will pass. Just remember how you traveled to Donetsk for Euro 2012. What unity with the whole nation could be felt back then in the streets of Donetsk!
What's taking place in the heads of some Donetsk residents today is the result of Russian television propaganda. Why are people buying it? It's hard to say. After all, more than 100 million people are "buying it" in Russia. But it will pass.
When every one of us -- instead of seeking revenge against peaceful fellow citizens whose city happened to be occupied -- asks himself how he can help us, then we will know for sure that peace and Ukraine's return to the occupied territories of Donbas are within reach.
And yes, as soon as the war ends and it will be safe again here for all citizens of Ukraine, I promise to invite all of you, brothers, and give you a tour.
Nadia Nadezhdyna, sociologist, Snizhne, Donetsk region
In telephone conversations, my friends and I try to avoid answering any questions. You can feel the constant fear that people have of the new authorities, and life in this city is far from easy.
Even before the new authorities came, this city was depressed and dependent on state subsidies. The only successful businesses here were the Snezhnyansky Machine-Building Plant, a local branch of the Zaporizhzhya firm Motor-Sich, and the Zarya mine. Pensioners make up most of the adult population. And as it turned out, those retirees ended up forming the main social basis for the separatist movement.
Payments to those dependent on the state budget were chronically in arrears. Local authorities tried to make the payments by taking short-term bank loans. After Russian forces entered the city in early June and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk personally ordered local accounts blocked, residents seemed condemned to a hungry death. And in Snizhne, this happened more quickly than in other towns in the region.
In September, when the cease-fire was signed, local pensioners traveled en masse to Ukrainian-controlled territory to reapply for their pensions. However, in November, the government announced a complete financial and economic blockade of the territories within the zone of the antiterrorism operation (ATO). They stopped paying pensions and other social benefits to all except those designated as displaced. All the bank machines were shut down, as was Sberbank. This led many pensioners to despair. There were sufficient groceries and other goods in the stores and at the market, but they couldn't buy anything because they had no money.
FerFAL Comment: Again, the same problem. The problem of not having enough money.
Over the last couple of weeks, anger has been mounting among the elderly and miners.
And this anger is directed at both the authorities of the "Donetsk People's Republic" (DNR) and Yatsenyuk's government. Some angry reactions were provoked when several buses carrying miners were barred from traveling to Zaporizhzhya, in the zone controlled by the Ukrainian military, to pick up their salaries from banks there, where they had been sent months ago. They were stopped at a Ukrainian military checkpoint.
There is a lot of talk about the "checks" of trucks with foodstuffs at Ukrainian checkpoints. And there is some evidence about "confiscations." A businessman named K. spent 40,000 hryvnyas ($2,500) in Dnipropetrovsk on supplies for his store. But he was detained and forced to hand over all his cargo to a distribution center.
Ukrainian authorities, too, are heavily criticized. Pensioners often complain about the huge lines to register in the areas controlled by Ukraine and about the bribes it takes to get service without queuing up. In Kharkiv, for instance, one pensioner waited his turn for two weeks before "settling matters" through people he knows.
There is talk that dozens of people have died of hunger and about a dozen have committed suicide. I won't name any names. A couple of weeks ago, medical workers were speaking about 54 people dead and five who committed suicide. (Editor's note: RFE/RL was unable to independently confirm these figures.)
FerFAL Comment: Don’t expect much of a fair treatment from the occupying force that invaded your country. My advice? Get the hell out of there before you’re surrounded!
Huge lines of pensioners form in front of the former office of Privatbank, all seeking financial help from the DNR. It works like this: You take a coupon for assistance at the social-security department and then you bring your coupon and get money. There is no information about how many people are served each day. Sometimes lines form outside the city at branches of Sberbank or Ukrpochta as rumors spread that they are handing out money.
People talk all the time about the shelling around the city. DNR representatives are tight-lipped about the reasons for the shelling and who exactly is doing the shelling, and this silence creates panic. People speak of columns of Russian military vehicles passing through the city. But for the most part, people are afraid to express their views openly.
Medical workers are unhappy that teachers and artists received money, but they didn't. Social workers still haven't seen a kopeck. But most pensioners are still hoping for Russian pensions and for the DNR to be admitted into the Russian Federation. And so they give their moral support to the DNR.

Viktor Alanov, social worker, Donetsk
I am a Donbas native. I am an ethnic Russian. I speak both Russian and Ukrainian fluently, although I consider Russian my mother tongue.
I was never anti-Ukrainian. I always took Ukraine for granted, a fact I considered neither good nor bad. I saw to which abyss Vladimir Putin was leading Russia all these years and I had long stopped associating myself with this country.
To quote the famous Yevgeny Kiselyov (not to be confused with Dmitry Kiselyov!), I will say this about myself: "I am a political Ukrainian."
I highly valued the civil rights that I enjoyed as a Ukrainian citizen and that Russian citizens have long been deprived of. By the way, I always thought people did not sufficiently appreciate these rights and understood this would inevitably lead to attempts to take them away from us.
FerFAL Comment: Huge point right there. If you don’t appreciate your rights, one day you wont have them any more. A professor once told me rights are like muscles, if you don’t exercise them often you lose them. He was right.
I was never a fervent Ukraine patriot. I never felt any particular emotion when I saw a Ukrainian flag. I did not like the anthem much and I definitely never liked nationalists. But I was always interested in Ukrainian culture and against splitting the country.
Then came spring 2014. It was a time of unabashed idiocy and surrealism. Aggressive "defenders of Donbas" appeared in the streets and began assaulting residents of this very Donbas.
Before they received weapons (at least officially), they used antifascist slogans to attack peaceful demonstrations by pro-Ukraine Donbas residents. I remember one of their statements online. It read: "Fascists will rally on March 13. Let's meet them. Take surgical instruments with you to rid them of their Ukrainity."
These words were taken literally.
FerFAL Comment: Propaganda, violence instigation, social division. All powerful tools used often.
What is this, if not fascism? On that day, thousands (!) of people rallied in Donetsk for a united Ukraine. The demonstrators were attacked by the "defenders of Donbas." They were severely beaten up, maimed, and activist Dmitro Chernyavskiy was stabbed to death.
It was a time during which ideas were distorted in a horrific manner, perhaps even more than now. Anyone who opposed Ukraine's division was automatically branded a fascist, a "Maidanut," a "Banderovets," a subhuman. Even if you had never been a fascist, did not support the Maidan protests, and were not a [Stepan] Bandera follower, it was all the same to them -- you were an enemy.
……
A man shouts during a pro-Russia rally near the regional government building in Donetsk in April 2014.
During the hysterical euphoria that followed the takeover of the regional administration building, it was wise to avoid this rabid crowd. You would have had no chance of a fair trial, lawyers, presumption of innocence. You would have had no chance to even be heard. The crowd demanded that fascists be dealt with, and the harsher the punishment the better.
Rules against the retroactive effect of laws did not apply in the "Donetsk People's Republic," either. All those who participated in the Euromaidan protests (both in Kyiv and Donetsk) were retroactively declared enemies and "sentenced to death."
Once the bandits got their hands on weapons, things really got started.
A local lawmaker was kidnapped in Horlivka. His gutted body was found near Slovyansk. For what? Simply for opposing pro-Russian militants who tried to raise a Russian flag over the city council building. That's all! In Slovyansk, an elderly man was gunned down simply for bringing water to a Ukrainian checkpoint. Anyone who publicly expressed support for Ukraine was thrown in a separatist jail, or worse.
FerFAL Comment: Flags, clothe colours, comments you make to a friend or neighbour, YOUR FACEBOOK comments! All of it can get you imprisoned or killed.
By the way, fans of the "Russian world" were somewhat upset that their leaders confronted Ukrainian nationalism not with internationalism but with bona fide Russian nationalism, monarchical bells and whistles, and a boorish rejection of all things progressive. For some reason, this was called "antifascism."
These "defenders" then proceeded to strip Donbas residents of their freedom of movement (they established checkpoints) and violate their private property (they freely entered flats and vehicles at checkpoints).
It was precisely Donbas residents who were locked up, executed, deprived of their civil rights: free speech, freedom of conscience, and religion (Protestants and Orthodox believers of the Kyiv Patriarchate, for instance, were massively repressed in the areas controlled by the militants).
These "defenders" brought war into the homes of Donbas residents, even though they were not under any real attack. They also went for Donbas journalists as soon as they got weapons. And all this happened before Ukraine's antiterrorism operation even began!
It was because of their attempts to storm it on May 26 that the ultramodern Donetsk airport, which had cost so much to build, was destroyed. It is them, the fighters of the "Donetsk People's Republic," who confiscated the cars of numerous Donetsk residents (including Russian and Russian-speaking!). Businesses were raided, too. Many were forced to shut down because they had been looted by militants, and people lost their jobs.
Because of them, banks and post offices no longer work. Because of them, our school and university graduates are receiving bogus papers instead of real diplomas. Because of them, there is no legal and social protection here and pensions and social benefits are not paid. Because of them, we have to live in this unrecognized "Donetsk People's Republic" that is not from Donetsk, does not belong to the people, and is not a republic.
After just a month in these conditions, you understand how much you actually love Ukraine! We were elated to hear on May 2 that the antiterrorist operation was entering its active phase.

Shattered glass in a room at a hospital damaged by shelling in Donetsk in January.
Unfortunately, our territories were not freed from the pro-Russians in August as we had hoped. But now, when I travel to the liberated areas and see Ukrainian flags and soldiers defending Ukraine, I feel a lot more emotional than before. I see that, a few dozen kilometers from our hell, our Donbas people lead normal, peaceful lives. They study, they work, laws and law-enforcement organs function. Yes, they are not ideal. But people there live in their country and they are protected.
Right under my window, I can see separatists firing toward the airport. We very much want to believe they won't rule here much longer. I think I know one more reason why Putin just can't resolve to leave Donetsk, although all signs point to this being inevitable and necessary.
He is afraid that, when the city is freed, huge numbers of Donetsk residents to whom he and his sidekicks inflicted so much grief will gather on the central square with Ukrainian flags. He is afraid of seeing this scene, because it will be the final nail in the coffin of his propaganda.
Nadiya Nadezhdyna, sociologist, Donetsk
Many local residents describe Donetsk's bomb shelters as hell on earth. Dirt, stench, tears, and blood. Bunkers are full of makeshift beds covered with multicolored pieces of cloth and blankets and bed linens of various degrees of freshness. It's damp and cold.
Anyone who has spent even just a week under shelling suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. There are currently hundreds, maybe thousands, of people in Donetsk with post-traumatic stress disorder. They almost never leave the bomb shelters, although no one is shelling them anymore. Whenever they go out, they jump at every noise, some of them collapse and go into hysterics…
FerFAL Comment: As sad as bunkers may be, you’ll desperately need one if bombs start dropping.
Heart attacks and strokes are common. But, of course, no data is available anywhere about post-traumatic stress disorder. Doctors are starting to talk about suicides. Nobody knows how many people died from the consequences of the war, either.
Doctors say: "If no one can give us a death toll from the war, then we definitely have no idea how many people died from its consequences."
In any case, there must already have been thousands of such indirect deaths.
This lack of data is largely to blame for the state of bomb shelters. They are in bad shape, as rescuers and experts from the department of civilian protection and military mobilization already observed back in May. These services were discontinued precisely because there is no data.
I was able to find out that the technical inventory of protective structures started by the cabinet of ministers in 2009 was scheduled to end this year. It was never completed.
The available information paints a very bleak picture. Over half of the region's protective structures were inventoried in the past five years. In Donetsk, this figure represents 56 percent, including 88 percent of structures owned by the municipality. By law, some bunkers are reserved for people working in big companies, while others are for unemployed people.

A woman waits in a shelter for shelling to end in Donetsk's Petrovski district on February 4.
The majority of shelters were deemed uninhabitable.
"These structures were built in the 1960s to the '80s," the Emergencies Ministry said last spring. "They were well-maintained during the Cold War era, but today they are outdated. The equipment doesn't function, for instance. The filters of the ventilation systems need to be changed, etc."
One should also bear in mind the fact that many bomb shelters fell into disrepair when companies shut down in the 1990s. Most of these companies were privatized.
When disaster struck, people had nowhere to hide. If the Ukrainian Army had stormed Donetsk like the Russians once stormed Grozny, tens of thousands of people would have died. It did not happen, and so the situation with bomb shelters was tackled. Experience has shown that during emergencies, wars, or terror attacks, the state and number of bomb shelters play an important role.
The commission's final conclusion at the time was the following: "The protective structures of companies such as the Donetsk Coal Energy Company, the Tochmash factory, the Donetsk Metallurgical Plant, the Donetsk State Factory of Chemical Products, and many other companies are not ready for use." This became a death sentence for some local residents. These are the areas of the city that saw the worst shelling.
How are people supposed to survive in these conditions? Where are they supposed to run if they are at home or in the street during an emergency
This is why basements and underground parking garages were turned into bomb shelters. So were the cellars of schools, houses of culture, and hospitals.
Rescuers, however, are skeptical. "This is a place to wait out the danger," they say. "But in the event of a direct hit, it won't protect anyone. Even a proper bomb shelter won't."
Even several weeks ago, Donetsk residents did not take the guidance on bomb shelters issued by city authorities seriously. It seemed like out of a war movie. Attitudes have since changed dramatically.
The situation with bomb shelters in the areas at the epicenter of the fighting is dire. In the Leninsky district, which has been shelled from the Shirokiy suburb, there is only one equipped bomb shelter: in the 21st Party Congress-House of Culture. For many, it is simply too far to reach if shelling breaks out.
Local residents say that basements are locked and that they have to run to shelters as explosions go off and shrapnel flies all around.
"I need to run three bus stops to reach the [House of Culture]. If shelling started, we would not make it alive," a young woman told me. She was with two children ages 3 and 5. The youngest was clutching a doll; the other pressed a kitten tightly against her chest. You could see fear and despair in their eyes.
Mafia groups are rumored to be running the bomb shelters. When the shelling starts, they let in only their own people and demand money from the others.
FerFAL Comment: Even more reasons to a)have your own b)explore and find other viable shelter options c) Reach some sort of agreement with such people d)Quickly and discretely get rid of such people.
There are several open shelters in the Budonyvskiy district, mostly basements on October Street. The only real bomb shelter is behind the Pushkin monument. It was built in the 1960s and is very solid, but it is unsafe to stay inside for long. It's damp, moldy, and the walls are moist with humidity.
The situation in other districts is just as bad. But despite the awful conditions in these shelters, people continue living in them. They have no choice. The windows of their homes are shattered, the walls are cracked, and the roofs are destroyed
And so the bomb shelters have become their refuge. Even people whose homes were spared by the shelling are afraid of sleeping in them. They go to their homes only to wash and cook. They spend the rest of the time underground.
This is how life is now in Donetsk. One resident described it this way: "We live in basements. We queue for humanitarian aid. Many people are sick, many are dying."
FerFAL Comment: There is still more to come. Some information is more redundant but other comments have new, interesting perspectives.
FerFAL
 
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Letters from Survivors in Ukraine Part 1

A man walks past a building damaged in recent shelling in Donetsk's Kyivskiy district, near the airport, on October 7.

 

There’s nothing like survival knowledge gained from real disaster accounts. The following letters from survivors in Ukraine are full of such gems. In some cases it may sound anecdotal, in others it may be specific to that particular place and time, but “this actually happened” is always more valuable than speculations.
The following testimonies are published by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service. http://www.rferl.org
I added some of my own thoughts and observations. I hope you learn something from it and as always comments are always welcomed.
…
Mykhaylo Vasilyev, pensioner
Luhansk
Luhansk used to be poetically called "the city of fountains and roses." Now it is the city of downcast faces. Sad, downcast, emaciated. And very tired -- tired of having no money, mass unemployment, poverty and damaged homes, constant problems with electricity, water, heating, and telephones. But most of all, tired from the loss of hope.
There are downcast faces everywhere. On the streets, in the half-empty stores and various offices, in the remaining markets. A smile in Luhansk has become a rare thing, like a dandelion in winter. Smiles remain together with the interrupted peace -- in the past, in our memories.
FerFAL Comment: In most disasters that I have researched over the years, especially long term ones, having enough money helped greatly. Paying for food at inflated prices, bribing your way out of war zones, paying for transportation, housing and settling somewhere better/safer. Cash is king and money makes the world go around. And when you don’t have money, you better have hope, because chances are you’ll have little else.
Gloomy people are very cautiously buying groceries. And gloomy clerks are sympathetically measuring out 50 grams of cheese or liverwurst, packing two or three cracked eggs into a plastic bag (they are cheaper and so in great demand), or weighing out a single frozen chicken wing.
FerFAL Comment: Just read that paragraph again whenever you wonder if you have enough food stored (and don’t forget water!)
But they categorically refuse to accept change. Change has become the subject of fierce arguments. A cashier in one downtown grocery angrily said they have several hundred thousand hryvnyas' worth of change down in their basement and they can't get rid of it.
The same is true of the 100-hryvnya notes with the little portrait of Taras Shevchenko that were given to many pensioners on the eve of the "elections" in the "Luhansk People's Republic." They, it is said, are no longer valid, banks don't take them. And so stores and traders don't either. Retirees are unhappy, upset. They swear a lot, but they don't threaten to file a complaint. There is no one and nowhere to complain to. They just wonder, "what banks?" Not a single bank in Luhansk is open for business. Recently the last Sberbank offices shut their doors. There are long lines at the bank machines despite the cold.
FerFAL Comment: And while cash is king (and lines form at ATMs “bank machines”), all fiat currencies have their limits. The lesson here is have enough cash, have enough cash in more stable currencies such as dollars and Euros, better yet, have most of them in an offshore account and then for worst case scenarios have real money, gold and silver.
Now lines are forming at Internet providers. At the end of November, Triolan completely unexpectedly and without warning stopped providing free Internet services. So now hundreds of people are standing in line to get reconnected. There is great demand and few technicians. The infrastructure is damaged and express connections are going for 150 hyrvnyas ($9.60), which not everyone can afford. So, for many, even the Internet has become a temporarily inaccessible luxury. A window on the world has closed, one that enabled people to watch Ukrainian television. In Luhansk, they only broadcast Russian, Crimean, and Belarussian television. A door has closed to a world in which heroes are called heroes, terrorists are called terrorists, mercenaries are called mercenaries, and occupiers are called occupiers. And the latter are not portrayed as angels with shining halos.
That's why there are more people than usual in the Internet cafes (8 hryvnyas per hour).
FerFAL Comment: Have your own communications. A small “world radio” can open again that closed window mentioned above. Also, expect propaganda and censorship. War or economic collapse, expect lots of censorship.

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But even in the Internet cafes, there aren't that many people. There are noticeably fewer people downtown in general. After 4 p.m., it is better not to leave your home unless you have to. Offices and businesses "unofficially" close even around lunch time. "Night" grocery stores that formerly were open around the clock, close at 5 p.m. Why should they stay open when there are no customers? Even in the daytime, there aren't many. As evening comes, it is scary to walk down the dark, deserted streets. Packs of starving dogs have flooded the courtyards of the central city. The dogs have bitten many people, but, of course, there is no one to try to catch them.
FerFAL Comment: This we also saw a lot after Argentina’s economic collapse. People that cant afford to feed themselves wont feed pets. Many just kick them out, and they form wild packs that often attack people, especially children. A little tip to keep in mind: you know when things get really scary? When these packs quietly start to disappear, and all of a sudden you just cant seem to find a single cat. Cats are the first to go, they word gets around fast that they taste better than dogs…
The faces of the pensioners are particularly gloomy. At 6 a.m., in the dark and the cold, they are trying to cram themselves into packed buses to go to Lisichansk or Starobelsk to collect their pensions. Who can say what awaits them during the many searches at various checkpoints? Or what they will be accused of as they stand, in their sunset years, in front of young armed men like prisoners of war before a tribunal or helpless prisoners in front of all-powerful gulag guards?
One of my neighbors has already traveled to Izyum four times, but still hasn't gotten his pension. Some sort of issue with his documents. But he doesn't complain and maintains a gloomy silence. When I ask him about it, he turns and walks away.
Complaining is not allowed these days. And in general many Luhansk residents who were formerly quite chatty have turned to silence. They might comment on the weather, but no one is speaking about politics, about the economy, about the state of affairs in the city. Even within the circle of their old friends or former colleagues. Who knows? A word is not a swallow that will fly away -- many people are recalling 1937 and the black vans that collected the condemned. Shadows, they say, come at midnight.
FerFAL Comment: Lots of waiting in line, at times for days, for things that in other places are either automatic (a pension paid to your account) or can be fixed online or with a five minute phone call. Queues everywhere, for the most mundane thing, a line for bread, for cash at the ATM, for your document/passport.
Here's a small example from the life of our neighborhood. After the heating season began, one homeowner began repairing a war-damaged floor. A neighbor thought the workers were too noisy and that they were bothering her, although they worked only during the day and were pretty careful. She told someone she knew who had connections in certain circles. Very soon, a few armed people in camouflage showed up, confiscated all the workers' tools, and took the homeowner -- as the organizer of the disorder -- away "for a check" in prison (as they call the basements that have been adapted to hold Luhansk residents in rooms where 15 or 20 people share one wastebucket that is emptied once a day). Only after 10 days of truths and lies and agreements and who-knows-what-else, his wife managed to get him released. He'd lost weight. He'd aged. He'd become a different man.
In short, Luhansk, under the "LPR," has become a city of downcast faces. A friend of mine who moved to Kyiv in the summer tells me that people in the capital can immediately recognize those recently displaced from Luhansk and Donetsk precisely by the particularly mournful expression on their faces, by the clear stamp of a unique wartime syndrome. How long must a person live in peace before that expression is washed away? And does it wash away entirely?
FerFAL Comment: Sadness and self-censorship. You never know who’s listening. My mother in law is like that these days back in Argentina. When my wife calls and talks politics with my sister in law, criticizes the government, her mother quickly reminds them to keep thier voice down because neighbors may hear them. What are they afraid of? Criticising the government in Argentina can get you in trouble, sometimes serious, sometimes not so much, but it’s still recommended not to do so, for your own good.
Pyotr Ivanov, psychologist
Luhansk
The siege of Luhansk this summer was predictable. The war was in full swing, the city was being shelled, and all those able to flee the city had already done so. Those who had stayed in Luhansk tried to stock up on supplies, bracing for the worst. When the siege began, people quickly realized that what they had considered vital items were actually not at all what they now needed.
When they prepare for war, people often fail to realize that they will run out of water, not of food! And when the water runs out, they find themselves surrounded by bags of grains of which they can only consume a handful, at best.
Water ran out in Luhansk on August 31. All of it. I mention this so that people clearly understand. Some people thought the shortages would affect only drinking water and bought large quantities of water purification tablets. But very soon, there was no water in Luhansk in which to drop these tablets! There was no drinking water, no tap water, not even puddles (it rained only once in August). In the first days of the siege, you could still find bottled mineral water in shops. Then it disappeared entirely. Two weeks later, bottles went back on sale, at the market. The price for it was twice -- then thrice -- what it used to be.
Then water started being delivered in vehicles. For free. As many as 200 or 300 hundred people would queue up, there were scuffles. Residents were eventually given access to the city's water reserves. Again, hundreds of people would stand in line and scuffles broke out. The fighting ended when machine-gun-touting insurgents began supervising the queues. All in all, we gathered water at gunpoint.
FerFAL Comment: Remember what I said earlier about water? You run out of water, you run out of food. Eventually you realize you should have left. This is true for Syria, Ukraine, and it will always be true for any war-torn region.
For some people, another product is even harder to forgo than bread. Cigarettes. At least, cigarettes help to forget about food. Cigarettes disappeared in Luhansk two weeks before water. Smokers cleared up the shelves regardless of brand and price -- the first huge queues in Luhansk were for cigarettes. A few weeks later cigarettes turned up on the black market, at exorbitant prices just like bottled water. By mid-July, a pack of filterless cigarettes cost 17 hryvnyas on the black market, almost two dollars at the exchange rate back then.
FerFAL Comment: Like any other drug, its wasted money, bad for your health and a sign of emotional weakness. You should be able to get by without smokes and without booze. Kick the habit now and don’t be one of those pathetic souls willing to trade a can of food for a smoke or a beer.
Today's pampered consumers rely heavily on their fridges. They zealously pack fridges up the brim and are confident that with such stockpiles they can survive an atomic war. Just in case, let me point out that fridges require electricity.

Residents hide in a shelter in Makeyevka near Donetsk in mid-August.
FerFAL Comment: A good point often overlooked by prepers that just buy more freezers. Freezers require electricity, they also break down and offer relatively little storage space. Instead of filling freezers buy dried food and canned food, or invest it in canning equipment.
Electricity was cut off as early as July 31. We had no electricity for almost two months, right until mid-September. On the third day, a campaign started in Luhansk called "remove the rotten meat from your fridge." It was conducted in those flats and shops that were still inhabited (or in the case of shops, that were guarded). Half of the city's residents had already fled, leaving their fridges plugged in. These people held the "clean-your-fridge" campaign only when they returned, in September and October. Many threw out the fridge together with the rotten meat.
What did people eat during the siege? Almost all the shops were closed. Out of a dozen shopping sites in the city, only one still operated. The remaining products were sold there and at the market. The bakery worked round-the-clock, but there still long queues for bread. People feared there wouldn't be enough. Elderly people started queuing at 5 a.m. Fortunately, the shelling would usually start later, after "breakfast time" as residents joked.
During a siege, candles and batteries are essential. Still, in the evening, you could see only two or three lit-up windows across the vast residential expanse. Many apartments were deserted. The others were inhabited but people in them could afford neither candles nor batteries.
FerFAL Comment: How useful those low lumen modes can be. How important it is to have batteries, common ones for your kit running AA and AAA. How much money you can safe with rechargeables. And a quality solar charger? Priceless!

Anker 14W Dual-Port Solar Charger $39.99

I cursed myself a lot for failing to put batteries in our old transistor radio. By the time I realized my mistake, I couldn't afford to buy four batteries (the price for one had already climbed to $1.30). This summer in Luhansk, a radio was worth more than 20 computers put together. That's because transistor radios stations can pick up stations that broadcast useful information, news. For some reason, more recent models like mine caught Chinese radio stations better than Russian- and Ukrainian-language ones.
So I would sit on the balcony in the evening, under the starry sky in a city without lights, without noise, and I would listen to Chinese music. In the morning, my neighbors would ask me to switch the radio on again tonight. As it turned out, they also listened to it, from their windows.
Halyna Mudra, mathematician
Donetsk
The Ukrainian president and his cabinet of ministers have imposed a total financial and economic blockade on territories controlled by the separatists. They have also stopped paying pensions and other social allowances to people there.
This has prompted the leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (the DNR and LNR) to come up with their own measures.
On December 4, DNR head Oleksandr Zakharchenko and LNR head Ihor Plotnitskiy approved the action plan (or "road map") drafted by the so-called "council of ministers of the republics." The measures will allegedly ensure the stable payment of pensions and social allowances, create a financial system, establish regulations governing budgetary processes, set up a temporary banking system, which will in turn support socially vulnerable people, and create financial institutions while remaining in the Hryvnia zone.
The "road map" was first applied on November 4 in the town of Torez. In the building of the local pension fund, employees (who obviously now already work for the DNR) started distributing 1,000-hryvnya vouchers ($63) to pensioners. According to a special schedule, every day 50 pensioners can exchange their voucher for money at the DNR "bank."
People start queuing up at 4 a.m. Fights and brawls are common -- four people have already been trampled, one woman broke her leg. The militants restore order by firing their rifles into the air.
The pension fund handed out as many as 2,500 vouchers in just two days, which means the last of these vouchers will be exchanged on January 25, 2015! The lucky first 100 pensioners received their cash on December 4 and 5. The actual origin of this money is murky, especially considering that the DNR "bank" is based in the seized building of the former Privatbank, on Gagarin Street.
Interestingly, people already registered in Ukraine as people displaced by the conflict are not entitled to vouchers. Before handing out vouchers, pension fund workers open the Ukrainian state pension registry and check whether the claimant is listed on it. How come the DNR has access to the state pension registry? Obviously this happens across the DNR and concerns other government records!
Before the separatists took control of Torez in June, 80,000 people lived in that city, including 27,332 pensioners. Many have since fled to other others parts of Ukraine and to Russia. But while the number of residents has dropped sharply, the number of pensioners remains more or less the same. This means the DNR will need a year and a half and about 27 million hryvnyas ($1.7 million) to support all Torez pensioners for just one month!
Torez is now ruled by a "military commander" and a "police" force. Electrical and water supply is sporadic, banks and cash points are closed, government and official law-enforcement agencies have been evacuated. Ukrainian authorities halted the payment of pensions, social allowances, and salaries on July 15.
On November 17, disgruntled Torez residents blocked a street in protest. A DNR representative eventually sent the protesters home with the promise that payments will be resumed. This is why the first pensions were paid out in Torez. But pensioners are unlikely to be satisfied with the new system, not to mention disabled people and women with children. As for doctors, teachers, and other public sector employees, they have not been paid since July.
There were other attempts to mollify pensioners. Ahead of the November 2 "elections" of the DNR's so-called "People's Council," for instance, all housing offices across the Donetsk region accepted applications for 1,800 hryvnya ($114) in retirement benefits. They sent people home and told people to wait. When the payments failed to arrive, impatient pensioners demanded their money. Now, pensioners are being asked to file new applications for retirement benefits, this time only to the amount of between 500 and 1,000 hryvnyas.
In view of the project's complete economic failure, residents of the Donetsk region, even those who voted for the DNR, are starting to doubt. They don't understand what kind of economic, political, and social system these "People's Republics" are supposed to have. Who will take ownership of the region's key assets -- factories, mines, agricultural land, transport infrastructure, housing -- is also unclear. And it's precisely who owns these assets that will determine the quality of life, the level of social benefits and social protection of citizens.
If at least Ukrainian authorities understood that people need help grasping complex issues. For example, they could try explaining to Ukrainian citizens in the DNR the decree adopted on November 4 by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council [the decree spells out urgent measures to stabilize the socio-economic situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions]. Russian and separatist television channels have been brainwashing people since April. So I'm afraid Ukraine is completely losing the information war here in the DNR.
Folks, I think this is great information and a lot can be learned from it. Food, water, money, batteries, essential supplies such as medicine are surely precious as well. I think that the key is still to have means so as to not be there in the first place. Have a bug out plan. A place to go to, means to get there, and as I’ve posted many times before: TIMING IS EVERYTHING. Leaving in time means you can get the most out of what you leave behind, sell, or take with you. Running when the bombs are dropping is a tad to late. Expat or refugee, its all about timing. Feel free to quote me on that one!
Take care people. I'll do Part 2 soon.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Russian Conflict: USA sends tanks and armor to Europe

U.S. is sending tanks, Bradley armored fighting vehicles and self-propelled howitzers to its allies in Central and Eastern Europe.

 It will include 90 tanks, 140 armored vehicles and 20 pieces of heavy artillery. Enough equipment to arm an entire brigade will be positioned in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.

This is a clear response to Putin’s actions in Eastern Ukraine and a show of support for its NATO allies. U.S. had this same amount of armor stationed in West Germany during the Cold War, making it more of a symbolic move than a strategic one.
At this point, it could all end in sabre-rattling but with this kind of escalation there is always the possibility of more serious conflict erupting.
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.

Fun Fact About Fallout and Nuclear Explosions

If you ever played videogames you’re probably familiar with the charismatic Vault Dweller, the mascot of the Fallout series videogames. But why is it that the little guy is bringing his thumb up? Turns out it’s not just the much needed positive attitude. He’s actually measuring the distance of a nuclear explosion. It seem that an old nuclear war survival tip said that if with your arm extended you could cover the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion with your thumb then you were far enough to survive. I think that wind direction will play a big role as well but still, fun to know and I hope I NEVER have to try it out for real!
FerFAL
Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre is the author of “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” and “Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying is not an Option”.