From the very beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war to the recent peace negotiations in Istanbul, the Russian government has desperately tried to convince the world that the Donbas region has always been “Russian in spirit.” 

From Kremlin-fabricated stories about the “Russian children of Donbas” supposedly killed by Ukrainian Nazis — used to justify the full-scale invasion — to public figures like Elon Musk declaring that Ukraine has “lost Donbas forever,” narratives about Donetsk are too often framed as stories about Russian territory.

It may seem like people in Donetsk chose this fate — that they chose the Kremlin. But I know better because Donetsk is my hometown, where I spent the first 18 years of my life. 

We didn’t choose to be part of Russia. We were taught to be.

If you want to understand what Russia calls influence in Donetsk, you need to look at how young people were targeted. 

The education system in Donetsk during the 2000s wasn’t about building critical thinking. It was about ideological control and nostalgia for the Soviet era. From our first days in school to our last days at university, we were subjected to a deliberate, systemic form of pro-Russian indoctrination.

I studied at Donetsk Special Physico-Mathematical School No. 35, a state-owned school considered one of the best in the city because of its high percentage of students who enroll at prestigious universities. The atmosphere there was somewhat better than in an average state school because our principal cared about its reputation.

But I have been having nightmares about school for the 10 years since I finished. One of the main reasons, apart from being bullied for being disabled, was the general absence of freedom. Stepping inside the school meant walking into a place with authoritarian rules where any individuality was suppressed. In a typically Soviet way, obedience and the ability to repeat after your elders and betters were considered the main virtues. It created the........

© The Moscow Times