Author: Maxim Butchenko, Kristina Berdinsky

There is no quarantine, tests, or necessary medications at LDNR , but there are patients with coronavirus and people who spend two weeks in hospitals under forced observation.

“ Last week, only in the city hospital No. 7 of Lugansk, nine people died from“ usual pneumonia ”. According to the conclusion of pathologists, the causes of these deaths have the signs of COVID-19, but this is not allowed to be indicated in official documents, ”the Main Intelligence Directorate ( GRU) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said on March 24 , commenting on the situation with the spread of coronavirus in ORDLO.

Only intelligence agents are really capable of getting such data: the Russian occupation authorities of LDNR hide statistics on infected COVID-19, as well as information that the infectious wards of Donetsk and Lugansk hospitals are crowded with patients with signs of acute respiratory infections. The situation is so critical, they say in the Russian Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories that a group of military specialists in virology was sent to the “republics” from Russia.

Vera Yastrebova, director of the Eastern Human Rights Group, says that for a long time “LDN” did not introduce quarantine and called the coronavirus “ American development”. And the occupants attributed the unexpected deaths of people from complications of ARVI to swine flu. “They are completely dependent on Russia. And if the coronavirus was not recognized there, then they did not recognize the LDNR either. If the Russian Federation neglected the epidemic, then there too, ”says Yastrebova. – Meanwhile, the incidence of pneumonia has increased by 30% compared to last week. And this is in the midst of spring! ”

HB contacted several ordinary residents of LDNR. Those said that in pharmacies there are no medical masks or antiseptics on sale. And as the treatment centers for patients with “ American development” in the “republics” only a small number of wards are used in ordinary infectious diseases hospitals, for example, in Lugansk No. 4.

This state of affairs threatens the region with a real outbreak. The situation is dangerous because most of the population of the “ republics” is a risk group: the elderly. According to the data of the domestic Pension Fund, since 2014, 1.1 million residents of LDNR have applied for pensions at least once . Moreover, the total number of residents of the ” republics” is estimated at about 2.8 million people.Read also:  The government said that in the occupied territories hide the scale of the epidemic of coronavirus

How is this done in the Donbass

On March 23, the head of the “ LPR” Leonid Pasechnik and his “ colleague” from the “DPR” Denis Pushilin almost simultaneously signed decrees that local residents who returned to the occupied territories from abroad with high fever or signs of a respiratory infection would be forcibly hospitalized . And those who do not have a temperature will be sent to the observatory for 14 days. Moreover, entry into the “republics” from Ukraine has already been banned.

So the ” authorities” of the Ordlo acknowledged that an epidemic is occurring in the Donbass.

Several residents of the Luhansk region told NV on condition of anonymity how these decrees are implemented in practice.

People who returned from abroad to the “LNR” were sent by ambulance escorted by a police patrol ( STSI) to one of the hospitals near Lugansk for a two-week observation. The process is compulsory: you can not isolate yourself at home. The people who entered the “LPR” did not even know about the existence of the “ Pasechnik ’s decree” and could not immediately inform their relatives that they had been sent to the hospital for quarantine.

According to HB sources, the life of one of the “ LNR” hospitals , in which people were placed for compulsory observation only because they arrived from abroad ( but have neither temperature nor symptoms of the disease), looks like we are talking about the prison.

It is allowed to leave the wards only to the toilet or shower – ostensibly in order to minimize the risks of possible infection of other patients. But the problem is that there is only one bathroom and one shower room for the entire hospital. The line to the restroom is a minimum of five to six people, and the shower expands for several hours.

Because of this, constant quarrels and conflicts arise between quarantined people and medical staff. And the hospital has problems with plumbing, which is why there are always puddles of water in the corridors.

Most patients are outraged by compulsory quarantine, the inability to replace it with voluntary self-isolation, and the boorish behavior of the doctor on duty.

The attitude of the ” LPR” doctors to people suspected of being infected with coronavirus is extremely unfriendly. But they try to comply with all the quarantine recommendations. A medical examination of the “ suspects” in the hospital looks like this: temperature control ( twice a day), blood tests, inoculation from the nose and throat. Nobody does rapid tests for coronavirus – they simply do not exist, says an HB source.

Each person who enters the medical center is given one four-layer mask per face. They no longer give – a deficit. Although the traffic police, guarding the hospital from the street, wear masks without exception. The doctors themselves took people to quarantine in protective suits, and then changed into ordinary medical gowns.

Several times a day in each room wet cleaning is carried out using some disinfectants. But the plastic windows do not open – the handles are torn off, so it is impossible to ventilate the premises.

Sore point

March 29, the ” Minister of Health of the LPR” Natalia Pashchenko announced the first case of coronavirus infection.

According to Yastrebova, we are talking about a resident of Slavyanoserbsk, who, with symptoms of COVID-19, was put in a Lugansk hospital. Interestingly, there are still no tests that could detect the virus in the “LPR”. Therefore, the occupation authorities, says Yastrebova, sent tests of this patient to the Russian Rostov-on-Don, where they confirmed the diagnosis.

After restrictions began to be introduced in Russia due to the coronavirus, the existence of COVID-19 was also recognized in the “DPR”. On March 30, stunning statistics were suddenly released in Donetsk: according to the “ Minister of Health of the DPR,” Olga Dolgoshapko, “7.984 people are under surveillance, 118 of them are in hospitals, and 7.866 are at home self-isolation.”

Yastrebova is sure that Dolgoshapko took the figures almost from the ceiling, because there are no tests to check for coronavirus in the “DPR” either.

Who will count them?

A resident of Lugansk, Sergei Sakadinsky, told NV what the struggle against the coronavirus in LPR looks like at the everyday level.

There is no quarantine in the city, but fitness clubs and cinemas are closed. Different institutions have limited or suspended reception of residents: Pension Fund, City Council, Housing and Public Utilities. In supermarkets, all employees wear masks, but there are no restrictions on entry and the number of people. But in Lugansk there is a slight stir with food: they sorted out flour, butter, buckwheat.

Sakadinsky found no medical masks in any city pharmacy.

The checkpoint in the Village of Lugansk – the place of passage from the “LPR” to the rest of Ukraine – is now closed for entry and exit from both sides. But the movement across the Ukrainian-Russian border was recently resumed, but only through international checkpoints.

“ Due to the fact that the border with Russia is open, and control is so-so – they only measure the temperature, and that’s not always the case — people are afraid that the virus will come to us en masse from Russia,” Sakadinsky said.

A doctor from the town of Lutugino controlled by “ LPR”, on condition of anonymity, told NV that local doctors do not have drugs for the treatment of complex forms of influenza and SARS, so they are hoping for the arrival of a “ humanitarian convoy” from the Russian Federation – they will be waiting for it in a couple of weeks. But the doctor fears that most of the help, as has already happened many times, is stolen and it will be under the control of local businessmen close to the authorities.

“ We do not expect a critical increase in the number of deaths,” this doctor says. – There has already been such mortality! For example, people die in large numbers from diabetes. More or less – who will count them here? ”

According to some experts, “LDNR” can become a potential source of big problems for the whole Ukraine, because the situation with the incidence of COVID-19 is clearly not controlled there. That is why Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Reznikov has already announced that humanitarian convoys should be sent to the region by the International Committee of the Red Cross and under the auspices of the UN humanitarian mission.

This material has been prepared for No. 12 of the journal HB dated April 2, 2020. For security reasons, and guided by the health concerns of our readers, the couriers who deliver your number, and members of the editorial office, in the next few weeks the magazine will be published only online, and produced remotely.

(c) HB