UN General Assembly
2016

Another heartbreaking story is one from a few days ago. One Ukrainian hostage volunteer, Volodymyr Zhemchugov, was eventually set free. After one year in captivity without proper medical assistance, this completely blind man without hands said the words that are the quintessence of what is happening in Donbas. “I am a native of Donbas, I am an ethnic Russian, a former miner. But people like me in Donbas, patriots of Ukraine, were not fooled by Russian propaganda. We started to resist Russian occupation, to resist the country that set off the war against Ukraine.” However, he expressed the strong belief that soon peace would be restored in his native land, Donbas, and that people will return to their normal life.