This was Russia today Wednesday, November 5, 2025
Howdy, folks. In the mailing below, we direct your attention to Meduza’s interview with Donetsk journalist Dmitry Durnev, the author of a new book chronicling Russia’s invasion of the Donbas. Let us know if you’re enjoying the newsletter’s new format, why don’t you.
Meduza interviews journalist Dmitry Durnev about the Donbas’s turbulent history and his new book chronicling Russia’s disastrous invasion
Meduza recently published Donetsk journalist Dmitry Durnev’s new book, The House on the Line of Fire: A Chronicle of Russia’s Invasion of Donbas. In it he traces the region’s history from the early 1990s, describing how it transformed from a prosperous, self-sufficient part of Ukraine into a devastated and impoverished “new territory” of Russia. Durnev witnessed Moscow’s encroachment firsthand until 2020, when Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, barred him from ever returning. Durnev spoke with Meduza about how Vladimir Putin’s regime killed his native Donbas and turned its ruined land into a testing ground for Russian authoritarian control.
Dmitry Durnev started out as a doctor, working in a neurosurgical intensive care unit, but he found his calling — and a decent living — in local journalism. For nearly two decades, he built his career covering the region as the notorious street banditry of the 1990s faded. In 2014, as editor of a pro-Ukrainian miners’ newspaper, Durnev saw the first armed militia appear in Donetsk. They kidnapped his printing staff and threatened to kill him. Only a small group of loyal local police prevented bloodshed. That spring, he watched Russia’s proxy forces seize buildings and whip up chaos with help from outsiders.
The Donbas, Durnev insists, never clamored to join Russia. At the same time, he argues that Russian television’s domination of the local airwaves — what he calls “Moscow’s information umbrella” — emboldened fringe pro-Russian activists. In March 2014, Durnev says he witnessed busloads of “Russian thugs” arriving at pro-unity rallies and attacking demonstrators and fatally stabbing one activist. The subsequent arrival of Igor Girkin (Strelkov) and his fighters soon escalated the local unrest into a full-blown war. For years afterward, Durnev reported from the front lines, moving between Donetsk and Mariupol and surviving a chaotic mix of warfare and criminal disorder. “I think combat itself was not as dangerous as the whole mess around it: the insane criminal stew of checkpoints, murders, rapes,” he told Meduza.
Durnev blames the region’s economic destruction on the Kremlin’s shift from failed political manipulation to outright plunder. When Putin could not install a loyal government in Kyiv, Moscow’s proxy forces in the Donbas seized the local factories and mines. The Kremlin then turned over these assets to oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko — the “wallet” of ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. However, the invasion’s disruption and destruction have rendered the entire production chain unprofitable. By 2019, nearly all the mines had shut down, and after the 2022 invasion, the remaining miners were drafted into the army.
“As an industrial region, the Donbas is dead,” Durnev says. “Russia killed it and won’t leave because it’s become a symbol of Putin’s rule.”
Durnev is similarly gloomy about daily existence in occupied Donetsk. Life, he says, is built on submission and survival. People obey curfews (sometimes with surprising eagerness), line up for increasingly scarce water, and measure their days by shortages. Speaking with Meduza, he drew special attention to the Kremlin’s investment in youth indoctrination: free sports clubs, patriotic pageants, and heavily politicized kindergartens. Adults, he says, have learned to keep their heads down. After a decade of what he calls “occupation selection,” independent-minded people have left, and the remaining population has learned “to obey anything.”
At the same time, Durnev claims that war fatigue has replaced the old zeal of Russian propaganda. People who once repeated Russian slogans now just want peace, he says. When Meduza asked how it feels to see the Donbas become a bargaining chip in negotiations to end Russia’s invasion, Durnev bristled, stressing that many Donbas natives fight on the Ukrainian side: “Nothing can be decided without them — they simply won’t let that happen.”
For Durnev, the Donbas’s tragedy doesn’t end at its borders. The “republics” born there, he told Meduza, have become Russia’s testing grounds for repression. Durnev says the Kremlin learned to seize dissidents’ homes and normalize torture in Donetsk and Luhansk. “What they call the DNR and LNR,” he says, “is the blueprint for Russia’s future.”
The Archive Collection: Nothing can stop Meduza from releasing anniversary merch — even if we have to make it ourselves. Check out our latest drop now!
We have a new tradition here at Meduza: every year on our birthday, we update the merch in our online store, Magaz. In 2025, we turned 11 — and despite the considerable challenges we’ve faced this year, we’ve found a pretty original way to bring you a new collection. Here’s a look at the latest clothing and accessories you can buy to rep Meduza and support our work.
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Today’s reporting from Meduza
☢️ Russian defense minister proposes preparations for full-scale nuclear tests
At a Security Council meeting, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov urged Vladimir Putin to begin preparations for a full-scale nuclear weapons test on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, citing U.S. nuclear modernization and test plans as a growing threat. Putin ordered officials to gather more information and draft proposals, marking a possible step toward Moscow’s first nuclear test since 1990.
🪖 The plunder and violence unleashed in occupied Ukraine has reached Russia’s own towns
Russian soldiers who looted and brutalized civilians in occupied Ukraine are now committing similar crimes in Russia’s own border regions, according to an investigation by the outlet 7×7. Reports from Belgorod and Kursk describe soldiers — many of them ex-convicts recruited for the war — occupying homes, stealing property, and murdering residents, while officials downplay or ignore the violence.
🪖 As Angelina Jolie tours war-torn Ukraine, her driver is arrested and drafted into the army
During Angelina Jolie’s humanitarian visit to Ukraine on November 5, military officers detained a Ukrainian driver in her motorcade at a checkpoint in the Mykolaiv region after he failed to present valid mobilization documents. Officials later handed him over to a local draft board. Jolie reportedly visited the enlistment center to assist him, but Ukrainian media say she did not interfere and continued her trip afterward.
🎓 Studying abroad in occupied territory: Russian-accredited universities in Ukraine’s Donbas are admitting foreign students. Will their diplomas be recognized anywhere else?
Russian-accredited universities in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donbas are now enrolling foreign students, mainly from India and Pakistan, despite being located in internationally recognized Ukrainian territory. Experts warn that while these schools issue Russian diplomas, graduates may face problems having their degrees recognized outside Russia and its allied countries.
🙏 ‘Living here is impossible’ Across Russia, people who ask officials for help with flooded roads and housing problems face retribution instead
Across Russia, citizens who publicly complain about flooded roads, housing decay, or pollution are often punished rather than helped, facing threats, fines, or criminal charges. RFE/RL found multiple cases — from Siberia to the Volga region — where residents appealing to authorities or posting videos online were accused of spreading “fake news” or “insulting officials.”
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