Separatist-controlled territories in Donbas

Separatist-controlled territories in Donbas are defined in the novel not only by who controls them, but by the documents, checkpoint procedures, and contested terminology through which that control is exercised. The Ukrainian government officially calls the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk outside its control the “Separate Regions of Donetsk and Luhansk,” abbreviated O.R.D.L.O.; Sergey Sergeyich’s passage through the region shows how this official label meets the soldiers’ question of whether his home village belongs to the D.P.R.

Names and Political Status

The novel places two designations beside one another without treating them as interchangeable. At a checkpoint, a soldier asks by walkie-talkie whether Little Starhorodivka is in the D.P.R., then challenges Sergeyich for entering through the O.R.D.L.O. The accompanying note explains that O.R.D.L.O. is the Ukrainian government’s official term for the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk outside its control. The question about the village’s status therefore becomes an immediate test of how the traveler is understood by the armed men examining him.

This uncertainty is sharpened by Sergeyich’s explanation that he is from the grey zone, near Karuselino, rather than from the place the soldiers appear to assume. His residence permit stamp prompts them to check the village’s classification, making an administrative mark on his passport a possible guide to his political affiliation. The territory’s status is thus encountered as a classification that must be verified, not simply as a fixed line visible on the ground.

Checkpoints and the Work of the Border

At the checkpoint, one soldier takes Sergeyich’s passport and mobile phone while another orders him to pull onto a shoulder blocked by concrete blocks so that the next car can pass. The inspection briefly removes his documents and his ability to proceed. In the gathering darkness, headlights stretch along the queue, and the military van’s small windows glow yellow. The scene makes the border a lived sequence of waiting, scrutiny, and interrupted movement rather than a single crossing point.

The route onward continues to be organized by official stops and instructions. At the Russian checkpoint marked “RUSSIA. DZHANKOY CHECKPOINT,” an officer directs Sergeyich where to park; earlier, he has been warned not to pick up hitch-hikers on the way to the Russian side. Later, after Aisha walks toward passport control, Sergeyich parks beneath the border-post canopy and approaches the window with his own documents. His passage depends on presenting papers at each stage, while Aisha crosses on foot through the same border landscape by a separate route.

Movement Through Contested Space

Sergeyich’s journey connects the grey zone to Crimea and then toward Ukraine, but it does not make those spaces feel like uncomplicated destinations. He drives slowly with a trailer carrying bees, overtaking pedestrians and being overtaken by other vehicles. The checkpoints divide the road into segments and make the time needed for travel uncertain; he anticipates queues in which soldiers will inspect travelers’ documents and luggage. His reluctance to hurry is also bound to the prospect of returning to a village where almost no one remains, with only Pashka there as a possible familiar presence.

The road’s political ambiguity is condensed in Sergeyich’s recollection of a sign near Chonhar: someone has painted “18 KM TO THE RUSSIAN OCCUPIERS” on a transformer box. After crossing the bridge, he sees the Russian checkpoint canopy and realizes that the painted distance was only eighteen kilometres behind him. The change from a hostile inscription to an operating checkpoint gives the journey a stark spatial measure: political claims are encountered as words on infrastructure, then as officers, queues, and control over passage.

Narrative Significance

The novel shows territorial division through ordinary, consequential acts: a soldier checks a village’s status over a radio; another takes a passport and phone; a border guard examines a crumpled insert in a passport; travelers wait beneath canopies or move along the road on foot. The official designation O.R.D.L.O. and the soldiers’ reference to the D.P.R. coexist with Sergeyich’s practical description of home as a village in the grey zone. These terms do not resolve his belonging. Instead, the shifting classifications make movement precarious, turning the territory’s disputed status into a recurring condition of everyday life.