Solo Through War-Torn Donbass 🇺🇦

in 2014 a vicious separatist war broke out in  the ukrainian regions of donetsk and luhansk   we are now going to go together on a journey into  what remains of those ukrainian territories in   search of what i believe is the ultimate soviet  mosaic join me on a journey along the front   now the mosaic we're going to go and  see is in a town called lisi chance in   lugansk region but to get there we first  have to go to a town called salidaba   in donetsk region and to get there  we have to go to dinipro bus station   and to get there we have to take the famous  dinipro metro let's do it what a soviet beauty now there's something i want to tell  you about dinitpro's metro system   and that is that it's the shortest  metro system in the entire world   it was created or the idea at least was thought  up under brezhnev but then it kind of never got   round to building it until independence  came to ukraine in the 90s when there   wasn't really much money about and hence  they've got a bit of a scaled-down version right then let's go and check  out the old geneva petross metro   what i do like is they've got a real plastic token now you'll notice that the metro stations  here in denipro aren't very fancy   and that's because well it was complete in  the 1990s when ukraine really didn't have   much money the early 90s bandit capitalism  the country was being robbed by everyone   and so it's a little bit plain  but still funky i like it the babushka is coming back  to tell me off she spotted me   oh god i'm about to get tongued  off by a ukrainian publisher for filming in the metropolitan this isn't actually our stop we've got another two  or three stops to go but i just wanted to get out   and just admire the um wow the construction  of this place look at it it's so cool this is   called zavodska this station is called zavodska  which means a factory because there's a lot of   factories in this region of the city and so  they built this metro stop here to supply   all the factories with their workers in the  mornings but as you can see there's no one here   because the factories are bloody closed  down in ukraine but there's some lovely benches come on well that was the shortest metro in  the entire world the dinipro metro   let's go up and find the bus station well they don't sell barbecue secrets here  in ukraine but they do sell get ready for it   just a magazine called babushka no other words needed just babushka well we're  now going to try and get a bus down to a town   called salidova which is about 40 minutes from  donette city itself salidaba sits in a region   of ukraine called the donbas the donbass was  once patrolled and roamed and controlled by   the cossacks the three men and they called  the region of donbass they called it   the wild field and so we're going to go and check  out this wild field and see how wild it is today foreign right then we've got our ticket to old  salidaba and i'm seeing a lot of soldiers   buying tickets and waiting for buses  so we're obviously heading down towards   well a more fiery part of the country  anyway solidable bus let's wait for it slam to work and try and make  a living to top up your pension   it's [ __ ] sad isn't it our  bus is here what a beauty don't you just love the carpet  on our bus hope you can see this   it's very cool and very ukrainian check it out foreign we've arrived in our first  stop for the night celide let's see if there's a hotel in this town i  saw online that there was some kind of hotel   let's see if we can get a room salidaba it's interesting walking along these  streets because they've got the old street   name still they haven't been torn down and the  decommonization rules were too remote i suppose   too far from the center we're  walking along now karl marx street   well there's definitely no karl marx  street in kiev let me tell you that   but there isn't solida where's this hotel please  don't Krunk me please don't Krunk me oh legend uh are they not wow what a wonderful little  provincial hotel you've come to check it out   i think i'm going to be very happy here well as  darkness falls over the donbass i'm gonna go in   search of some food which is not gonna be possible  and a beer which might be and um yeah get some   sleep because tomorrow we're gonna wake up early  and head out closer to the front if we can i don't   know what's possible let's hopefully though  we can meet some cool people hear some stories   so until tomorrow morning good night from the  wild field well good morning from salidaba a cold   snowy slushy solidabah this weather was completely  unexpected and hence i've arrived completely   unprepared in my trainers this completely  changes also the sort of film i can make   i was hoping to make a film in the villages  hitchhiking around speaking to people   but in this weather it's going to be almost  impossible everyone's going to be at home   so i don't really know what i'm going to do i'm  going to try somehow to salvage it in some way but oh oh foreign wow the separatist army from donetsk had this village  held this village in the early stages of war   and then the ukrainian army retook  it after a fierce gun battle   and the signs of that gun battle all over  the side of this house can see the bullet   holes everywhere that would have slammed  into this building wow and here discarded is some kind of rocket launcher so we've now turned off the donetsk highway and going  through the back roads to the town of abdevka   the road has obviously got a lot  bloody worse what happens along here oh [ __ ] you know [ __ ] hell i'm soaked this is a disaster   it's not easy traveling in a war zone ah [ __  ] hell but i wanted to come and look at this   building this abandoned building of some  sort here at the entrance to abdica oh man well i'm in the offices of what was a factory  before producing well i don't know what and it   was in such buildings that the battle for abdevka  took place these buildings these factories became   so important for the ukrainian economy that  was imperative that the ukrainian army retook   towns like abdika and eventually they did but  in 2017 once again the town flared up or the   battle for abdica flared up many civilians lost  their life here not to mention ukrainian soldiers my feet are soaking i'm covered in flipping  mud and slush from that car that got me man it's not easy being a war correspondent foreign um a foreign foreign just across that open field there beyond the  tree line is the front line and hence the poor   people that lived in this building here with  a view of that front line well they suffered   more than anyone you look at the apartments  here you can see where shrapnel blasts bullet   holes where bombs and rockets have hit the  apartments wow all of this whole complex here   these soviet apartments are just blown out  they've blown out windows holes everywhere you can only imagine the horrors for the people  who lived inside the people who lived inside that   i've been walking past all day the babushkas the  jediskas of the town the young people the families   who lived in these buildings no doubt they took  shelter underground when the bomb started hitting   but wow it really brings home to you the  fact that we are on the front lines of a war   we've come to the end of abdica  and the end of my journey in the   town because it says further ahead are  mines just up there is the front line the ukrainian army is dug in on the  other side of course the separatists mobile well the cabbie who's taking me to the bus  station or the train station said let me show   you something before you leave town down on this  road this road that is just full of bombed houses   it's like something out of dresden  or berlin circa 45 look at it wow wow this is obviously the living room of the house it's the sofas there   well you can just imagine there's  even some children living here before imagine the terror being in here  when this roof caved in from a hit   let's hope that the family whoever  lived here got out in one piece well as we head back in the cab back to bakrovsk   i can see in the distance as the fog has cleared  the city of donetsk it's there in the distance   i don't know if you guys can pick it up but i can  see the high rises of the apartment building some   factories wow the city that was once in ukraine  and is now well in a kind of breakaway republic whether it ever come back to ukraine  i don't know but there it is danietsk what's up wow what a day listen i brought a ticket to a  town called bakmut which is on the way to lisi   chansk where we're going to see the soviet  mosaic so we're going to spend the night   in bachmat and then tomorrow get on to lisa  chance there's big distances in this country   it's a big old country and it takes hours and  hours to get anywhere but anyway there's my bus the bachman bus my name is christina is we've stopped off in the town of  konstantinovka halfway to back but wow   my feet i literally have trench foot  my feet are rotting inside my shoes   crikey what a town nice bit of music  playing though up there if you can hear that that's how they do it in  the provinces of the donbass   and over there's a table full of everyone selling  things so hello wow what lovely dombassians nice people here but we're off to old  bachma whatever that's like let's find out the pride of the donbass maybe let's go to  the hotel bachmat check in for the night i feel it's going to be another hungry  night in the provinces of the dumbass we're almost at our final destination tomorrow of  the ultimate soviet mosaic let's not fall over now   on the treacherous icy streets of bachmut  wow look at it flipping it where's this hotel oh there she is go tell bachmat what a beauty  it's like the hilton room three one one let's see what a room in bahrmut's  finest establishment looks like   it's a fancy door so i've got high hopes oh jerk is out check out the most expensive  room in bachmann's finest hotel all this four four four four four yeah 20  pounds that'll do for tonight good morning from sunny bachmurt here in the  donbass it really is living up to its name today   our tour of this huge country is almost over  but we've got one final soviet mosaic that i   saw on google images that looks like  the ultimate soviet mosaic we'll see   so we're going to go to the bus station  and try and find some transport to the   town of liciansk over in lugansk province  let's go and check it out we're almost there oh well that was easy i went in and i said is there  a bustelissie chance she said yes in half an hour   i said i'll have one ticket please she said  there you go i said thank you if only it was   always that simple in the provinces so it's case  of um bye bye sunny bachmut i hope we meet again we're on a soviet mosaic hunt  whilst we're waiting for the bus   to release a chance i saw one on the internet and  thought let's go and check it out in a larder wow check it out we've got ourselves  an unexpected visit to a soviet   mosaic look at it there's a soldier  and a dude and some other dudes   some um arm chobskians whatever this  town used to be called archovskians   now they're called bachmutians but yeah there  we go a nice soviet mosaic to start off our day let's go back to the bus station our bus is here welcome to bombed out lisey chansk let's  hope that our mosaic survived the battles yes good man he doesn't know where it bloody is how can he not know i hope  we've got the right town what wow they're all giggling about me i must have real babushka  game they're all giggling i see our marshrutka 112. it's the  orange square bus we're gonna do it foreign well we're at the very end of  the line like babushka said to come to   let's look for the mosaic oh what a town wow there must have been some heavy fighting  here in lissy chance because just everywhere   i look on the buildings or either all bombed  out or there's just bullet holes everywhere   now this is the oldest looking building here  so i reckon if we're going to find the mosaic it's going to be on this one  let's see around the back   well looks like some old  soviet building it must be   if the babushkas weren't trolling me imagine if  the publishers of lysi chang were just trolling me so far no oh man don't say it guys wowzers look at this place look  at this old soviet building look at it   dom culture it's the ultimate don kalturi do  you know why it's the ultimate dumb culture   because it's got the ultimate flipping soviet  mosaic oh my god we've made it we've been all   around ukraine we've been to odessa rivner  we've been to turn appeal we've met awesome   characters we've been through the donbass  and here we are in lissy chansk the great   soviet mosaic look at it let's admire its beauty  for a second wowzers the different cosmonauts   they're in the front is a female one that must  be terescova and somewhere will be yuri gagarin i don't know why it's here  in lissy chansk but let's not   worry about the details let's just admire  it my god this calls for a celebration soviet champagne baby well guys that's it from this trip around  the country it's been an awesome little   adventure we've seen some mosaics and um yeah  met some legit cool people so nothing more to   do but to raise my soviet glass filled with  soviet champagne to the ukrainians cheers oh

Channel: bald and bankrupt

Views: 4,545,260

Keywords: Ukraine, Donbass, USSR, Kyiv, war, bald and bankrupt, daily bald

Id: 2bNzjBJF_G0

Length: 35min 29sec (2129 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/LegitHolt]

The videos are very high quality at the minute. I feel like the cinematography has begun to mean something to him now as well.

[u/Looper007]

Loving his series from Ukraine, I remember he did some good one off videos from there before (the one he had a house party with some Ukraine lad). The travelling parts were great, but I loved the stuff with the locals. The Little Girl who he gave his camera too, the old ladies and the one Taxi Driver who was brutally honest about his country.

Really the people from Ukraine and the little towns come of like warm and welcoming people just been screwed over by their government and other shady characters.

[u/sgtstickey]

The babushkas arguing was my favorite part lol

[u/entropy_bucket]

Got to say, the dude has strong babushka game.

[u/FerraristDX]

Now I don't how people live near the frontline of an armed conflict and I don't ever wish to experience such myself. But it appeared to me as if they were living almost normally. I guess those that couldn't flee try to make the best of it. But it's still crazy to think that the closest big city is only a few kilometers away, yet you just can't access it.

I also guess this is the closest Bald can get to Donetsk or Luhansk proper. Unless he entered from Russia, I guess. But even then, I don't know if he could stay out of trouble in those people's republics. If something happens, his country won't be able to help him. On the other hand, I'd like to see Bald enter the lion's den. Maybe he'll surprise us and do such a video soon.

[u/Diegobyte]

Excellent video.

[u/Rsb418]

Why do so many places not allow filming in the subway?

[u/RoboticPrison]

Excellent video. Really enjoy war reporting so this one will be a favorite for me for a long time.

[u/cloudprince]

One of the most interesting (next level) videos of his in a long time.
I hadn't seen the video photo so was pretty shocked too when he found that rocket launcher, but I guess that's not too farfetched in ex-war area.