As Families Flee, Donetsk Rebels Offer Shelter, Food and Prayers

Her eyes red, Valentina Chebanova sat opposite her seven-year-old granddaughter as a group of women and children waited to be bussed to Russia by rebels in Ukraine's southeastern city of Donetsk.

"I lived all my life here... I don't want to go to Russia forever," she said as she began to weep.

"I don't want to go far. Just for a little while and then it will all be over."

The first stop would be the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, just across the border, but she had no idea where they would be sent next.

Valentina and her family are among the many locals from Ukraine's restive east that are being sent to Russia to escape the violence that has been gripping the region for the past two months.

In the headquarters of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic", around 30 women and children milled around in the ground floor canteen.

The separatists have taken over the city's former regional government building, a grey Soviet-era block that looms at the end of the central boulevard.

Children played under a table, while family groups hurriedly shoveled down a meal of boiled potatoes and cabbage salad.

Several women said they were glad to escape homes surrounded by checkpoints and raked by gunfire.

Yulia, chasing her one-year-old son around the room, said she came from the industrial port city of Mariupol that has seen heavy fighting.

"We live near a checkpoint and they shoot every night" she said.

"We are sure of a welcome in Russia. We think everything will be good there," she said.

"They promised us work and accommodation," said 33-year-old Anzhela from Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, accompanied by her four children aged two to 12.

A rebel fighter in camouflage in the Donetsk People's Republic press center told AFP they were trying to move women and children out of the region without delay.

"It's not safe here... We expect military operations here (in Donetsk)," he said.

Just hours later, a car bomb went off outside the building, killing three insurgents.

The rebel leadership has taken over the building's 11th floor offices while below, activists clean out long dark corridors damaged by an orgy of ransacking and looting when the building was seized.

Some floors are dark and stink of urine. But amid the chaos, the building also contains neat makeshift bedrooms for fighters, a first aid center and even a Russian Orthodox prayer room, complete with gold-framed icons.

The rebels have hung up printed signs reminding fighters to mind their manners.

"Don't be a pig, clear up after yourself," says one in the canteen, while another tells them to "take off balaclavas and masks outside the perimeter -- stop scaring people!"

"We're cleaning up and bringing some order," said Anatoliy Ivanovych, a wizened bus driver, wielding a broom on the ninth floor.

He said he had been with the rebels since April.

"The authorities should protect the people, not fight them. These are terrible, unbelievable events that are happening in Ukraine," he said.

The woman in charge of the fifth floor, who gave only her nickname "Petrovna", proudly showed off her pot plants and an office converted into a bedroom for two rebel fighters with neatly made beds on piles of stripy mattresses.

"Everything has been preserved on my floor, the papers are all here," she said, adding that she expects "only victory".

Mikhail, an accountant sitting late in his office and puffing a cigarette, was less optimistic as he worked on the rebels' finances.

"There is only one word for this: chaos," he said.

"I want order, I want stability... I am trying to change this situation. So far, well time will tell if I manage or not," he said.

Down an otherwise deserted corridor with offices strewn with papers and overturned furniture, the sound of women's voices came from a prayer room for believers in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Candles stood under icons and grass was strewn on the floor as is traditional for a recent Holy Trinity holiday.

Three elderly women in headscarves sat chatting. They were due to join believers who hold a procession around the building carrying an icon every day at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT).

"We are standing up for our faith and our land," said one, who gave her name as Lyuba, from Donetsk.

"People say that we are separatists, occupiers and terrorists, but how else can we defend ourselves?" she said of the rebel fighters.

"It's very hard for us. Pray for us, for peace in our region."