Donetsk, Sep 14 - DAN. Science fiction writers from the Russian Federation arrived in the Donetsk People’s Republic to take part in the international science fiction festival Stars Above Donbass, the Russian Centre reported on Sunday.

“Seventy-four science fiction writers from seven Russian regions will take part in the international science fiction festival Stars Above Donbass, as part of the Russian Centre integration programme,” the Russian Centre said.

The Russian writers  who arrived from Moscow, St Petersburg and the Moscow, Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Bryansk and Kaluga regions include Roman Zlotnikov, Andrey Lazarchuk, Sergey Checkmayev, Yevgeny Lukin, Mikhail Tyrin, Sergey Volkov, Yury Burnosov and Dmitry Kazakov.

“Among the festival objectives are the strengthening of cultural ties with Russia and drawing attention to the events happening here,” said DPR Writers Union member Georgy Savitsky, author of the novel “Battlefield Ukraine. The Broken Trident.” “Donetsk seized the initiative from Kiev and Kharkov which earlier hosted such major events as EuroCon and Star Bridge (among the latter’s organisers was Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov - eds Donetsk News Agency). They no longer have convents of such level, so by gathering top Russian science fiction writers we look very presentable. I believe that the Stars Above Donbass festival is our victory culturewise.”

The DPR hosted Stars Above Donbass for the second time. Earlier reports said that it would gather some 100 writers from the DPR, Russia and Montenegro. The festival will run at 25 venues such as Krupskaya Donetsk Republican Universal Science Library, Kirov Donetsk Republican Children’s Library, Museums of Local History and Arts, Shakhtar Plaza Hotel, universities and schools.*jk