If there is a place in Kiev where you can feel, feel, feel the tremendous price human life when the population of Ukraine pays 500 days From the beginning of the Russian occupation, that is Independence Square, the nerve center of the city. The flower beds and lawn of this symbolic space ruled by a berehynya statueThe place where the most important events and revolutions in the recent history of the country, which is a pre-Christian Slavic god, took place, became an improvised monument, on which passers-by decorated with yellow and blue flags. ukraine flagby written name familiarA friend or an acquaintance who fell on the battlefield or was killed in a bombardment.
Viktoria Mysh Korizrelated to 27 yearswrites a short message on the back of one of the badges dedicated to his brother Viktor, eight years younger than him, before he knocked him down and burst into tears:And youIt can be read as ‘One day we will play the flute together’. He had received a letter on a “sunny day” in the summer. fate phone call a friend of yours. “I wrote down my phone as a contact number in case anything happens,” he explains. The person on the other end of the receiver said his blood relative was missing at the time of the incident. “I felt confused And loss‘, he recalls. All he knows of the last days of his existence is that he was killed ‘by the Russians while on a reconnaissance mission’ on the Dnipro front. bodyThe Plaza de la Independencia is the only place where you can pay your respects. Viktoria neither forgives nor forgets and holds only grudges for the aggressor country. “As long as Russia exists, it will not just try to steal our goods from us. black, culture, history anyone beloved; they will try to rob us our identity‘ he warns.
fallen volunteer
Hlib Fischenko And Vasilisa Lebedynska They also showed up this Friday morning to pay their respects. Christopher Campbell, an American volunteer died in the town of Khromove, near Bakhmut. “At first I didn’t believe it, then I thought what to do now. I called his girlfriend Eva Sanina, she kept quiet and cried,” she recalls. The funeral was a test of endurance for both women. “We were in front of his coffin in Hagia Sophia and I remembered that they wanted to get married there,” Vasilysa recalls. Hlib, who is also a friend of Cris’s, anger seeps against the invaders and those who still justify them in the West. “How much more will he have to spend in this country? in 100 yearsoutside three famines, three revolutions And three wars to get away?” (to Russia) he wonders. “What else is needed? That the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant exploded?”
Undoubtedly, the human losses that the Ukrainian nation has accumulated in this year and a half of hostilities are huge. about 80% The proportion of Ukrainians admits to having a friend, acquaintance or relative killed or injured on the battlefield. Even more; 60% declares to know a deceased person. However, according to polls, such a reality does not seem likely to push them to end hostilities with Russia at all costs. Quite the opposite: it reinforces their belief that they are really fighting. a battle for their survivaljust wake up before that Victory or a agreement This includes strict security guarantees from the West against a new invasion. according to a survey Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), held last May, almost 85% declares its favor with continuing the war and not making concessions to Russia, a percentage that has practically remained unchanged since the start of the war.
“The Ukrainians don’t think it’s a war of the Ukrainian Army against the Russian Army, they think it’s an existential war, because when you’re faced with an enemy who has declared that he wants to kill you, there is little room for you to negotiate,” he explains to EL PERIÓDICO of the Prensa Ibérica group. , Anton GrushetskiCEO of KIIS. And this expert has no faith that territorial concessions will quell Russia’s appetite for expansion and “end the war.” “The Ukrainians tried to live with Russia and it didn’t work, Putin says Ukraine does not exist. How can they not react like that?” he tweeted. Oleksi Haran, professor of fame comparative politics at Kyiv Mohyla University and director of the foundation Democratic Initiatives.
Years of harassment, trolling on networks and institutions, as well as hybrid wars The attacks, which were launched from the neighboring country at intervals of two or three before the start of the invasion, made the people of Ukraine extremely skeptical of the intentions of the neighboring country. current Russian political leadershipLed by Vladimir Putin, remains in power. “The Ukrainians found that 2014 ceasefire It was never implemented, and they think that if the Russian troops are not defeated, a final armistice will be declared by Russia. regroup and attack again,” says Haran. “The main problem Ukrainians see is security: stop the fire Grushetski means capitulation without being a full member of NATO or without solid security guarantees from the West,” emphasizes Grushetski. According to KIIS, only 40%. Crimea situation Provided that the peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, is demilitarized. “The Russian attack on southern Ukraine came exactly from there,” recalls this academic.
The war ended the concretion Ukrainian national identitybased on an almost indisputable consensus: Russia an aggressive and hostile country, and the future of the State is in integration with the West and its economic institutions And defenseLike NATO or the EU. and it is a completely independent phenomenon. geographic origin or languageIn a country where deep divisions have always been identified between a predominantly Russian-speaking East and a Ukrainian-speaking West, experts agree. Russia “bombed Mariupol, Kharkov… are cities where the majority language is Russian; These people no longer want anything to do with Moscow, this is not even Belgium. In fact, there is something we noticed in the attitude towards the Russian language, which is considered the ‘enemy language’: 60% of Russian speakers think they should speak more Ukrainian, while 52% say that Russian should never be taught in school; It is noteworthy that in the East 30% of the population think that their mother tongue should be excluded from the school curriculum”, confirms Grushetskyi.