We continue to slowly come out of the fog that has enveloped us for so many months. Maybe it’s the sunshine, the warm temperatures, the flowers popping up and the first apricot tree to bloom on our street… but we feel a little bit better. Maybe it’s the not-so-terrible news we wake up to and go to bed thinking about – parliament is working, making progress on reforms; the police are working, making progress on investigating and arresting the snipers who murdered demonstrators on Maidan on those terrible days in February. There are still many, many questions to be answered, many issues to be dealt with, but we feel now a little bit of hope for the future.
We all still ache with sorrow about the occupation of Crimea, a physical pain from the amputation of a part of the body of the nation. We still watch the borders with Russia intensely, vigilantly. We still read the increasingly ridiculous and absurd Kremlin propaganda, ironically called the “news” in Russia, and we still work at spreading the truth.*
But we start to do “normal” things again. Dinner with friends whom we haven’t seen in months. We shared our Maidan stories and comforted each other, and actually talked a bit about other things, too. We went to a social event, the opening a new photo exhibition at the Fulbright Commission, about the Women of Maidan.
We went to a ceremony yesterday at the hospital behind our apartment building, the one that received hundreds of Maidan’s victims, the one I watched from my balcony on February 20, when I counted 45 ambulances bringing the wounded and dead, the victims of the Berkut snipers. I stopped counting at 45, but the ambulances kept coming all night. (Six weeks later, I still tense up and catch my breath when I hear the ambulance sirens approaching.) The ceremony was in honor of the hospital staff who saved hundreds of lives during Maidan, and a memorial was dedicated to them at the emergency entrance.
I asked Igor the other night if we were wrong to feel less afraid, to start to do “normal” things again, if it is maybe part of Putin’s strategy to let us feel calm long enough that we lose our vigilance, so he can attack when we no longer expect it. Igor explains it differently, he sees that Ukrainians understand the country is already at war, and we have already adapted to living in a new way. We aren’t less aware of the threats around us, we have incorporated them into our lives. We aren’t less vigilant, we are ready. Everything we do is enveloped by Maidan, it is who we are now, it is how we live now. We have learned how to be calm under threat, which is a very different kind of calm.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk was interviewed on the BBC’s HARDtalk, I highly suggest watching the clips, or better yet, get a British VPN and watch the full interview on the BBC’s iPlayer. (Unfortunately, the full interview is only available in the UK, but a VPN like Astrill is a nice work-around.) He says exactly what Igor has been saying, “It’s not just a matter of strength, it’s a matter of spirit.” This is what Putin underestimated about Ukrainians, and if he invades Ukraine from across another border, this is what will be his downfall. Ukrainians are NOT Russians, they do not respond to him or his style the way Russians do. As I wrote last month, Ukrainians will fight to obliteration before submitting again to rule from Moscow, I have no doubts about this.
What can the U.S. and the EU do? Well, John McCain just needs to shut the f*ck up, first of all. Ukraine is an industrial country that EXPORTS military equipment, including to Russia (although not anymore; Russia’s response, as always, is ironic and almost humorous – we didn’t want your stuff anyway!).
The U.S. shipment of MREs is actually extremely helpful, and is exactly the kind of useful support needed right now.
What REALLY can the U.S. and the EU do? Suck it up, and take some tough economic actions that are going to hurt you a little bit, too. Stop buying Russian gas and oil, and stop selling goods to Russia. It’s that simple, it’s that tough.
We’re not just asking you to make some sacrifices, trust me. The Ukrainian parliament passed a very tough austerity package last week, including deep cuts in government spending on itself (the hardest kind of cut for any politician, eh?). The price of gas is going to nearly double for most Ukrainians in the near future.
Rachel Maddow reports better than I can about the actions the U.S. can and should take (the first part is interesting, but if you want to get to the point, skip to 5:30).
http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/EmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_maddow_4ships_140401
Some more good reading and watching:
Putin’s Patriotism is Phony, His Desperation is Real
The ideology of the EuroMaidan Revolution, by Serhiy Kvit, former president of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Minister of Education since Feb. 27, was a Fulbright Scholar at Ohio University!
Ukraine – The Birth of a Nation: “historical documentary film in 4 parts about the history of Ukraine” (haven’t had a chance to watch all this yet, but am looking forward to it)
Jung & Naiv in Ukraine: incredible videos and interviews. I found a link to his Odesa visit on a blog I read, and discovered he has 20 videos on Ukraine and Maidan so far. Also VERY much looking forward to watching them all.
* I decided the “other world” Merkel said Putin lives in is called “Opposite World” – it’s so much easier to understand him once you realize what he and his puppets say is actually the opposite of what he thinks and intends to do. Read this article as if it’s in The Onion, as if every statement has the opposite meaning of the words used, and it’s not only much more real, it’s also kinda hilarious. (It also helps to understand that Yanukovych is just a ventriloquist’s puppet, there is absolutely no way Putin allows him to say or do anything publicly on his own.)
Anka in Kyiv 