My debut in Finish media. You can translate it into English via google. I will also post my opinion piece in English below: is.fi/ulkomaat/art-2…
Fear, denial, courage: How a looming threat of Russian invasion changed the lives of Ukrainians
Every morning first thing I do is grab my phone to read the latest news. And every morning I read about yet another threat coming from Russia. ⬇️
Every morning first thing I do is grab my phone to read the latest news. And every morning I read about yet another threat coming from Russia. ⬇️
It’s either Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov saying Ukraine joining NATO would be death to Russia as we know it, or it is Vladimir Putin saying he would protect what he sees as Russian historical lands, but in reality, he would just occupy more of my country’s lands.
Not quite a good way to start a morning, but that is how we have been living in Ukraine since late October when Russia started gathering thousands of troops and weapons near the border with Ukraine. ⬇️
Currently, there are 122,000 Russian soldiers massed near Ukraine’s eastern and northern borders and in the Russian-occupied Crimea, Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council reported in December. Russians gathered at our borders last time⬇️ in April
However, this time everything seems to be serious. Ukraine is back in the spotlight with the world media. News websites of different countries have been publishing scary predictions on how Russia is going to attack Ukraine in early February with 175,000 heavily armed troops⬇️.
World leaders have been talking about Ukraine with or even without Ukraine, trying to persuade the Kremlin to withdraw and turn to diplomacy. Kremlin has openly said it would talk only with the United States, offering two superpowers to decide for Ukraine’s future. ⬇️
Putin made it clear he wants Ukraine to surrender its territory, its European aspirations, and its freedom in favor of the restoration of the Russian rule over these lands.⬇️
Western journalists tweet about Ukrainians panicking over the possible Russian invasion, while Ukrainian authorities have been preparing bomb shelters for us to hide in case the predicted airstrikes happen.⬇️
It seems Ukraine is interesting for the world only in the context of a Russian invasion. Ukraine has become something of a victim of a serial killer. A survivor, who wants to tell the world her own story, wants to have her own life.
Yet for the rest of the world, she is still interesting only as a victim of an infamous serial killer. As a freelance journalist, writing mostly for Western media, I can see that pattern⬇️
It was so hard to get a world media interested in what many Western reporters were calling “Europe’s forgotten war” that started in 2014 and has already killed more than 15,000 Ukrainians since then.⬇️
Now that Russia-U.S. talks on NATO are coming on Jan.10, it seems everyone has been paying attention to the war that has been destroying our regions, dividing families and friends for more than 8 years already.⬇️
Diplomats and politicians all around Kyiv are talking about the possible provocation the Kremlin might orchestrate in the Donbas to start a war. Russia has been fueling fears by claiming Kyiv is planning to get back its territories, Russia occupied in 2014, by force. ⬇️
And what about Ukrainians? It seems that we are left outside out of our own story. Others always try to decide how we feel, how we should live, and what we should do about the looming threat of the Russian invasion. ⬇️
For us, this war is not news.
Yes, we still don’t want it to come to the hot phase after all these years of hybrid conflict, but we are also not panicking. We got used to living in this twisted world, where we have to build the modern democracy, ⬇️
Yes, we still don’t want it to come to the hot phase after all these years of hybrid conflict, but we are also not panicking. We got used to living in this twisted world, where we have to build the modern democracy, ⬇️
do our jobs, and pay taxes, while only some hundred kilometers away from us, there is the war front, where soldiers are dying or getting wounded every day.⬇️
Because of what our life has become, Ukrainians were the last ones who got worried about the Russian war coming. The latest polls show that some 50 percent of Ukrainians are ready to stand up against Russia, while 33 percent are ready to take weapons in their hands⬇️
Because of what our life has become, Ukrainians were the last ones who got worried about the Russian war coming. The latest polls show that some 50 percent of Ukrainians are ready to stand up against Russia, while 33 percent are ready to take weapons in their hands⬇️
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