Zoya Sheftalovich Profile picture
Mar 5 14 tweets 3 min read
Spoke with someone in Ukraine who is a member of Ukrainian resistance. Going to call him J. J is in his mid-40s, he was a school teacher and now has an IT business. Incredible conversation. Will have full write-up soon. Here's the message J wanted to get out to the world. 1/13
He lives in west of Ukraine. He is 100% Russian. Tells me his group is large, with volunteers doing everything to support those in firing line in east. "Some people are doing it for religious reasons, some are doing it because they’re believers ... 2/13
"... Some are nationalists. Some are just patriots of Ukraine, like me. I can’t be a nationalist Ukrainian because I have no Ukrainian blood. But I am a patriot of Ukraine." 3/13
What are they doing? Making Molotov cocktails (which Ukrainians have renamed Bandera smoothies), driving supplies east, getting women and children out of the east and taking them to border in west. 4/13
In his city, he says, "Almost everyone is working to help in some way. Even lazy people who don’t want to help, or someone who can’t, they’re at least pretending they’re helping. It’s shameful to admit you’re not making an effort." 5/13
J says the woman who is organising their group is an ethnic Romanian who speaks native Romanian, and perfect Russian, Ukrainian, German and English - she has been helping with translation. 6/13
J says of their organiser: "She’s not even a Ukrainian. But this is her home and her homeland. She could drink lots of our Ukrainian nationalists under the table, in terms of her patriotism." Our conversation is interrupted because J thinks he hears an air raid siren. 7/13
False alarm. Back to chat. I ask J whether he has thought of leaving Ukraine. "My first instinct was to run. There was a moment where I thought I need to get out ... But when I get thinking about it, I ask, where am I going to go?" 8/13
J says: "I don’t have any problems to get out of the country. People have offered to me that they would take me across the border. I can get across illegally. People have offered me a job. But I don’t see the point." 9/13
"It’s harder and worse here than in Romania. But here I’m home. What am I there? Here is my house, my friends, my interests, my business. What am I there? A refugee? Another refugee escaping war? Here I can do something, I can contribute." 10/13
I ask J what his message is to the world: "We need help." Says he wants Ukraine to be admitted to EU and NATO, and more immediately needs a no-fly zone. "We are very very thankful for the help we have been given already," J says ... 11/13
"But we would like the EU and NATO to acknowledge us and accept us as their partners. That would draw a line in the sand against Russian empire ... Russia's narrative is they need to save Russians like them. But we’re not Russians like them." Reminder: J is ethnic Russian. 12/13
What other help do they need? "Right now, we need smartphones. iPhones and iPads - newer than iPhone 7. We’re looking for that now. It’s not cheap. $300 American. But it’s necessary so we can do what we need to do." More from J soon. 13/13
A few people are asking how they can help with request re iPhones. I will check with J when I speak with him again in morning. Part of issue is just getting things into Ukraine. Might need to be delivered to Romania or Poland so they can be brought back. Stand by for info.

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More from @zoyashef

Mar 6
Spoke with Julia Hrytsku-Andriesh, who is organising resistance efforts in western Ukraine. She's 36 years old, has a PhD in economics, 2 kids. Before war, she worked for international development agency. In 2 weeks, her life has completely turned upside down. 1/15
"14 days ago my biggest problem in life was whether a Coach bag I bought was going to get shipped in time for me to get it by March 8," Julia says. "Now I am running a humanitarian aid hub ... War has clarified everything. We see what people are made of ..." 2/15
"We see who is ready to fight. 80% of the people of Ukraine are ready to defend their country to their last breath. Young and old ... Everyone is hosting refugees from Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv. Some have 10 people staying with them, some have 15." 3/15
Read 15 tweets
Mar 4
Powerful new Zelenskyy, addresses shelling of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Says in Ukrainian: Russians knew exactly what they were shelling. Says “This night could have been the end of Europe.” Switches to Russian: "Russian people. I want to address you. How is this possible? 1/8
We together in '86 battled the aftermath of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Surely you must remember the burning graphite spread by the wind. The deaths."
"You must remember the evacuation from Pripyat and from the 35km-zone. How could you forget?" 2/8
"And if you didn't forget, you can't be silent. You must tell your leadership. You must get out onto the streets and tell them you want to live. You want to live on an Earth that isn't radioactive. Radiation doesn't know where Russia is." 3/8
Read 8 tweets
Mar 4
Visibly shaken Zelenskyy has posted about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where he says "Russian tanks are firing." Translation of main bits below (but please be careful in using these quotes - I am translating on the fly & my Ukrainian is rusty) ... 1/5
Zelenskyy said that "for the first time in human history" Russia was threatening to hit Ukraine with a "nuclear strike." He says: "Now it is not a threat, now it is a reality, and we do not know ... where this will end." 2/5
Appeals "to all Ukrainians, to all Europeans, to all people who know the word Chernobyl," referring to the nuclear disaster that occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. 3/5
Read 6 tweets
Mar 3
And I'm sorry to build a thread on top of a thread, but to illustrate the extent to which Soviet state was corrupt: When I was a wee child, I had to have surgery. My mum had to bribe someone so that I got the full dose of anaesthesia ... 1/4
And to bribe someone so she could stay overnight at the hospital with me. I have such a distinct memory of my mum walking from one child's cot to another, soothing the other kids who had also had surgery. At the time, I was furious with her. 2/4
She was my mum, and she was spending all this time with these other kids, while I was in pain. Later I realised what an incredible woman she is. She saw all those other kids, whose parents either didn't have the means or quick-thinking to pay a bribe, and she soothed them. 3/4
Read 4 tweets
Mar 3
The thread below is really really important — it shows a symptom of a huge problem for Putin. The Russian government, public service, military complex — all are completely rotten with corruption.
Was someone paid to move these trucks around and rotate their tyres? Probably. 1/4
But moving trucks and maintaining them properly is hard work. You know what's easier? To give some of the money you were paid for maintenance, to whoever comes to inspect the trucks to check you've done your job. 2/4
When your state is this rotten with corruption, you can't trust anything anyone tells you. You can't trust any certifier, any engineer, any official. You can't trust your equipment has been maintained properly. You can't even trust the equipment exists! 3/4
Read 4 tweets
Mar 1
Some thoughts on the scenes we're seeing on social media of armed Russians, confronted by unarmed, protesting Ukrainians, being pushed back. Again, these are just insights from someone watching from afar, who just happens to know Ukrainians and Russians and Soviet mythology 1/
In the lead-up to this invasion of Ukraine, Russian state media was wall-to-wall all about how the Russian forces were going to be welcomed by ordinary Ukrainians. Like when the Soviets liberated European nations from the Nazis, freed concentration camps. 2/
Genuinely, I think, many of these young, unhardened Russian soldiers expected a heroes' welcome from ordinary Ukrainians who were being oppressed by an evil government. 3/
Read 19 tweets

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