not only ukrainians, but many indigenous voices and voices of color have been warning white westerners against uncritical glorification of ethnonationalist, imperial and openly racist russian opposition for years — but we are always dismissed.
i am not even enraged by this kind of patronizing “i know what’s better for you” westsplaining anymore. just tired of this bs.
imagine german bands doing a holocaust music show in 1944 🤮
seeing any russian appropriating the sacral word “bucha” for a music show makes me lose my last shit. bucha, where russians slaughtered and raped through women, men & little kids. bucha that became synonymous with genocide. putin or anti-putin - it is all a fucking show for them
ekaterina 2 led violent colonization of ukraine in 18th century, destroying first ukrainian democracy and putting millions of ukrainians into literal enslavement for centuries to come. generations of ukrainians were genocided under her direct orders
while selling to the west bullshit about “russian renaissance and enlightenment” ekaterina 2 was also using genocides, mass rapes and slaughter to complete full colonization of siberia all the way east to becoming first white colonizer of alaska
one of the fallouts from colonialism is a deep self-hatred and inferiority complex that affects the colonized. there are some ukrainians hating their ukrainianness and our homeland. i know so because i was the same
i really hope ishchenko, as well as many other ukrainians in the same situation, gets help and healing and eventually returns back to our ukrainian family
many of us ukrainians are able to keep standing amid this genocide by embracing each other, finding new or expanding existing families, harnessing our empathy, strengthening our collective responsibility for each other. choosing the light.
'ukraine’s line of argument in africa can be extremely compelling. despite Russia’s pretenses to the contrary, ukraine is fighting an anti-colonial war'
'and, just as african countries have the sovereign right to make their own alliances, ukraine too has the right to choose its future independently from its historic oppressor.'
'but this is a story only russia’s former colonies can tell africans because when africans hear this argument from the west, they instinctively distrust it. perceptions of western hypocrisy are a gift to the kremlin'