Ukraine was divided, but not anymore

  

Before I begin my blog, here are a few updates from our friends and family in Ukraine as of the morning of March 5th, although things seem to change by the minute: 

• My wife’s sister and husband live in a small town in southeast Ukraine. They have not been invaded yet, but Russian forces are close. They live 30 kilometers north of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the one that was overtaken by Russians on Friday. 

• There is still food available in this part of the country and bank machines are filled with cash daily, but supply lines could be cut off at any moment. 

• Air raid sirens go off at different times during the day and night, at which time everyone is expected to go into the basements of apartments or nearby apartments if they don’t have them. For some people this is not physically possible. It’s also quite cold and uncomfortable in these makeshift bunkers. 

• Our friends, who live in a suburb of Kyiv, fled on Thursday with their two children to a place in western Ukraine. They live close to suburbs you may have seen in the news, where entire apartment buildings have been destroyed. Despite the danger, her husband plans to return home to take care of their house and parents.

Pray for Ukraine (our friends' son from Kyiv)

I thought I would offer some perspective on the war in Ukraine, as someone who is married to a Ukrainian woman and has friends and family in Kyiv and southeastern Ukraine.

I don’t pretend to know everything or claim to speak for the views of most Ukrainians. As in any country, there is diversity. But what we have noticed is that politically, there is more unity and anti-Russian sentiment than ever before, even before the invasion.  

This sentiment solidified after Russia annexed Crimea and eastern portions of Ukraine in 2014, taking advantage of the political conflict arising in the country. Major protests erupted, known as the Maiden Uprising, after the pro-Russian Ukrainian president decided to move closer to Russia instead of the EU. Victor Yanukovych was eventually ousted because of the pressure, much to the consternation of eastern Ukraine. Russia took advantage of the situation by annexing small but significant portions of the country – regions with the strongest pro-Russian sentiment.  

This is when the tide turned. As my nephew from Ukraine, who actually opposed the Maiden Uprising, said, “If Putin had fully attacked Ukraine at that time, then maybe he would have been successful.” He could have used the divisions in the country and a weaker Ukrainian military to his advantage, putting back into power a president who would do his bidding. 

My wife’s family comes from a southeastern region of Ukraine that has traditionally been more pro-Russia. Most people speak Russian in this area and have friends and family in Russia. Our nephews attended military college in an area that was overtaken by Russia in 2014. 

But after 2014, divisions began to form between the two countries, even amongst families. There wasn’t the same understanding between these two formerly brotherly nations. Russians are fed an entirely different set of news from their state-controlled media; its power over minds cannot be underestimated. 

Propaganda was a tool used to great effect in the former USSR. My wife tells me stories about how, during Soviet times, they were told American children were starving to death in the 1980s. Ukrainians, whose incomes were a fraction of the average Americans, sincerely had pity on them. After watching state-run Russian television these past few days, my sister-in-law says the messaging is reminiscent of Soviet times.  

The West, too, was fed propaganda by our governments and news organizations. We still hold such a negative view of the Soviet Union that we may not understand how devastating its collapse was for regular people. My wife’s childhood in the 1980s was peaceful and very similar to North Americans, but with lower incomes. During communism, there was an emphasis on the collective good of all people, where everyone was at least provided with the basic necessities of life.

The 1990s, on the other hand, meant economic decline for Ukrainian and Russian people, as life savings were wiped out in the matter of a few years. As my wife says, “We got rid of the best elements of communism for the worst elements of capitalism.” The rich got richer while the poor got poorer. My sister-in-law said that when communism fell, it was “Game Over” for Russia and Ukraine. It was from this economic turmoil that Vladimir Putin came into power. 

An American whom we visited while in Ukraine in 2002 said he thought Putin provided new hope for both countries. At the time, I was indifferent. No one quite knew at the time what was to come. But many Ukrainians believed it was more beneficial to be tied to the Russian economy than to Europe's, which could be fickle in its strings-attached policies. 

Now we see the fruits of authoritarianism. We really shouldn’t be surprised, given the destruction Putin has caused in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria. 

Some have mentioned that it might be better for Ukraine to simply surrender and forfeit much death and suffering. I can understand this sentiment. I thought this was the answer, too, before fighting began. Part of it came out of the belief that Russia would overtake Ukraine’s government in a matter of a few days. I never could have imagined the intensity of the Ukrainian resistance.  

To help myself understand their situation, I try to imagine what would happen if the U.S. annexed Canada without offering any of the benefits of being American citizens: no freedom of speech, no legal rights, and no right to vote. I wonder how quickly we would give up our peace-loving ways. 

This is the existential question facing Ukrainians: Do they prefer peace at the moment for decades of authoritarian rule? Or will they continue to fight, even to the death, to ensure at least the hope of a democratic future?