Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Don’t hate us.. this is a disaster
Brave Russians oppose invasion in illegal demos Shock and shame over attack on neighbour state
Few have been as surprised as ordinary Russians at Moscow’s sudden invasion of their neighbouring former Soviet Republic of Ukraine.
For weeks people here in Russia believed what their government was telling them – that leaked battle plans and warnings of war were “hysteria” whipped up by Western intelligence agencies.
But on Thursday the country woke up to the news that Russian tanks were rolling over the border.
The vast majority of Russians I know are shocked and ashamed by what is happening. Though most are not shouting their objections in the street, behind closed doors they are railing against their president.
None believe Vladimir Putin’s premise for war – that Ukraine has been committing genocide against ethnic Russians. Neither do they share their leader’s obsession with their ex-soviet compatriots.
Young people either quite like Ukraine or have no strong feelings about it, and older ones see Ukrainians as one and the same – virtual compatriots, not people they have any wish to conquer.
It is the young who have been leading a flurry of tweets and Instagram stories since the invasion, apologising to Ukrainians for their government’s actions.
“Please, do not hate us,”
Dara Nikolaevna wrote in one. “We are hostages to this nutter – we would never choose war.”
For days, the hashtag #Notowar went viral on Russian-language Twitter, with one user saying: “I’m Russian. I’m scared of what our president does. All my dreams about life fade as war escalates.”
Some brave Russians are making their voices heard on the streets.
Mass demonstrations broke out in Putin’s home city of St Petersburg where crowds of young people shouted “no war” at the lines of riot police.
Others turned up in the centre of Moscow to demand peace, knowing they would likely be held under the country’s Covid laws – which allow nightclubs to pack in revellers yet ban outdoor protests.
One Russian friend, who has family in Ukraine, texts me saying: “My relatives in Chernihiv wrote to me telling of shelling and bombs raining down near them. What am I supposed to feel? I’m thinking of going out to protest. I will support my family as much as I can.”
Many are also afraid, particularly in Moscow, which thrives on
foreign cash. Cutting its businesses off from investment and trade could mean many having to shut their doors for good.
In a country where bread lines are still in living memory, the Kremlin’s biggest achievement had been putting an end to economic chaos. Until now.
Dima, an employee of a bank hit by the first round of sanctions from the West, tells me: “I don’t know if this means I will lose my job. The future has suddenly become very uncertain for so many like me.”
Another young Russian, Kirill, slams the decision to send troops in as a “disaster, a crime, a tragedy”, and says he feels “hopeless” and wants to do everything he can to move abroad. He adds: “It would be extremely sad to leave – my parents and friends are here. But I don’t see any other options for myself.”
Young Russians will be hit hardest by Britain banning all UK flights from their country, and by moves to stop them getting EU visas. Some are finding that their parents, who are less bothered about travelling or studying abroad and do not tend to go on to social media for their news, are less sympathetic.
One student at Moscow’s prestigious diplomat training academy tells me: “I couldn’t believe it but my dad thinks Putin’s right. I can’t even talk to him at the moment.”
Many older people still oppose the war, but think NATO started it by
refusing to rule out stationing its troops in Ukraine.
Putin himself is unlikely to hear many of his people’s objections.
For over a year now he has been hunkered down in effective isolation, fearing Covid, while the rest of the country returns to normal.
He insists visiting world leaders take a Covid test with a lab of his choice and, if they refuse – as in the case of French President Emmanuel Macron – he makes them sit at the other end of a metres-long table.
Many in Moscow feel Putin has lost touch with what they want – and perhaps even with reality.
We are hostages to this nutter, we’d never choose war ON SOCIAL MEDIA POST