The invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s troops — I am sorry but I cannot call them Russian troops ; the War Putin is inflicting on Ukrainians and on his own people; because of my personal history with this part of the world, I have a hard time coping with it.
So in lieu of therapy, I have decided to post an article on Medium every evening ; with a specific russian word and my thoughts of the day, until the Voina ( “war” in russian) comes to an end. I will do it for me, but also for my ukrainian and russian friends, whose suffering is much greater than mine. It is an act of solidarity, some kind of Behind the War effort by a French colibri. The idea is to use the beauty and power of the russian language to try to counter, at a very modest scale, the Kremlin propaganda and the unavoidable anti-russian resentment, that will take place in the West.
48 hours ago, among my local friends, no one thought that Putin and his croonies would be crazy enough to send its tanks marching towards Kyiv. I spoke with German, in Kyiv, who thought that worst case scenario would be overtaking the Ukraine controlled part of Donbass. I texted with Sacha, in St Petersburg, who texted back “let’s hope reason will prevail”.
But today Voina full scale is here in Ukraine, in Europe, the Russian flag is raised on Chernobyl after intense fighting that left how many young Russian and Ukrainian soldiers dead or crippled? Not to mention all of them traumatized.
The only ray of hope in this darkest day came from Russians who defied their dictator : in the streets https://bit.ly/3Hj2EcE ;or on social media, like rap artist Oxxxymiron, who is canceling his concerts and calling his fellow Russians, who are against this war for a great majority of them, to stand up and voice their opinion https://www.instagram.com/p/CaXZyWzjCji/.
Can the Russian silent majority stop this war? This is my only hope else we will have a protracted guerilla war in the streets of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dniepopetrovsk, Odessa etc… that will take the lives and the minds of so many people, including dear friends of mine on both sides of this absurd machiavelic Voina. One thing is sure, Russians who long for peace and brotherhood with Ukrainians, cannot only count on Ukrainian sacrifice to stop Poutin and his war-addicted clique, they need to wage a rebellion against this Voina from inside, to stop it before it’s too late.
Dear friends in Ukraine and Russia, my thoughts are with you as I sit and sip a bitter beer in a peaceful country. I will have a hard time finding sleep tonight so I can imagine how it will be for you. Therefore I say “Do zavtra” for another word : “Bezobrazie”.
With Love, FabPaub aka Gospodin Poblan
More Word of the Day Behind the War on my Medium page Day 3 Lavouchka — the Trap; Day 4 — Lioudi — the Folks and the videos are on my FabPaub FB page
PS: A bit of background to tell you “where I am speaking from” for those who don’t know me. Russophone and Russophile for the past 40 years, in the 1990’s I spent more time in former USSR — CIS as it was called back then- than in my home country. I studied in Moscow in 1991, I worked and lived in Kyiv in 1992–1993 and then from 1994 to 1999 I managed activities in the CIS and Baltic countries for a French pharmaceutical company where I had the chance to work with many local colleagues who became friends.
