After eight years of war, Ukrainians are used to conflict. Now many ask themselves: will it get worse?
krainians don’t ask themselves whether there will be a war with Russia. Instead, most wonder whether the existing one will get worse. In 2014, after protesters ousted the thuggish pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and backed gun-toting separatists in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where conflict still rages.
Perhaps that is why I had an itch to explore other countries. I left Ukraine for the first time in 2018. Travelling gave me a new personality, a new Liza was born in each country. I didn’t expect to stay away for so long, and I knew it wasn’t right to be so out of touch with my family. When I came back from Texas last year, my mum had a new partner, my sister had a baby and my little brother was a grown man. I didn’t know these new people, and I struggled to introduce the new me to them, too.
When I first heard the stories about Russia, I did some research and I figured that there might be danger. So I decided to talk to my family to see if they had a backup plan. They accused me of panicking, even though I was talking in a calm voice. I tried to get them to have a conversation, but they said they didn’t want to hear any news because it upset them. They’d prefer to be delusional. I realised that my family wouldn’t try to leave Ukraine until it’s too late.
This whole situation has made me think about what actually belongs to us. There are things that don’t belong to me even if I think they do. Let’s say your family has a house for generations. It’s yours at this given moment, but tomorrow it might not be – because a guy with a gun could come and say it’s not yours anymore. I used to think Crimea was a place that belonged to Ukraine in the same way, I used to go there in the summer and now I can’t. Maybe family is not so different.
I was born in Belovodsk, near Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Most people there speak Russian, and when the war came in 2014 my mum and dad supported the Ukrainian side, but my grandparents, uncle and aunt did not. Whenever we sat down at the table together, any discussion about politics invariably led to rows.
In 2014 my region declared itself the “Luhansk People’s Republic” and pledged allegiance to Russia . When my family decided to leave there was 100% agreement, no rows. There were explosions at the regional parliament: our decision was based on safety, not politics.: The banks of the Dnieper river. Yulia, 26, thinks it’s “silly” to get upset about the prospect of war with Russia.
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