Russia threatens to go to war Ukraine, But the Kiev City Council is erecting Christmas trees instead of air-raid shelter notices, and organizing concerts instead of army recruitment activities.
in a Russian military buildup On the eastern border of Ukraine and the annexed Crimea, the hostile rhetoric between Russia and the United States and its allies is gradually approaching the climax of the Cold War, and Ukraine has become a battlefield for any actual battle. However, Ukrainians who have just emerged from the Covid quarantine are enjoying the ice rink and market opened for the holiday season, and they would rather consider how to celebrate the upcoming New Year.
“I will spend the New Year with my family and friends at home, although I believe there will be many parties in Kiev,” said 25-year-old Olya Simbirova, who works in a hair salon in the center of the capital. “In my circle of friends, no one is talking about war.”
Kiev is more than 700 kilometers from the front, despite reports RussiaAfter the army is transferred to Belarus, it may encircle the capital together with other large cities in the east of the city, or carry out targeted air strikes. However, it is believed that the eastern and southern regions close to the front lines are more likely to be targeted, and Kiev has to deal with supply and communication disruptions, Russian sabotage, and intensified network and information warfare.
Although a national poll released by the Kyiv Institute of International Sociology on December 17 found that half of Ukrainians would resist the Russian invasion by taking up arms or citizen resistance, not many people believed they would be required to do so. Do, or are eager to prepare. After losing a large area of territory to Russia and Russian-backed troops in 2014 Conflict in Eastern Ukraine Since then, not to mention the economic difficulties and the impact of Covid, many Ukrainians have become accustomed to threatening disasters. They no longer believe in politicians and the media. They say they say wolves have come too many times.
“In the past few years, we have heard it too many times,” Simbirova said. “And it’s usually just hype.”
Earlier this year, Russia’s assembly of troops on the border began to evoke the specter of an impending invasion, which prompted Simbirova’s mother to announce that she had moved to Spain for safety. The invasion vanished at that time, and her mother stayed in Ukraine. Recently, at a press conference in November, the President of Ukraine, Volodmir Zelensky, He spent as much time as possible talking about the so-called December 1st coup conspiracy, just as he talked about the Russian invasion. The coup has never happened, and many people hope that this invasion is also chimeric.
An international development project in Kiev recently distributed among the staff suggestions on how to respond to intrusions, such as packing luggage and checking the location of the nearest air-raid shelter. But Yevheniya Burdiyan, an accountant, did not heed these suggestions.
“I haven’t packed my suitcase,” Burdian said. “Because I didn’t bring one at the time.” The 49-year-old Burdian is from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. After the fierce fighting in 2014-15, he is now effectively under Russian control. Seven years ago, she couldn’t believe that a war was already raging. She was the last person on the street to seal the windows with tape to prevent shelling. In July 2014, she left the city on the last train when the railway line was destroyed.
Now she lives in a small settlement on the outskirts of Kiev, built by a family also displaced from Eastern Ukraine. She said she was too busy to consider another possible war, and her neighbors never discussed it.
“After all the pain in Donetsk and us, now we live in a small world full of families, homes and maintenance. If I can buy some shelves, I will be very happy because when we move in, we There are only bare walls,” she said. “Life is still going on, we must live with these little joys, and the war is there, in the subconscious.”
In Mariupol, 20 kilometers from the frontline of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, this may be the target of any possible invasion, and many residents basically ignore the threat, and the city council is doing its best to create seasonal decorations and activities.
“They plan to hold a lot of concerts. Compared with the towns on the other side of the front line, the city hall is working hard to make Mariupol a model of safety and cultural development in Ukrainian cities and towns,” Mariupol activist and project manager Galina Barabanova said.
In addition to developing military capabilities, one of Ukraine’s strategies to deal with Russian threats is to develop cities such as Mariupol in order to win the “popularity” of Ukrainians who sympathize with Russia-or still live in Russia’s de facto-controlled territory.
Balabanova and her friends are paying attention to the news and trying to analyze where Russia might attack, but they are not worried. “We believe in our military and our volunteers,” she said.
As Ukrainians continue to pay attention to close relatives and relatives, Burdian knows that she cannot influence the incident anyway. “What we want and what happens are two different things; it doesn’t depend on us,” she said. At the same time, she does have some direct plans. Her daughter who lives in Estonia is going home for the holidays.
“I must plan to cook,” she said, “and make her bed.”
