“It was five o'clock in the morning, and we were still sitting in the casino. Our hotel in Lviv filled the basement with card tables, slot machines and roulette tables, at which my friend and I sat, waiting for the end of the morning air raid alert. The first night we discussed the absurdity of the situation. Now weary of another sleepless night, we silently watched the news on a huge flat screen.. At the best of times, this TV showed horse racing, football, boxing, any other competition that people could bet money on, ”writes Eliot Ackerman in his article for TIME.

At some point on TV, they remembered Maria Ovsyannikova, a Russian journalist who interrupted a news broadcast on a state channel, staged a protest against the war in Ukraine. An hour later, three or four TV channels remembered her act. But the application on the phone said the end of the air raid alert. The hotel guests slowly climbed the stairs to their rooms..

Among them was Matt, an entrepreneur who has set up businesses in Turkey, Syria and Afghanistan and recently graduated from the Jenson Institute of International Affairs at Yale University.. Sometime during the Iraq War, he traveled from Germany to the war-torn country to deliver oars to an Iraqi rowing team.. Speaking Farsi, he also studied at the University of Tehran, but did not complete the course.. Because the Iranian government accused him of espionage and sent him to jail for 41 days..

After the air raid, Matt invited the author to meet with IT entrepreneur Andrey. The Ukrainian looked exhausted. Like a father with a baby, he counted the days since the last time he had a good night's sleep.. Having ordered coffee, the company sat down at a table in a cafe near the hotel.. During the conversation, Matt, who speaks good Russian, admitted that he was afraid to order in Ukrainian, which he knows worse. After all, Russian words can slip through. With blond hair and blue eyes, Matt could easily be mistaken for a Russian. And this is dangerous at a time when Ukrainians are hunting Russian saboteurs.. His fear was understandable..

" Whoever bothers you, he will leave you alone, ”advised Andrey.

He repeated the word slowly, pronouncing each sound clearly.. The Ukrainian businessman explained that the correct pronunciation of the word will always be a problem for those who speak only Russian all their lives. The author of the article and his friend Matt tried to say the word again and again, but in vain.

"

When asked what “palyanitsa” was, he replied that it was such delicious Ukrainian bread.. Ackerman laughed, but Andrei didn't seem to find it funny.. The American journalist apologized, explaining that he found this method of detecting Russian saboteurs ridiculous.. Also some Russians seem to support the Ukrainian people. Such approaches can be counterproductive.. In support of his version, Ackerman remembered Maria Ovsyannikova and her act during the news release.

Do you consider her a heroine Andrey interrupted him.

“I think she is brave,” the journalist replied..

“She was fined 30 thousand rubles. It's under $300. Then she was immediately released. And we really should applaud her, despite the fact that until a few days ago she was quietly spreading propaganda while Russia was at war.? "

Ackerman tried to argue that the war lasts only a few weeks.. And some people take time to find their conscience. But that pissed Andrew off even more..

\? Few weeks? Don't forget, this war has been going on since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, or at least since the invasion of Donbass. It takes eight years to find a conscience? , he objected..

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The author realized that the narrative that identifies Ukrainians and Russians as victims of Putin’s war frees Russian citizens from decades of complicity.

“I’m sick of stories in the media pitying liberal Russian emigrants. They fled to Helsinki or Istanbul to work remotely and mourn the devaluation of the ruble.. Their complaints are always about having no future in authoritarian Russia, not about the ongoing genocide in Ukraine.. They say " They don't say: " They would be happy if Russia annexed Ukraine. They are against the method of this annexation, against the war that made them pariahs. The end of Ukraine suits them, as Crimea, Georgia and Chechnya did. Some of them left Russia after these successful invasions? Of course not. They are against a failed war, not for Ukraine. That's the difference,"

The atmosphere got tense. " Andrei smiled and told his friend that “he is already doing better”. The next morning, Ackerman and Matt were back in the basement playing roulette, waiting for the end of the air attack.. Previous attack hit Lviv airport. So, thinking about where the rocket will fall today, Ackerman remembered the word "

“I have always been taught that people living under autocratic regimes are definitely not enemies.. The enemy is the regime itself. This theory seems to be at the heart of the West's sanctions strategy.. It aims to create internal pressure on Putin and possibly separate the Russian people from him.. All Western strategy relies on two variables: supporting the Ukrainian people in battle and helping the Russian people resist Putin.. If any of this fails, the people of Ukraine will become a victim of genocide.. This term is often exaggerated. But his definition fits the situation: “Intentional and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.”. Putin has never concealed his desire to "

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This summer, he wrote a huge essay published by the Kremlin in which he denied the very existence of the Ukrainian nationality.. He argued that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people”, that is, the Russian people. And if Putin orchestrates a genocide, are ordinary Russians complicit in it While polls in Russia are not very credible, many independent studies have found that a solid majority of Russians support the war against Ukraine.. If the support for the war is great, does that make the whole western strategy based on internal pressure in Russia really a failure

“In a conflict already reminiscent of the Second World War, it seems that we are deliberately projecting our moods on the Russian people. For Ukraine and the Western liberal order to win this war, we probably need to treat Russia like Germany in the 1940s..

Americans and the West are more inclined to separate the Russian people from the regime that represents them than the Ukrainians, whose resistance to Russia remains extremely resilient after 8 years of war.. The absolute majority in Ukraine is still against any territorial concessions, including Crimea and Donbass. And if the lessons of the entrepreneur Andrey about the correct pronunciation of “rusni-pyzda” do not convince Ukrainian sentiments, you can just walk around Lviv and look at the exchangers. Opposite the ruble, only zeros. So he's not needed here..

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The next morning, Ackerman and Matt were waiting at Lviv’s Vienna Coffee House for Yaroslav Hrytsak, a professor of history at the Ukrainian Catholic University.. Arriving, he settled himself in an armchair, as if preparing for a lecture..

“This cafe is the oldest in Lviv,” he said, raising his index finger to his nose.. - It is worth noting here that the oldest cafe in Lviv is called Viennese, and the oldest cafe in Vienna is called " This is a very good first lesson on the politics and culture of Eastern Europe.”.

Gritsak, like Andrei, does not believe in the possibility of separating the war in Ukraine from the Russian people. When asked to explain why he looked out from behind his glasses and exhaled, as if his interlocutor had run into the cinema hall in the last 15 minutes of the film and asked what he was talking about.

“No one understands Russian identity better than Ukrainians. You see, the Russian identity is spiritual, in it Russia is considered the savior of the world,” the historian said patiently..

When asked what Russia wants to save the world from, Gritsak replied: “From the West, of course.. Right now, Putin is not fighting against Ukraine. Remember he fights the Nazis and Nazism that are synonymous to the West. Ukraine does not exist in Putin's imagination. This is a fiction, a creation of the West, which he must destroy. From Napoleon to Hitler - Russia has always been the savior of the world from the West and its rational fascist tendencies. Russia defeated Napoleon, she defeated Hitler. And Putin will defeat Obama and Biden.”.

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\? He’s not even in office, ”Matt was surprised..

“As I said, this is not a logical war, but a spiritual one.. For more than 500 years there have been many attempts to liberate Russian society. Each of these attempts was thwarted by a brutal autocrat. Why do Russians choose not to be free Answer in Russian culture. If Russia is truly the savior of the world, then this means that his sufferings matter, that these sufferings are synonymous with piety.. That's why sanctions won't work. Is it possible to persuade a Christian to renounce his faith by making him suffer Of course not, his suffering will only bring him closer to God.. There were periods of freedom in Russia. But she always returns to a state of misery. It is important to understand that it was not Putin who captured Russia, but Russia surrendered to Putin. And Putin used the Russian history of suffering to consolidate his power,” Gritsak explained..

" The Poles have especially serious claims to Lviv. But their culture is not the same as that of the Russians. They are able to rethink the past, while Russian culture tends to repeat it.. In the first case, it is akin to driving a car with a small rear-view window through which you can peep. In the second, it's like driving with a windshield completely covered in mud.. And all you can do is constantly look out the rear window,” he added, folding his arms across his chest..

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According to Hrytsak, the Third World War has already begun. Russia, like Germany after World War I, suffered a humiliating defeat at the end of the Cold War.. He compared the Russian government of the 1990s with the “Weimar” one.. Putin, like Hitler, took advantage of historical discontent, distorting the facts, turned it into politics and sold it to the Russians, taking advantage of their disappointment. All this in order to convince them of the need to free the Ukrainians from the "

“We don’t like it when people who kill us call us brothers,” Hrytsak said..

He added that the Russians " They let him take their freedom, but he has to give them "

After lunch that same day, Andriy arranged for the article's author to meet with political consultant Melania Podoliak, who now runs a warehouse filled with aid for Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines.. Sitting at a table with a journalist, she flipped through photos on her phone with sniper optics, tactical vests, personal protective equipment. She was then sent a video of a six-wheeled truck dragging a howitzer to a firing position..

"

A blonde, petite, tea-saucer-sized woman leaned over the table and said, “Let me ask you a question.. How many Ukrainian-language schools exist in Russia? When the author of the article answered zero, she confirmed that this is exactly the case.. And then she recalled the situation with Vladimir Senishin, who tried to open such a school in Tula. It all ended with his murder outside his house on a well-lit street.. Cause of death - fractured skull, stab wounds in the right temple, penetrating wounds of the face. The police never found the killers.. Shortly thereafter, his wife, Natalya Kovaleva, who was a member of the Ukrainians in Russia organization, was also beaten so badly that she ended up in intensive care.. In this case, too, the culprits were not found..

“All this happened not last year or after the second Maidan in 2013, but back in 2006,” Podolyak said.. – The reason why the Russians are here is because we successfully won our freedoms after the Maidan in 2013. They hate us for it,” she added..

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And what about the possibilities of the Russian Maidan, acts of resistance like the act of Ovsyannikova? But what about opposition leader Alexei Navalny? All this is unimportant?

\! ”, Podolyak said and showed a message on Twitter. In it, Navalny wrote that it is one thing if Putin kills Ukrainian civilians and destroys critical infrastructure with the approval of the Russians.. And it’s completely different if the bloody adventure does not enjoy the support of society. Podolyak asked the journalist to look at the comments under the message. Navalny understands that every day of Russian silence is a disaster. And not for the Ukrainian victims, on whom the Russians do not care, but for Russia. Podolyak's distrust of Navalny comes from the fact that he is also a Russian nationalist. And it may be that the oppositionist is even worse than Putin. Because the West praises him and turns a blind eye if he opposes Ukraine. The journalist again mentioned the act of Ovsyannikova.

\? The propagandist came to TV with a poster and we should thank her? She worked on Channel One for 8 years... 8 years! "

" Perhaps you cannot understand this or you think that I am offended by the Russians or even unfair towards them. What I feel for the Russians is not hatred, it's indifference. I don't care about their suffering. And I think the world should treat them that way too. But you're an American, so maybe you don't understand. In your country, life is the pursuit of happiness. We don't live here. Our life is about survival. That's how it's always been. And one country is to blame for this,” she explained..