A viral video this week of a Russian couple who are volunteers in occupied Ukraine. They were shocked at their treatment by native Ukrainians who don't regard them as liberators. Far from it. Most times, with their Russian license plate, they're refused service at gas stations. And besides all the rude comments, they fear for their safety, and they even try not to spend nights there for fear of not waking up.
And if the video strikes you as some bizarre exercise in cognitive dissonance where they regard the native Ukrainians as "traitors", I'll remind you again that this is how ordinary Russians are taught. It makes no sense at all to the rest of us, but to them it does.
Source: Anton Gerashenko translation
“The fact is that a lot of locals here are leaking information. While we have been in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, it seems to me that at least 70% of the locals are against our “Russian World.” They are against us. Not even 50%, but 70%, maybe more. In Zaporizhzhia, we have to drive to the third most distant gas station because the first two won’t sell to us. They tell us to get our gas from Putin. They speak to us only in Ukrainian.”
“I met with an older couple, a grandfather and grandmother, who said, “I am Ukrainian to the marrow of my bones; I will always be Ukrainian. We don’t need your “Russian World.” I will always be for Ukraine.”
“There is nothing we can do. The people have divided. That’s how they want to live. Therefore, there are a lot of traitors. Very many. We need to fear the local population just as much as we fear the Armed Forces of Ukraine. No matter what time we go there, early in the morning, whenever, even though there is a curfew, it’s dangerous everywhere. Even with Russian troops around, we are not safe. To stay overnight there means we won’t wake up in the morning. We spend our nights in Russia.”
“We can expect to have peace there… well. It depends on what you mean by ‘peace.’ When I used to go to Ukraine 25 years ago, we would go to Kharkiv for the weekend to visit home and buy cakes, relax, see friends… It will never be like that again. It will not be like that in 100 years, I think. There is no way we can become friends again.”
