Being Ukrainian, born in Russia, with family friends in both countries is an insane experience. A literal distillation of convos from the last few months:
Ukrainians: We havenāt had a full night of sleep since February. No running water for months now, and now the electricity goes out. Theyāre bombing us non-stop. They aim for the houses at night, and the city center and offices and schools during the day, to kill as many civilians as possible. I sent my daughter to relative safety in Kyiv, but I donāt want to leave my mother, who had a stroke due to war-induced stress and is paralyzed. The hospitals wouldnāt take her because they were full of war casualties. She lies in bed and we hope that a missile doesnāt strike our building, because she canāt go to the bomb shelter. Iāll try to call you next time we get electricity.
Russians: Ugh its so expensive to travel to Turkey right now, we decided to take a two week holiday in Sochi instead. Itās not as nice but we have to persevere. Oh, whatās that? The news? I try not too pay too much attention to it when Iām using my VPN to access instagram and twitter, it just makes me soo sad. You know Iām not political. Hopefully this little war-sy is over soon, because I have to redecorate my house and Ikea is still closed.
Westerners whose entire political philosophy is āvibesā and who think cyrillic is a type of salad: yeah, yeah. bombing, missiles, blah BLAH yawn. Frankly the real war crime is being mean to Russians on the internet.