Russia justified its invasion by claiming that Ukrainians hate everything Russian. Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded our land, killed our countrymen and women, and seized our territory. Just 2 percent of Ukrainians have any positive feelings toward Russia, compared with 34 percent before the invasion. Some 53 percent of my compatriots feel anger, rage, and hatred, as a result of the invasion, according to polling conducted in May by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. But I have no way to release this emotion, and so my anger and hatred build. I am angry that my friends, my loved ones, and I are constantly in danger. I am angry that Russia, the aggressor, might get away with what it has done to Ukraine. More than ever, I find myself angry and hateful. We cannot stay the perfect victim-liberal, forgiving, kind. All of us at Mykhailivska Square that day knew that it was wrong to wish for an entire country to burn. Burn, Russia, as you’ve burnt my Mariupol, she wrote in red.įor the past several months, since Russian forces launched their latest invasion of Ukraine, we have tried to stay humane, to be better than our enemy. Then she rummaged through her handbag, took out her lipstick, and rushed to the nearest vehicle, a mobile missile launcher. The family was particularly keen to see Kyiv’s Glass Bridge, a tourist attraction that opened three years ago with a transparent floor.Īs we headed on our way, we passed by Mykhailivska Square, where the authorities had put on an exhibition of destroyed Russian tanks, vehicles that had been commandeered by Ukrainian forces near the capital, hoping to remind us all-as if any reminder were needed-that the Russians may have been held back in their assault on Kyiv, but the war was still raging. We talked about life in Mariupol, but quickly moved on to our itinerary for the day. Natalya was wearing a summer dress when she saw me, she smiled and gave me a hug. Instead, they were calm, happy, even-seeming to be ordinary tourists. Sofia Square, I expected to see deeply traumatized people. Her hometown had been subject to unending bombing her apartment had been destroyed by shelling her 21-year-old son had, much like 1 million other Ukrainians, been forcibly taken to Russia her elderly mother was caught in territory occupied by Russia and its proxies she’d watched as her friends and neighbors either died from starvation, dehydration, or the brutal cold, or were shot and killed by Russian snipers. The prior few weeks had been a catalog of horrors for Natalya. She had gotten in touch after reading some of my stories about evacuees from Mariupol, and we planned a day together in Kyiv before they continued on their journey. The family had arrived the day before from Dnipro but had been living in Mariupol, which by then had been destroyed and occupied by Russian forces, and were spending a few days in the capital before heading on to western Ukraine, where they had been promised jobs and a new life. Leave us in the woods an' we're just fine.In early June, I met Natalya with her husband and stepdaughter in downtown Kyiv. TOM: Well this pipe's filled with manure!ĪLL: We're a danger to ourselves an' others. I can't even think of a word that rhymes. TOM: That's, I say, that's a rich one there, Hooter!ĬROW: He's a danger to himself an' others. JOEL: Hu da! Kinda reminds me o' Darwin's theory o' Natural Selection. TOM: Well, I think what our bright young friend's tryin' to say here is, the reason we three goofuses are asked to do these hazardous tasks outside the perimeter of normal society's rationale is, we're a danger to ourselves an' others. Now isn't it amazin' how we inferior types keep gettin' asked to do the dangerous work which should go to men more stable than us? Really is a miracle! He huu! Hooter? Ya know, Silas, it's not easy bein' a social misfit and then gettin' the added responsibility of dragnettin' the swamp for missin' townsfolk. They are searching the swamp for missing townsfolk. Joel, Tom, and Crow are dressed up as misfits in a military war. A Danger to Myself and Others is a song from the episode, Attack of the Giant Leeches.
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