Ukraine“It’s my homeland,” the retiree told AFP after having participated in the “demonstration for unity” that brought together thousands of people in the country’s second largest city and was called by nationalist organizations.
“I was born on crimea“, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, he says. “One homeland has already been taken from me, that’s enough! I grew up here, I live here, my parents are from Russia but I don’t want to see any squatters,” he adds. “This is my house, these are my rules,” he insists.
Russia has deployed more than 100,000 soldiers along the border Ukrainian, which makes Westerners fear that it is preparing an invasion.
But Russia denies it and says it is threatened by the NATO, which he asks not to expand to include Ukraine and withdraw from Eastern Europe.
Kharkiv, an industrial and university city of 1.5 million people, many of whom are Russian-speakers, is right next to the Russian border. And for that, it is in the eye of the hurricane.
In an interview with The Washington Post, the Ukrainian president himself, Volodymyr Zelensky, explicitly mentioned the possibility of it being “occupied” if the Russians continue to “escalate”.
“They are going to do it in territories historically populated by people with family ties to Russia,” he said.
In 2014, an uprising by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine following a pro-Western revolution was marked by violence when pro-Russian rebels attacked the regional administration with Molotov cocktails.
Some saw Kharkiv going the way of Donetsk Y Lugansk, converted into “capitals” of self-proclaimed republics by pro-Russian separatists at war with Ukrainian forces, a conflict that has left more than 13,000 dead. But the Ukrainian troops intervened to keep calm.
“In 2014 there was a panic,” recalled Iryna Gaieva. “This time there is no panic, but anger: do you want to come? Come!”, he exclaimed defiantly addressing the Russian military.
Beside him, Nadia Rynguina is even more categorical: “In 2014 the question was, do we have to get the Russians out? That is no longer asked.”
“The situation has changed, we have an army worthy of the name, we have citizens ready to defend the country,” he says.
In case of intervention, Iuri Chmylev, 79, warns that “it will not be a walk” for the Russian army.
“In 2014 we were afraid to show a blue and yellow flag, but now look,” he says pointing to the gathered crowd.
Behind a large “Kharkov is Ukraine” banner, protesters paraded between the two main squares chanting patriotic slogans and the national anthem, carrying banners calling on the British and Americans to send weapons to Ukraine.
Galyna Kuts, a Kharkov political scientist present at the rally, says President Zelensky’s statements about a possible occupation of the city have caused concern.
“Everyone calls to ask what to do or run,” he says. But “Kharkov has lived under constant threat of invasion for nine years. Somehow we got used to it people have changed, they have experience to survive and they know how to react”.
Source: Ambito
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