Ukrainian Confliction
"I am born in Sevastopol, and you know the history of that city. It has been Russian almost its entire existence."
"I think of my parents. If Crimea becomes part of Russia, with all its oil and gas, it could be good for them. It might be good if part of the country is Russian and part of it stays in Ukraine."
Roman Vasilihin, Ukrainian businessman
("Russians are our brothers" [Crimean Parliament speaker Vladimir Konstantiov stated, asking a crowd in Lenin Square how it would vote in the March 16 referendum]. Russia! Russia! We are going back home to the motherland.")
"I feel Ukrainian, not Russian, and I don't want my country to be an arena for a fight between the East and the West. Each wants to influence the world but doing this on our territory leaves us with all the problems."
Tatyana Kosenko, Kyiv Ukrainian
"This is our land. Our fathers and grandfathers have spilled their blood for this land. And we won't budge a single centimetre from Ukrainian land."REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili An abandoned naval ship sunk by the Russian navy to block the entrance is seen in the Crimean port of Yevpatorya March 8, 2014.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
Travelling from Kyiv to Crimea, an overnight run of 17 hours carrying 400 train passengers brought together devout nationalist Ukrainians and Crimean Ukrainians speaking Russian or Ukrainian and Russian interchangeably, devoted to the idea of closer ties with Russia. Ties so close they are prepared to sunder those formal ties with the Ukraine, and transform from an Ukrainian autonomous region to a Russian possession in fact, not in the breach of reality.
Those aboard quietly exchanged views without resulting recrimination. They spoke quietly and with civility as befits civil, educated people. The thugs on either side had no appearance on that travelling caravan of Ukrainians exploring their minds and conveying the feelings they find therein to their compatriots. They behaved in that manner without the inciting presence of government bureaucrats, police, soldiers of club-wielding vigilantes.
They shared insights into their heritage-laden psyches, speaking of the personal as it impinged on their consciousness and their anguish over the separation of the country they love. Mr. Vasilihin spoke of the bloodshed in Kyiv's Independence Square and the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych. The Russian troops, he noted in their defence, now evident in large numbers had never harmed anyone; they are simply vigilant in their duty to protect the Black Sea Fleet and Russia's interests.
Vyachislav Kosenko, speaking Russian, even with his wife Tatyana, who speaks Ukrainian, ventured the opinion that their devotion is to the Ukrainian ideal, but he had high hopes that unity would ultimately prevail, that "all the people here understand each other. It is the politicians that put us in conflict."
What they all foresaw, however, was that the direction Ukraine is now headed in, will not be readily solved, that the country and the people have been placed in a miserable situation which will not be easily solved, predicting future instability, even that a civil war could erupt. The country is divided in other ways. While Kyiv looks prosperous and modern, a brief journey outside the capital exposes an earlier time of poverty and neglect frozen in time.
Grain elevators, factories and homes that were built during the glory days of the Soviet Union -- and its collectivist memories and cheap and shoddy construction, disappointing factory output, deficient cultivation and harvests -- represent a crumbling infrastructure where renewal never occurred. Derelict buildings, roads and bridges in stark disrepair, illustrate the neglect of the years and the inefficient and corrupt government that was responsible for it all.
Approaching Crimea it seems as though that neglect hadn't entrenched itself as deeply. And there, spring is arriving. Spring with its natural renewal seems to give hope for the future to everyone even in the midst of despair over conflicting views that result in violence and upheaval. Mr. Vasilihin, the Crimean who expressed his wish for Russia to take possession of the peninsula, still has confidence in Ukraine.
[If Crimea were to secede] "and I end up with a Russian passport, I hope the Ukrainians will allow me to continue living in Kyiv. My business can do better there than in Crimea".
Labels: Conflict, Human Relations, Intervention, Revolution, Russia, Ukraine
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