Baba Liza went back to Russia in October, after spending her birthday with family there she had plans to return to my husband’s family this summer, but now it seems almost certain that will not happen.
My husband still has many family members in Russia, and friends from his youth that he keeps in touch with on VK. He tells me many of them are afraid what is going to happen to them now, he tells me that the majority don’t support what is happening with this invasion of the Ukraine by what he estimates to be about 60% , but those who protest are arrested by the thousands.
Others that do support what’s happening he says do so because the media outlets have depicted Ukranians as abusive to Russians on their soil, but my husband himself says he hasn’t seen any evidence of that himself beyond controlled media. Another girl we know who came to the U.S. from Russia in her teens posts videos on how its somehow the wests fault that this is happening after a 2014 coup, but I personally can not find the link. We fear for his family as the sanctions that are implemented by not only the U.S but other countries form a sort of noose that will choke the citizens before the oligarchs feel the weight of their actions.
I follow thousands of artists on Instagram, a few of them who are in the epicenter of the invasion share the devastation that is occurring all around them. Bombs dropping, buildings burning, charred husks of human remains , people being ran over by tanks, children murdered. The few gunshots I heard outside our home pale in comparison to this.
The countries that surround them have begun posturing for the inevitability of a larger war with applications to Nato and increased defense spending, vowing to provide the Ukraine with more munitions for defense. My auntie in aromatic who works in psychiatry has taken a personal position with refugees seeking sanctuary . My former coworker who hails from Moldova was at the local protests and is raising money for refugees. Russian artists I follow publicly denounce what is happening before their access to Facebook communications are cut from within. I read that hacks are tracking the oligarchs and displaying their movements on Twitter.
Belarus and Chechnya are set to aid Russia on the ground as China sends its own signals by flying warplanes over Taiwan. I read that China actually halted the evacuations of its own people in the Ukraine to wait until its safe and I suspect that has something to do with a demonstration of allyship before they proceed with a larger collaboration.
My husband got his citizenship before we got married and things as they are now prove that to have been a prudent decision.
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