AUBGers on the Ukranian Crisis




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  • 2014-03-28 21:08:38
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With the tension rising between Ukraine and Russia, AUBG Daily decided to interview some of the Ukrainian students on campus and get their opinion on the issue. Here's what Nikita Shcherbak, a fourth-year student from Ukraine, shared:

What is your overall opinion about the situation in Ukraine? It seems pretty clear to me that we have overthrown, through a revolutionary change, the previous government, which consisted primarily of criminals. Right now, what’s happening with this crisis is that Russia is using some fake arguments of protecting Russians, who have never been threatened, and it [Russia] is trying to intervene.
Do you believe that there could be a war between Ukraine and Russia, and, if so, do you think that other major powers might intervene? If you had asked me the question about the possibility of war between Russia and Ukraine a few months ago, I would assure you that it would never ever happen, because that’s what I thought. We are brother nations and all that, but right now, with Russian media strongly using propaganda, which seems to be working, I can’t be so sure, so I will say "yes." There is a possibility of a full-scale military conflict, which saddens me more than ever, because from a diplomatic standpoint, from an international relations standpoint, from a moral standpoint, it’s wrong. If Ukraine reaches a full-scale military conflict with Russia, I believe and I hope that Western powers will intervene both with economic sanctions and military. If they fail to do so, this has the potential to jeopardize the entire international relations system that we have been so carefully building since World War II. How have the protests and the entire situation affected you personally?
I was protesting for a month during the winter break in Kharkov, which is in Eastern Ukraine, so the city had a strong sentiment supporting the previous government. It kind of felt like I was in the enemy trenches, which was quite sad. How the protest affected me and all of Ukraine is - you become more conscious of your national identity, more conscious of who you are and what you’re seeking for. Constitution, freedom, human rights are one thing when you read them on paper or study them in school. It is another thing when you make a conscious decision that you want to stand for your rights and you want to stand for your freedom. You go out on the streets and you stay there, and you get beaten up for it. Later on, when the situation got worse, people got killed for it. This is the, I believe, ultimate achievement of the revolution that people become more conscious of who they are, and now we see the birth of a civil society, which was pretty much nonexistent before. This, hopefully, can lead to a birth of a new Ukrainian nation, which starts in the minds of the people.
How has this protest affected your family?
My mother was protesting almost from the very beginning. Close to a week after the protest started - on November 30the peaceful protesters, mostly students, got brutally beaten in Kiev by riot police. Since the beginning of December, she tried to attend the protests every possible evening, not always, because she works hard, but every time she could, she did. A few times I was in the sort of self-defense squad, which happened in Ukraine, because protests face a lot of hostility from both the police and the pro-government supporters. Most males, who were fit to basically make a line and protect the protesters from anybody who is hostile toward them, joined the self-defense squad. Naturally, I had the potential, and I did get into more trouble than my mother did.
Have you and/or do you intend to do something more to help with the protests? We have to face the reality that the majority of Crimea is ethnic Russians, and if they are so into the idea of being with Russia, and they seem to be, even taking into consideration that it is all happening at the gunpoint of pro-Russian or Russian soldiers. We cannot force them to be in Ukraine. My only concern with the Crimean situation is that referendum cannot be recognized as democratic, because it’s happening with strong Russian military presence, and they are not letting international observers to be present at this referendum. If, however, the events reach a full scale military conflict, which puts my region in danger, since my city is one of the Eastern regions; if Putin has any goals which go further than Crimea, then my region would be one of the first of these goals. If this happens, I will probably join the army, because the situation outweighs all the losses I will face, like not graduating on time or not being able to work and earn money, but I will be losing my country. I will not have a country to return to. Other than that, I’ve been a few times to the Ukrainian community protests in Sofia, mostly in front of the Russian Embassy. Apart from that, I’m posting articles and translating stuff from Ukrainian and Russian to English, so that my friends know what's happening. Those actions of mine hopefully raise awareness. I’ve had people thanking me for translating because they can better follow the situation.