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"In short, the situation could be described as follows: On Monday the enemy bombed Kiev and only those people who can prove that they have a systemically relevant profession are allowed to seek refuge in the subway." With this laconic, sarcastic Facebook post brings the Ukrainian writer Andrij Bondar summarizes the two topics that are currently most important for Ukraine: the war and the pandemic.
Hard lockdown in the big cities, 150,000 Russian soldiers near the border.
If this had been told to someone in Ukraine ten years ago, it would have been received as an apocalyptic fantasy, perhaps as the beginning of a dystopian novel.
But in 2021 that is exactly the reality.
A reality that inspires fear.
But how does this fear work exactly?
Since 2014, Ukrainians have gone through many stages of fear: fear on the Maidan when young men fell to the ground and their yellow and blue flags were soaked in blood.
The fear in the Crimea, when suddenly soldiers without national emblems showed up and the peninsula was cut off like a piece of cake from the Ukraine within two weeks.
Survivors' nightmares
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Since the start of the Russian aggression in Donbass in 2014, fear has spread in Ukraine like a thick fog.
Back then, more and more coffins instead of soldiers returned to the small Ukrainian villages.
More than 13,000 people died.
Fear dominated survivors' nightmares.
Some talked about it, others didn't.
There were days when the fog seemed to clear a little, but it never completely dissolved.
On muddy ground: a Ukrainian soldier on the move in Donetsk Oblast
Source: REUTERS
In Ukraine people have lived with fear for a long time.
Andrij Bondar's sarcasm is not just rhetoric, it is symptomatic.
While the West twitches nervously at the movement of Putin's troops and puts Ukraine on the front pages of newspapers again, most Ukrainians remain surprisingly calm.
They are used to the fact that there are always new provocations on the part of Russia.
The fear of the great war with which Russia is now threatening with its troop movements is also so vivid in the West because it feeds on traditional ideas of war: images of tanks, bombed cities, trenches.
The new face of the war
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Not that Ukrainians aren't afraid of it.
Ukraine was one of the main theaters of World War II, losing eight million people, including five million civilians and three million Red Army soldiers.
Of course, Ukrainians are afraid of war.
But since 2014 it has also had a different face in Ukraine.
The face of a hybrid war, marked by disinformation and propaganda, which aims to push the boundaries bit by bit and all too happy to use fear as a tool.
How can you meet him other than laughing in his face?
This can be called repression or resilience.
Or simply as a will to survive.
"There is no panic in the city," says Diana Berg in Mariupol
Source: Oleksandr Sosnovskyi
"We have lived in a permanently dangerous situation for so long that it no longer prevents us from keeping our manicure appointments on time," says Diana Berg, artist and cultural manager in Mariupol.
The port city on the Sea of Azov is only 20 kilometers from the front.
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Quite a few observers believe that the capture of Mariupol is an immediate war target of Russia.
“There is no panic in the city,” says Berg.
Mariupol went about its normal life: a demonstration against the development of the main park, workshops for young people in the cultural center "Tu", which Berg runs.
Is that a healthy protective mechanism?
“Behind this is the question of what would be left if all the threats came true.
Where to go
For me personally, it is traumatic to think about what I will do if the city is attacked.
Go on the barricades?
Flee?"
Seven years ago, Berg had to leave her hometown Donetsk when it was conquered by pro-Russian forces.
After the Ukrainian army recaptured the city in June 2014, it slowly developed into an outpost.
"You got used to living on a powder keg," says Oleksiy Radynski
Source: Anastasia Mantach
Filmmaker Oleksiy Radynski reports: “Last week I was in Donbass, just a few kilometers from the front line.
During this time, I've only seen locals speak of the current threats once.
You got used to living on a powder keg. "
In addition, Radynski has the impression that the permanent stress of war is fading somewhat against the background of the now permanent pandemic stress.
Above all, the situation of the residents of the occupied territories - the so-called Donetsk People's Republic ("DNR") and Luhansk ("LNR") - is catastrophic.
With reference to the coronavirus, the "republics" closed the transitional posts a year ago, making it impossible to travel to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
Many people were deprived of the opportunity to collect their pensions or visit their relatives.
Cynical strategy
Only with a valid reason (to visit a doctor for example) and only on certain days are currently allowed to travel from the "republics" to Ukraine.
Before the pandemic, the contact line was more permeable: people in the occupied and unoccupied part of Donbass are still closely connected.
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The reality is that “LNR” and “DNR” - we are talking about 1.6 million people - are more distant from Ukraine than ever before.
You pay with Russian rubles there, and Moscow tirelessly issues Russian passports to its residents.
Russia has controlled these areas for seven years, but at the international level it pretends to have nothing to do with them.
Fear also plays a central role in this cynical political strategy; it must be fueled in order to justify the intervention if necessary.
The propaganda is in full swing in the “People's Republics”.
It is said that the Ukrainian army intends to go on the offensive soon.
"Putin's saber rattling has something theatrical about it," says Tetyana Ogarkova
Source: via WELT
“We are much better prepared than seven years ago.
It is very reassuring to know that we now have a functioning army, ”says Tetyana Ogarkova, literary professor at the University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy and coordinator at the NGO Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
“In our estimation,” says Ogarkova, “Putin wants to communicate primarily with the West through the troop movement, not with us.
There is something theatrical about his saber rattle.
It is still dangerous for us, of course, because Putin wants to destabilize Ukraine in the long term and will use every opportunity to do so. "
She adds: “In the current situation, the contribution of culture to resisting this aggression can be to make society aware of where these provocations are taking place. We have to keep calm and be very careful. This game of exhaustion will take a long time. At least we don't feel so left alone anymore. ”She sees the signals of support from the USA as strengthening.
“It's all so absurd,” says writer and photographer Yevgenia Belorusets.
“It's lockdown.
The hospitals are full, people are dying, 40,000 deaths!
Ukraine feels like it is sitting in a basement and waiting to see if a 'real' war comes.
Russian media reaching Ukraine gave the impression that a military invasion was imminent.
Then Biden calls Putin - and suddenly there is talk in the media of relaxation. "
"Putin doesn't want peace," says Yevgenia Belorusets
Source: Olga Tsybulska
And she continues: “The war propaganda that had functioned as a warning and threat was shut down immediately.
And it got the impression that one phone call could save hundreds, maybe thousands of lives.
Do you understand what I mean?
Something as mundane as a phone call between A and B can prevent people from dying.
Would you have had to call somewhere in 2014 and would have been spared all that has happened? "
Belorusets has been touring the Donbass a lot in recent years and describes in her book "Happy Cases" the absurdities of life between war and peace.
"The situation is unpredictable because even those who are designing the future in the Kremlin may not yet know exactly what will happen next."
Pandemic and war: Ukrainian soldier in Luhansk Oblast
Source: dpa
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With the threatening backdrop, you have created various drafts, now you wait for the reactions to see how you can develop the script further.
The danger is real and demands a great deal of attention, including from the European Union.
“In the West, they talk about a potential escalation, but if you look closely you can see that the real escalation is already happening,” Belorusets adds.
Twenty Ukrainian soldiers have lost their lives since the beginning of 2021.
This shows that the last ceasefire, which came into force on July 27, 2020, is no longer effective.
There were also fatalities in the months between July and December - four soldiers died, but current developments point to a significant deterioration in the situation.
"Putin doesn't want peace," says Belorusets.
You can feel that the situation is worsening if you follow the news from the Kiev city administration.
Recently, it published an updated city map with underground hiding spots.
These include basements, private rooms, public parking spaces, the subway.
A handout for orientation for the population in order to go to the nearest bunker in the event of a bombing.
Such sober and concrete preparation for an emergency makes you shudder.
Bondar's sarcastic Facebook post suddenly becomes frighteningly realistic.
In a situation in which the enemy is omnipresent and at the same time intangible, fighting fear may be the only way out. An act of resistance and hope. As it is said in a poem by the most famous Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan: "Fear in the heart is the most brutal murderer, it robs you of love."