Difficult, in Kiev, to find someone who is openly frightened by the concentration of Russian troops on the borders of Ukraine. However, Moscow, which demands that the country never enter NATO and that no Western armaments be deployed there, poses the threat of a new military offensive on the country with the deployment of 100,000 men. Ukraine is on the menu for US-Russian talks starting Monday, January 10, in Geneva.
Boris, non-commissioned officer of the Republican Guard, recalls that the war with Russia is already a reality in the Ukrainian Donbass: “The soldier who has been on the front lines since 2014, he does not fear war. He’s been at war all this time. “ According to him, Ukrainian civilians are not panicking in the face of Moscow troops either. “When we tell them that there are Russians on the border, and that the war might well start now … But what, in your opinion, have we been doing for the last seven years? ? “, he quips.
This concentration of Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border does not worry Volodymyr Fesenko, political analyst at the Penta Institute in Kiev: “The paradox is that it frightens Westerners much more than Ukrainians “, he explains.
We have been used to this war on our border since 2014. Lhe concentration of Russian troops has been between 60,000 and 90,000 soldiers permanently since. In Crimea, on the eastern border, in the north of Ukraine, there are never less than 70,000 men “, details Volodymyr Fesenko. “And Dthem times a year, in the spring and in the fall, we have military maneuvers. And at that time, the number of Russian soldiers increases to 100,000 “, further specifies the political analyst.
“There is nothing new for us: we experience this situation twice a year!”
Volodymyr Fesenkoto franceinfo
Even the hypothetical prospect of a resumption of large-scale fighting, with a veritable Russian invasion operation throughout eastern Ukraine, does not frighten Boris, the Ukrainian non-commissioned officer. “I don’t see any logic in an invasion … why take on such a burden?”, he wonders. “Let’s say they occupy Kiev, for example. This territory, it will be necessary to make it work economically, to bring it up to standard, to find funds to rebuild … It will take a lot of effort to establish a new power there. would that be useful? “
For many Ukrainians, the Russian deployment is therefore only a phantom threat, which has above all made it possible to force the hands of the West to get them to sit down at a negotiating table.
In Kharkiv, the country’s second city, located 460 kilometers from Kiev, “we are under tension”, sums up Anastasia, a shopkeeper in the city center. In the event of a Russian offensive, the city 40 kilometers from the border with Russia would be on the front line. “But it is not only due to the military problems, completes Anastasia. There is the Covid-19, the rise in prices, the threats of war … It’s a whole situation that is tense. Everyone is tense! ” For the million and a half inhabitants, despite the festive atmosphere that reigns in the city – the Orthodox Christmas weekend requires – we must take a step back.
“You have to know how to get away from this atmosphere because if you spend your time watching the news on TV, there is enough to make you sick and have a nervous breakdown!”
Anastasia, shopkeeper in downtown Kharkivto franceinfo
In what is – paradoxically – the most Russophile of Ukrainian cities, fatigue is palpable. The threats of war, the blatant untruths, the aggressive propaganda relayed by the Russian but also Ukrainian media since the start of the Donbass war seven years ago have finished discouraging the most enduring. “I act like the snail: I hid myself in my shell”, says Anna, 70, a Russian from Kharkiv who now refuses to turn on her post. I understand what’s going on around me, but there’s nothing I can do about it. ” His confidence in information has eroded. “I don’t believe in the mass media. When the war started and everyone started throwing garbage at each other, I didn’t watch TV anymore.” It was in 2014.
Right here, “most” of residents feel more Russians than Ukrainians, says Oleg, in his 60s. This is undoubtedly the specificity of the Russians and Russophiles of Kharkiv: they can just as well adore Russia but be attached to the autonomy of Ukraine. “I don’t feel Ukrainian but we voted for the independence of Ukraine”, affirms this Russian, former interpreter of the time of the USSR. Today he has become a defender of Ukraine, which moreover makes the perfect difference between Russia and its regime. “Putin is not the image of Russia. Sooner or later he will go but Russia will stay.” This neighborhood is perfectly tolerable for Oleg, provided that the Moscow regime is less aggressive.