Ukrainians woke up Wednesday morning…almost surprised. “I went to bed yesterday telling myself that it was perhaps the last time I would see Kiev as it is,” says Tonia Zakorchemna. The American intelligence services had announced a probable attack by Russia on Ukraine overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. “As soon as I woke up, I opened my phone and saw that nothing had happened. »
Relieved, Tonia Zakorchemna went like several other young Ukrainians to Maidan Square, in the center of Kiev, on Wednesday morning to mark the first National Day of Unity. An improvised celebration, hastily announced two days earlier by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“It’s really good that our president has reversed the situation,” said the 21-year-old student. He made this day of fear a day of pride. Yellow and blue flags, in the colors of Ukraine, were hoisted across the country. And rallies, taking the form of human chains or even military parades, have been held across Ukraine.
In Maidan, dozens of people sang the national anthem at 10 a.m. “War is fear, it’s blood, it’s crying mothers and soldiers digging trenches,” said Olena Stadnik, who works for the Ukrainian postal service.
“But if necessary, it will be worth fighting back so as not to return to the days of the USSR. We want to be free to choose our future and free to say and think what we want. »
Although they say they are staying calm and going about their usual business, Tonia Zakorchemna and Olena Stadnik have both packed emergency bags and provisions in case Russia drops bombs, sends in tanks or launches a large-scale computer attack that would sow chaos in the country of more than 43 million inhabitants.
“With a group of students, I also attended a workshop on emergency health care given by men who fought in 2014 in the Donbass”, adds Tonia, visibly stunned to have to prepare in this way.
The Shadow of Maidan
Wednesday’s rally was held in Maidan, where eight years earlier thousands of young Ukrainians, eager for a future in Europe rather than Russia, had ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych from power. “It is a symbolic place that represents the strong link that exists between what happened at the time and the situation in which we find ourselves today,” said Oleksandr Sanchenko, who heads the youth wing of the party. Servant of the people, President Zelensky’s training.
“If we hadn’t made the revolution, we would be like Belarus today, we would be eating out of Putin’s hand,” he adds, a Ukrainian flag on his shoulders. This fight to preserve the sovereignty of Ukraine continues eight years later, but this time, in enhanced international solidarity. “We feel the support of certain countries. At the moment, the more military equipment we are sent, the lower the chances that Russia will attack us,” says Oleksandr Sanchenko.
A vision shared by MP Roman Gryschuk, from the ruling party, whom he met earlier this week in a cafe located a few steps from the Ukrainian parliament. “This is our war, and we are going to fight it. We understand that no foreign troops will come to fight alongside us. But send us weapons”, he asks.
Canada announced on Monday the shipment of lethal military equipment to Ukraine, including machine guns and ammunition, worth $7.8 million. Aid that symbolizes a change of tone on the part of the Trudeau government, which had until then limited the sending of material to defensive equipment.
A reinforced identity
According to MP Gryschuk, the West must understand that Ukraine is the “demarcation line” that offers protection to Europe. “Right now, it’s not just our country that we’re protecting, it’s also democracy and respect for human rights,” he says. We are witnessing a conflict between Western values and a dictatorship. »
Ukraine is much better prepared to confront its imperialist neighbor today than it was in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian separatists began to occupy Donbass, says he. “Putin made Ukrainians understand who they are. Today we are stronger [militairement] and more united. »
The conflict with Russia — which has been dragging on for eight years — has created a rallying “around the idea of Ukraine as a nation-state and around its territorial integrity”, adds Volodymyr Dubovyk, professor of relations studies and director of the Center for International Studies at Mechnikov University in Odessa, southern Ukraine.
“If there are historical similarities between our two peoples, there are fewer now because of, or thanks to, Putin,” he says. Because of what he did to Ukraine, many Ukrainians who felt close to Russia now feel more like we are two separate peoples. »
A survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that the proportion of Ukrainians who have a positive image of Russia has fallen from almost 80% in February 2014 to 39% in November 2021. At the same time, a A Pew Research Center survey found that Ukrainian support for their country’s membership of the European Union had taken the opposite path: it stood at 63% in 2014, compared to 79% in 2019.
By wanting to consolidate by force the idea that Ukrainians and Russians form a single people, Vladimir Putin will probably have created the opposite effect. “I wouldn’t want to have been born anywhere else but here,” says Tonia Zakorchemna, on Maidan Square. Ukraine is my ideas, my values, my family. And my national anthem represents the heart of it all. »
With Bohdan Chaban and Daniel Kovzhun
This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund-The duty.