Dear people of “mainland” Ukraine!
I am a native of Crimea. I will not retell all the events that happened to us during these days. All the more since it is impossible to describe the feelings of hopelessness, confusion, helplessness. But one thing I ‘ll say, rather ask of you. Do not let your friends and relatives say that Crimeans sold out, were bought, or surrendered. That’s not true. We have a lot of people who see the incident as a tragedy, as the crumbling of everything that they believed in and lived by. Talk about that. We have fallen into such a terrible trap, that we can not get out of ourselves. Now we have been given specific conditions: one month to decide what state we want to be a citizen of. One month! After that, no options. And it’s not clear if those who do not want to become a citizen of Russia will have any rights. I dread to think about what will happen with the Crimean Tatars…
When I listen to some people here, whom I’ve known for many years, it seems to me that they have fallen into a mass psychosis. People are literally ready to claw out your eyes if you say that you are for Ukraine. We have already been accused of all sins: fascism, drug abuse, and other diagnoses. I confess that I was not ready for this.
I will not complain. That is not why I am writing. I just want to let you know – we are, we ‘re not giving up, we believe in Ukraine. Please do not fail yourselves and us! I believe that everything that happened on the Maidan was not in vain. At least it has brought us all together against this now.
May the Lord help us all!
Source: a letter posted on the “Украинский Юго-Восток” (Ukrainian South-East) FB community on March 26, 2014