Watching Putin on TV talk about “Russian world,” the Russian-speaking people from the corners of the former Soviet Union exposed to Russian media imagine this promised world to be a bright and wealthy place full of brotherly love. They imagine how good it would for Russia to come and solve all their problems with high salaries and pensions, boosted by oil and gas sucked out of Siberia. This is the idyllic picture presented by Russian media. And that’s exactly what many of them want… but it’s not what they would get if Putin’s “Russian world” did come to them.
Proof is in the photo of the woman above. She has seen the real “Russian world.” And she continues to see it every night… It’s in her memories… Memories that haunt her.
Almost three months her town was under the attacks of war and occupation. Almost three months her city was ruled by foreign militants and local gangsters recruited by them. For those three months, people of the city were “arrested” to never be seen again or to come back maimed by torture. Almost three months of hunger, armed robberies, looting, kidnappings, rapes, killings, gun fire and shelling are reflected in this photograph. Those are the realities of Putin’s “Russian world.”
She looks much older than her 30 years. Life in a state of unrelenting blood-curling terror ages you quickly. Her eyes are focused inwardly, into her memories. What are the personal losses and destroyed lives she sees? Will her former happiness and peace ever light up her face again?
She is just one person of the hundreds of thousands in the Russia-occupied Donbas and Crimea whose lives will never be the same. Putin’s “Russian world” — the nightmare these Ukrainians have lived through or are currently living — will stay with them forever, even after it is over. It’s burned into their mind, burned into their reality. It will affect how they raise the next generation of their families.
Please help people of Ukraine to stop “Russian world.”
More about the Russian occupation of Donbas:
Why Putin replaced his Donbas negotiator
Russian who went to fight in Donbas says he was ‘not in an army but a criminal gang’
10 reasons why Ukraine’s Donbas is not and will not become a Northern Ireland
Putin deciding on next stage of Donbas war — Portnikov
Russian forces destroy one of Donbas’ largest Orthodox churches
The Warmonger: a video by Nemtsov proving Putin’s involvement in the war in Donbas
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense releases new photos of Russian military equipment destroyed in Donbas
Intercepted call reveals Russia’s concealment of Donbas casualties
Regular Russian forces attach Ukrainian army in Donbas amid so-called “ceasefire”
Povertly and slavery as the basis of separatism in Donbas
Demobilized Russian conscripts: ‘We conquered Crimea, fought in Donbas for Russia’ (VIDEO)
Putin’s strongman in Chechnya to fight Ukrainians in Donbas
Violence against women in Ukraine and war in Donbas
Kremlin is responsible for the Donbas humanitarian crisis — Yatseniuk
Putin’s locusts at work: stripping Donbas of industrial assets
Donbas caught up in protests because of poverty and hunger
Putin’s top aide managed Donbas militants — Strelkov
New civilizational divide in Donbas
International observer of “elections” in Donbas admits they were paid by Russia
The future of Donbas: Ukraine or nothing
The ‘Tribunal’ in Donbas votes for the death penalty
Russian neo-Nazis fighting for separatist “republics” in Donbas (English Video)
Crimes of pro-Russian militants against civilians in Donbas: kidnapping, looting and executions
Terrorists in Donbas using SS methods — SBU
He was not volunteer, tells wife of Russian officer killed in Donbas
Minister of Ecology: Russian troops are ruining Donbas’ environment
Head of the National Fiscal Service: Nearly 600 enterprises destroyed in Donbas
NSDC: Russia’s military casualties in Donbas up to 2,000 corpses hidden in coal mines
Russian military authorities admit troops dying in Donbas
Mercenaries in Donbas persecute “non-Orthodox” Christians
Survey reveals dismal support for separatism in Donbas
Donbas townspeople get rid of terrorists
How political technologists are fooling people in Donbas
Donbas civilians forced to join terrorist militias
