my old flat was near there when i was working in kyiv in 2014. i remember there being an anti-US protest that looked similar from around that time. to be honest, i feel a little in the dark about what is going on right now, but from what i can remember about living in kyiv was that the people (predominantly) who were “pro” Russia were a lot of older folks. i don’t really remember anyone of a less mature age who was supportive of Russia…there seems to be a lot of older folks in these pictures and from what i can remember the protests from around the time i was there was the same. a lot of the older folks seemed to have happy memories of the USSR, but everyone i knew who was younger disdained anything having to do with Russia and hated living in the USSR as children.
who knows?
i only had the experience of living in ukraine as an american, but either way, i think living under the USSR would be worse in a lot of ways. that isn’t to say that the US can improve a lot in terms of social and economic equity, and also foreign policy. i don’t think the US will get involved with ukraine, even in 2014 people were saying that we would get involved but that never happened and from what i can tell a lot of the conflict has been concentrated to the east (at least from steppe notifications i get from time to time)
The reality of the situation is that Ukraine is doing a lot worse after US sponsored color revolution than it did before. It’s now the poorest country in Europe and there are no prospects of things getting better going forward. People you met when you were in Ukraine grew up in the time after USSR collapse, and they expected that Ukraine would become like the west once it moved into western sphere of influence. Yet, after 2014 things continued to get worse, and young people have only seen their prospects continuously get worse, so there is a lot of disillusionment with the west at this point.
Meanwhile, life in USSR was far better for the vast majority of the people. Material conditions have been deteriorating drastically for the vast majority of people in former republics.
thanks for the response. do you think that ukraine would ever split? i’m sure that there are a lot of people disillusioned with the US and the EU, but at the same time, i think that just as many are disillusioned by Russia and the USSR. i haven’t been back to ukraine since 2014, and haven’t kept up on how things are going, but the friends i did make there have been trying to get out of ukraine. the family i was close to was trying to make their way to poland, and the other good friend i made ended up in chicago. they like ukraine, but are tired of the lack of opportunities.
Ukraine becoming Balkanized is a distinct possibility at this point. As economic situation continues to spiral out of control, tensions are going to continue building between different groups. Most of the eastern part of Ukraine is Russian speaking and would be more sympathetic to aligning with Russia. Meanwhile, western Ukraine is dominated by Ukrainian nationalists who have been in power since 2014. Zelensky ran on a campaign of reconciliation, however that never really materialized so far.
And yeah, there has been a huge amount of immigration out of Ukraine which feeds into economic problems. Now, with the threat of war the economy is starting to unravel completely since all the investors are pulling out their assets while they can. If the economy collapses, then Ukraine might cease to exist as a country.
my old flat was near there when i was working in kyiv in 2014. i remember there being an anti-US protest that looked similar from around that time. to be honest, i feel a little in the dark about what is going on right now, but from what i can remember about living in kyiv was that the people (predominantly) who were “pro” Russia were a lot of older folks. i don’t really remember anyone of a less mature age who was supportive of Russia…there seems to be a lot of older folks in these pictures and from what i can remember the protests from around the time i was there was the same. a lot of the older folks seemed to have happy memories of the USSR, but everyone i knew who was younger disdained anything having to do with Russia and hated living in the USSR as children.
who knows?
i only had the experience of living in ukraine as an american, but either way, i think living under the USSR would be worse in a lot of ways. that isn’t to say that the US can improve a lot in terms of social and economic equity, and also foreign policy. i don’t think the US will get involved with ukraine, even in 2014 people were saying that we would get involved but that never happened and from what i can tell a lot of the conflict has been concentrated to the east (at least from steppe notifications i get from time to time)
The reality of the situation is that Ukraine is doing a lot worse after US sponsored color revolution than it did before. It’s now the poorest country in Europe and there are no prospects of things getting better going forward. People you met when you were in Ukraine grew up in the time after USSR collapse, and they expected that Ukraine would become like the west once it moved into western sphere of influence. Yet, after 2014 things continued to get worse, and young people have only seen their prospects continuously get worse, so there is a lot of disillusionment with the west at this point.
Meanwhile, life in USSR was far better for the vast majority of the people. Material conditions have been deteriorating drastically for the vast majority of people in former republics.
thanks for the response. do you think that ukraine would ever split? i’m sure that there are a lot of people disillusioned with the US and the EU, but at the same time, i think that just as many are disillusioned by Russia and the USSR. i haven’t been back to ukraine since 2014, and haven’t kept up on how things are going, but the friends i did make there have been trying to get out of ukraine. the family i was close to was trying to make their way to poland, and the other good friend i made ended up in chicago. they like ukraine, but are tired of the lack of opportunities.
Ukraine becoming Balkanized is a distinct possibility at this point. As economic situation continues to spiral out of control, tensions are going to continue building between different groups. Most of the eastern part of Ukraine is Russian speaking and would be more sympathetic to aligning with Russia. Meanwhile, western Ukraine is dominated by Ukrainian nationalists who have been in power since 2014. Zelensky ran on a campaign of reconciliation, however that never really materialized so far.
And yeah, there has been a huge amount of immigration out of Ukraine which feeds into economic problems. Now, with the threat of war the economy is starting to unravel completely since all the investors are pulling out their assets while they can. If the economy collapses, then Ukraine might cease to exist as a country.