Empathy For Ukrainians
Author: Альона Шевченко
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I seriously can't believe I have to explain to people that they should have empathy for Ukrainians and that empathy means more than putting a Ukrainian flag in your Twitter username.
I wake up and go to bed with an awful feeling of guilt every day. I always feel like I haven't done enough to prevent or stop #GenocideOfUkrainians. russians mostly feel none of that guilt. The sense of personal responsibility is not familiar to them.
1/ Ukrainians don't complain much but I hope they don't mind me saying this: I speak 4 languages and none of them has words that can describe how much it hurts to be one of us these days.
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Each of us has been in agony from 1000s propaganda cuts. Literally, lie on a lie on a lie.
Meanwhile they have the audacity to talk about how they are discriminated and how they suffer. People are quick to feel bad for them - a russian person's feelings are more important than Ukrainian people being literally slaughtered as you read this
7/ - 1.2m Ukrainians forcefully deported
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- hundreds of children killed
- hundreds of thousands of war crimes
- over 3000 airstrikes
- my friends and family members live in bomb shelters
0 apologies from russians, germans or pretty much anyone else
https://t.co/8z06i7nSHl
I don't know who hasn't noticed yet but I'm not very easily guilt tripped.
Hate is a powerful emotion that Ukrainians are not allowed because they are seen as inferior.
That's why I advocate for our right to hate - the most normal response.
9/ We have every right to be angry and to hate (!) the people, countries and organisations responsible for this war. We won't ever be blinded by hatred like russians are right now - for no reason. We don't have it in us. So fuck off if you're worrying about "russophobia". https://t.co/fOR99emyYg
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Look at this. Is it putin doing all this? How many people do you need to forcibly deport 1.2m Ukrainians, does someone want to tell me? Don't chat shit to me about "just a few russians"? People trying to make me feel guilty should be ashamed of themselves
⚡️ Zelensky: Over 200,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia continues to forcibly move both adults and children into mostly remote areas of Russia, underscoring that this is one of Moscow’s “most heinous war crimes.”
I AM NOT JOKING: I am in Spain for a few days and as I picked up the phone to talk to my Dad in Ukrainian these two Russian women next to me turned on Russia’s main propaganda channel on their phone and started blasting it out loud. WHAT THE FUCK.
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I know it's shocking news, but I may be better placed to comment on how Ukrainians should behave. I may know our history better. I may know russians better than people lecturing me about russians. People who do know them do not patronise me. They understand.
Here's the open letter I published 3 days before the invasion.
I'm often reminded that every russian person is an individual. Question: what did those individuals do with their personal autonomy?
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we also need to read this war as a total moral collapse of the Russian people. Not only they failed to stop it, or even oppose it - but, in their majority, they support it and internalize it. Majority of Russians really think that bombing Ukrainian children is a nice thing to do
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The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging that it exists. What are we acknowledging these days, russophobia? During genocide? Are we out of our minds completely? Ukrainians have been wronged on every level and we are being lectured that we should worry about russians?
What if this convo was the other way around? If I told this man he was as bad as russians, that he was an idiot, a hypocrite, that he needs to educate himself (which he does, btw), that there was clearly something wrong with him? These are just some of the things he told me
1/ Expectations for a Ukrainian: Apologise to russians.
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This conversation happened in Twitter Spaces a couple days ago in front of 400 people. Sharing so it's easier to understand what I have to deal with every other day.
#GenocideOfUkrainians
https://t.co/MqyvVvvUc4
@sellieyoung @planet_stoopid @NanTyrus @soappman @CarolynHodgman @cryptodrftng @CajunBlueAZ1 @Jr3597 @bonesknight @CECILIESTURICH @perrigracet @BrokenDaffodil @tiinakatariina @lmv6719 @greyeyess33 @789Bigsky @GranShinobi @blackdogday22 @MindfulWebz @leslibader I belong to a demographic where I am "guilty until proven innocent" in many situations. I don't begrudge this reality for a moment or think that anyone who regards me in this way is doing anything evil or wrong. It's my job to deal, not their job to give me a "safe space."
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@rendissimo @cryptodrftng Furthermore there's a concrete proof to the latter. Ukrainian Secret Service have since released Jesus I don't know dozens and dozens if not hundred of intercepted phone calls where ruzzkies and their family members show their utmost support of the atrocities being committed.
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Survival advice from the National Security Service for different attack types:
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⁃Multiple launch rocket systems (MLPS)
⁃Artillery shelling
⁃Firearms shooting
#Ukraine #StandWithUkraine #CivilDefence
P.S. I’m gonna have a couple words to say about 🇷🇺/🇧🇾 when this ends. https://t.co/YNdjmaM50h
This literally happened at 5am when I was asking to please excuse myself because I was too tired and needed to rest.
@soappman @CarolynHodgman @cryptodrftng @CajunBlueAZ1 @Jr3597 @bonesknight @CECILIESTURICH @perrigracet @BrokenDaffodil @tiinakatariina @lmv6719 @greyeyess33 @789Bigsky @GranShinobi @blackdogday22 @MindfulWebz @sellieyoung @leslibader Says the person who followed her into a safe space just to lecture, belittle, and debase her..you have no concept of what she or any Ukrainian is going through. Keep your western lens opinions to yourself.
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@MadMax25678931 @cryptodrftng Absolutely. I don’t see many today saying “hey we shouldn’t blame all Germans for the Nazis.” German society as a whole reckoned with those excesses and learned from them. Russian society has never reckoned with anything.
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How the hell is it a controversial thing to say that russians are responsible for what's happening as a society? Of course they are! Most of them are HAPPY about what's happening. #GenocideOfUkrainians
@rendissimo @cryptodrftng EXACTLY. Germans took responsibility and went a long hard way of righting their wrongs while it doesn't seem to be the case with the russkies. They are in fact seem to be damn proud of what their soldiers are engaged in. Talk about imperialism...
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I was muted last night before I could even finish a sentence. The guy screaming at me that I should apologise to russians and that I'm an idiot wasn't muted.
@CANADA566 @cryptodrftng @GrammarDomin8rx Aaron, jekubi and Grammar’s behavior towards Alona was completely unacceptable & disrespectful. Anyone actively listening would realize she isn’t saying every Russian is bad but that there are deep seated societal and cultural issues ingrained in large swaths of the pop that 1/
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This should be obvious to everyone, no? Why does this have to be explained?
@CANADA566 @stlp9056 @cryptodrftng @GrammarDomin8rx Ukrainians are too exhausted and traumatized to sort Russians and give them the benefit of the doubt, when we've experienced abuse at their hands for centuries. It's up to Russians to prove themselves, not Ukrainians to think the best of them.
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Omg never happened before and here we go again
Aargh again some westerners complaining how Ukrainians should feel🤮
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@cryptodrftng @LvivNightingale @ndboulton https://t.co/wiQpT3EBZO