The people who were saving Jews risking their lives officially recognized by the state of Israel.

Volodymyr Kukharenko

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Jan 19, 2024

I want to share an experience of Ukrainians interacting with some Russians at conferences before the full-scale war. I’ll skip the names, but be assured these stories are real, one of them is my own.

1.     A drunk Russian comes to a Ukrainian someday in 2019, looks at him, and asks “Are you from Ukraine?”. Ukrainian answers “Yes”. The Russian responds with the words “Hei1 Hit1er!” followed by a Nazi gesture and goes away. The Ukrainian stands baffled.

2.     The same drunk Russian on a different conference comes to a different Ukrainian and starts bullying him. That Ukrainian is a peaceful sort of personality, you know, the kind of person that goes to the mountains to meditate and avoids negative energy. But even he lost his temper and loudly said “Go F yourself!” to the bully. Surprisingly (or not?) the “bear” backed off and started looking at the person with respect. This is the way Russia is, it stops when you show strength instead of polite mumbling.

3.     It happened just several months before the war. Conference was over, and some of the participants gathered to have farewell dinner in a restaurant. They started to talk about future conferences, and a Ukrainian said that he would never go to the one that happens in Russia because Russia is an aggressor that brought war to Ukraine in 2014. A Russian that heard it started telling that it’s different and that Ukrainian is… a victim of propaganda. And finally told that there is a Nazi movement in Ukraine and Jews are prosecuted. It was a very rude manipulation, obviously targeted 3 Israelis who were sitting next to them. Ukrainian responded, “Then how come we have a Jew as president?”. The reply was “Well, he’s from a different region, but in Western Ukraine they hate Jews!”. “Any cases registered?”. “Uhm, no. But during WW2 they cooperated with Nazis!”.

The discussion was over, as at that time I did not know that Ukraine has 4th biggest number of “the righteous ones” (the people who were saving Jews risking their lives) officially recognized by the state of Israel. Recent polls show that in Ukraine the level of anti-Semitism is the lowest in Europe. But that Russian person fell into Russian propaganda about Nazis, and used cheap manipulation to convince the Israelis at the table about that. To add to the picture, this person does not live in Russia and does not like Putin. This is how deep the propaganda goes into Russians even if they resist. Educated and successful Russians.

Of course, there were exceptions among Russians I knew, 1-2 out of a hundred. The ones who understood and felt guilt, the ones who said they were ashamed of their country, the ones who were begging to forgive even though they did nothing personally, and were not able to stay in Russia anymore. But they were so few that it is easy to remember all their names. I will respect them as strong people with integrity and will despise others as those who are just puppets that can be used by anyone.

…………..

Another great post by Volodymyr from yesterday;

Aren’t Ukrainians grateful for the help given? Why are they asking more?
Let me explain it by the analogy.

Imagine you or someone you love has a serious health problem that needs urgent surgery, or you die. And you need 300k dollars for that. You ask your rich friend for help, and he gives you 100k.  You take it, but you can’t still afford surgery. But you can afford some therapy that can help you feel better and live a couple of years more. But after going through that therapy, you still need surgery. So while you are grateful for the help, you still need 300k or you die. So you ask again… But come in wrong time , when your friend has some family quarell that you don’t fully understand.

Here in Ukraine we understand very well that we as a country survived thanks to the Western help and the self-sacrifice of our army. I understand very well that I may live mostly safely because Russian rockets are shot down by the anti-air defense. And our war-torn economy is supported from outside. But the geopolitical cancer named Russia is still here with the clear intention to kill us. It can’t be negotiated, it’s against the nature of the desease. And we know you have a cure. Just a week ago you used it against Houthis to protect naval trade, over 100 rockets in 2 days, as if it was nothing. That were Tomahawk rockets which are way more powerful than several ATACMS rockets that we got after 1.5. years of asking, and still asking for more.

This won’t end until you make up your mind at last. And we will do this surgery ourselves, not even your doctors are needed. Just give us the tools. For surgery, not for therapy.