Dragged into U.S. politics, Ukraine’s real challenge is ending a conflict sparked by Russia-backed separatists
Tentative peace agreement that would see local elections held and then regional autonomy is sparking protests by those who see it as a capitulation to Russia.
Anna Zakharova outside Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Calgary, Alta. (Sarah Lawrynuik)
OCT. 20, 2019, THE TORONTO STAR
KYIV, UKRAINE—Anna Zakharova sits on the edge of her bed in Calgary. She opens her computer and flips through Facebook, she sees posts from her new Canadian friends going on vacation, seeing concerts. But then, inevitably, she sees more bad news from home. Another friend is dead.
The news is gutting. She feels helpless.
“You feel like a betrayer because you left, when a lot of people stayed,” she says. Zakharova fled the Ukrainian territory of Crimea during the annexation by Russia more than five years ago.
The annexation tipped off the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists that has affected millions of people. It’s a war that has dragged on in a steady state for so long, it is easy to forget it’s happening.
“You try to do something to support them or to raise awareness here — but I understand, it’s far away, people are busy with their stuff here,” Zakharova says. “But, I don’t know, I feel like nobody cares.”
Ukraine is making international headlines daily, having been hauled into American politics, notably by the now-infamous phone conversation between the two countries’ presidents this summer.
The conversation has sparked an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. The call is far from big news in Ukraine, where people wish the focus could be on the war. But despite the attitude of indifference toward the scandal, it could have significant impacts.
“This scandal will definitely influence Ukraine because we will either be seen to support Democrats or Republicans,” says Evgeniya Goryunova, a political science professor at V.I. Vernadsky Taurida National University. “Ukraine now risks losing a political ally and the military support of the United States. So it’s a very problematic issue.”
And support for the Ukrainian military is needed, in more ways than one.
Thousands of people gather in Maidan on Oct. 6, 2019 to protest President Zelenskiy’s commitment to a tentative peace agreement that would see local elections held in the eastern region known as the Donbass (Sarah Lawrynuik)
From the battlefield to Kyiv
Vyacheslav Bevz pulls on his polar fleece camo jacket and laces up his work boots. It’s a far cry from the suit he wears for his day job as minister of one of Kyiv’s churches.
He tromps through the fall leaves to the city’s military facilities, and down the chilled brick halls of the rehabilitation facility. His days volunteering as a military chaplain are filled with visits here.
Four soldiers share this room. Three with amputations, one with a leg pinned in place.
Suicide and addiction have become increasingly dire problems among veterans of the war, Bevz explains. He worries about every soldier coming home with a serious disability.
But Yegor greets Bevz with a smile as Mulder and Scully solve their latest paranormal case; “The X-Files” plays on the TV screen in the corner. Yegor didn’t feel comfortable sharing his last name, but agreed to have his photo taken.
His left leg bears the scars of battle, while his right leg has been amputated above the knee. These aren’t old wounds, but stories of the daily injuries and deaths don’t make international headlines anymore, they just add to the wartime statistics.
Yegor is from one of the towns currently occupied by pro-Russian forces in the eastern provinces. He stayed there with his family until his mother died of cancer, unable to receive medical treatment because of the conflict. His grandmother died not long after. Then he decided enough was enough.
Yegor lost his right leg above the knee after sustaining injuries from an incoming missile. (Sarah Lawrynuik)
“It was forbidden to say anything negative about Putin or Stalin,” he says. “Because of my patriotic views, I decided to leave and join the military.”
Yegor worked as a military medic until he was injured by a missile.
Yegor jokes around with the other soldiers as he puts on his prosthetic leg, spinning it upside down to hit himself in the head. He is far from self-pitying; instead he worries about the future of Ukraine. He didn’t vote for the country’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was previously a comedic actor.
On the campaign trail Zelenskiy promised his priority was to end the war. This demonstrates a misunderstanding of the conflict’s dynamics, Yegor says. His fellow soldiers nod in agreement.
“Russia will not give up,” he says with the help of a translator. “Any withdrawal on our part will only serve as our weakness and their gain. Russia will continue to expand into eastern Europe if we let them.”
Ukrainians are not shy when it comes to accusing Russia of trying, and in some cases succeeding, to destroy their country, piece by piece.
This sentiment of muted panic at the prospect of the country’s sovereignty slipping away is paired with a distinct feeling that the international community has stopped paying attention.
This summer, Russia was readmitted to the Council of Europe, and U.S. President Donald Trump encouraged world leaders to allow for Russia to return to the G7. Russia was ejected from both groups following the annexation of Crimea.
Evgeniya Goryunova was forced to leave Crimea during the annexation of the territory by Russia. She asks to be photographed in front of the globe monument in Maidan in Kyiv, because it tells her exactly how far away she is from her home. (Sarah Lawrynuik)
To Anna Zakharova in Calgary, this demonstrates how poor the international collective memory is. Goryunova, the political science professor, agrees.
“We can see business sometimes is more important than democratic values,” she says.
This forgetfulness is frustrating to soldiers, and maddening for those trying to get the word out.
Alya Shandra is the editor-in-chief of Euromaidan Press, an English-language online news outlet that was started during the 2014 revolution. Her outlet focuses on the conflict in the east as well as domestic obstacles to reform.
This summer Shandra co-authored a report that analyzed emails leaked by a group of hackers known as the Ukrainian Cyber Alliance. The emails are principally from Vladislav Surkov, an influential aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The report was published by the U.K.’s Royal United Services Institute and the emails were judged to be authentic by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. The Kremlin denied the emails were Surkov’s, insisting instead that Surkov does not use email.
The report uses the emails by Surkov and other associates to describe how Russian agents create chaos and use information warfare to fabricate a world in which deciphering truth from their alternate reality is impossible. And the use of these techniques is meant to ultimately further Russian interests.
“Ukraine really is the testing ground for Russia’s hybrid war that it exports to other countries,” she says.
Shandra explains that while the soldiers coming back from the front lines of a military conflict are a reality for Ukraine, this is only a fragment of the conflict raging, albeit the most visible one. Other measures discussed in the emails include: influencing political groups, creating activist groups to bolster separatism in different regions, and one associate even suggested “resorting to terrorist attacks on infrastructure, transport and communications,” the report reads.
“All of these things, all of these actions that Russia is pursuing,” Shandra says, “the ultimate goal is to create this virtual reality and to nudge the target country into making political decisions that Russia wants. And so far it’s been very successful, I would say.”
Peace or capitulation?
Since the beginning of October, protests have been recurring in the streets of Kyiv. People are protesting President Zelenskiy’s commitment to a tentative peace agreement that would see local elections held in the eastern region known as the Donbass, before the region would be granted special status and autonomy.
The president has said this step follows with his promise to end the conflict, and he vowed that the elections would not be held “under the barrel of a gun.” Protesters say it is capitulation to Russia, and equates to the loss of another region of the country.
These protests show the tension between the desire to defend and protect the integrity of Ukraine, and the desire to end the pain felt by the hundreds of thousands of people who continue to live in the conflict zone.
“One of the problems which Zelenskiy faces right now is everyone wants to end the war,” says Iliya Kusa, an expert in international politics at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future.
“But from the other side they don’t want to come into any agreements with Russia because they see Russia as an aggressor. And so that’s why it’s very difficult for the new government to try to even speak about this topic.”
Furthermore, Goryunova says it’s important to look at what will be left behind even if an end to the conflict is possible.
“It’s about the people who’ve lived under occupation for about five years,” she says. “Watching Russian TV really has a way of affecting people’s consciousness and so some people there, they truly believe that in Ukraine we are fascists and Nazis.”
With his promise to end the conflict, Zelenskiy was elected this spring with 73 per cent of the vote and he continues to enjoy an extraordinarily high approval rating.
Protecting civilians
As winter approaches, so too does one of the most difficult periods for people living in the conflict zone. The International Committee of the Red Cross has tried to help in a myriad of ways over the last five years, from providing insulation and heating supplies for homes, to building roads to communities that were completely cut off from civilization by the conflict.
For some of the people who stayed behind, “if they were to move it would be easier,” says Florence Gillette, head of the ICRC delegation in Ukraine. “The thing is, it’s their home, you know? You’re asking people to uproot themselves.”
Florence Gillette, head of the ICRC delegation in Ukraine, shows a map of the conflict area on the wall of her Kyiv office. She says more than 400 ICRC staff are on the ground in the eastern region every day. (Sarah Lawrynuik)
In total, roughly 13,000 Ukrainians have died in the conflict. The United Nations estimates that of those, roughly 3,300 were civilians, with another 9,000 civilians injured. More than 1.5 million people have been displaced within Ukraine.
ICRC staff help people cross the contact line that separates the Ukrainian-controlled territory in the west and the Russian controlled territory in the east. The contact line is roughly 400 kilometres long and travel across the line is only permitted at several points. The journey can mean hours waiting in line both in the cold of winter and the heat of summer. TETIANA KHYZHNIAK/ICRC
Gillette hopes peace is within reach, but she worries about civilians paying the price if the attempt fails. She has seen it happen in other circumstances where if both sides aren’t in complete agreement before a troop withdrawal, civilians suffer.
Both Goryunova and Kusa express concerns about whether Russian-backed forces would abide by these proposed agreements. After all, there is already a supposed ceasefire agreement in place, but it is breached daily.
International support
While the conflict in Ukraine might not be top of mind for many, international support is flowing into the country from western allies, including Canada. It comes in the form of military and police training, as well as financial aid and equipment.
If the Trump-Zelenskiy phone conversation has brought anything into the collective consciousness, it is that Ukraine depends on this international aid. The aid and training will never allow the country to outgun Russia, but it at least has allowed it to keep the conflict at bay.
“Even just the boys being here, it is a bit of moral strength,” says military consultant Glen Grant.
“But of course then it actually creates expectations that are not going to be met. Which is that if Russia comes in and attacks, will Canadians actually fight? Or will they just pack up and go home? And this is a serious question. And it’s a question that the Ukrainian side asks every single day.”
Grant, after leaving the British military, has worked to help countries in eastern Europe reform their Soviet-style militaries. He looks at the support of Ukraine and says it’s a cop-out by its foreign allies.
“This is holding back and trying to stay out of things,” Grant said. “I would say NATO at the moment would be much stronger with Ukraine inside than without. Because our primary enemy is Russia. Well, I mean if the people (who) are fighting Russia, if we don’t think that’s important as NATO, then I think we really need, politically, to think again.
“But then they’d have to care about the front line, and maybe it’s about time they did.”
In whose interest?
Grant and Shandra share the same core argument: the international community needs to be involved in Ukraine, out of self-interest if not for the Ukrainians who are dying. But Shandra is more concerned about the manipulative tactics that hearken back to the Cold War.
We already know Russia is capable of spreading a fake story about migrants raping a child in Germany, and meddling in the 2016 American elections, Shandra says, so it’s only a matter of time before the world beyond Ukraine understands how powerful these tactics can be.
“The fact that there are no tanks in Europe, or in Canada for that matter, no missiles being fired towards Canada, that doesn’t mean that the war is not there. Of course it is there.”
This story was a finalist at the Canadian Association of Journalists national awards for human rights reporting in spring 2021.