Ukrainians on the threat of Trump: ‘There should be no concessions because this is our territory’ – The Irish Times

After fighting for nearly three years against Russia’s all-out invasion, Ukrainians now fear that their chief ally, the United States, may try to force them to forsake part of their country in a deal with the Kremlin when Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Viktoria Nesterenko, project manager at the Zmina human rights centre in Kyiv, and Yelyzaveta Sokurenko, the organisation’s head of war crimes documentation. Photograph: Daniel McLaughlin

…”A person cannot be Ukrainian in occupied territory,” says Yelyzaveta Sokurenko, head of war crimes documentation at the Zmina centre for human rights in Kyiv.

For the estimated five million people now living in occupied areas, communicating in Ukrainian is effectively banned and any display of the national language or symbols is crushed; Zayarina recalls how her captors described her in case documents as a “pro-Ukrainian activist/extremist” simply because she opposed the invasion.

No Russian law enforcement agency or court will protect a Ukrainian in Moscow-held territory, where any refusal to accept Kremlin rule is punished.

“We see cases of forcible ‘passportisation’, when Russian citizenship is imposed on Ukrainian civilians – without a Russian passport you’ll have no access to social or medical services and the Russians will take it as a sign that you’re not loyal to them,” Sokurenko says.

“People in occupied areas tell us that they can’t even call an ambulance, because they would need an insurance number that’s only available with a Russian passport,” she explains.

“There is no opportunity for kids who want to study in Ukrainian to do so online. One of the main Russian practices when it occupies territory is to take immediate control of the education system. Russia wants to indoctrinate and militarise Ukrainian children.”

Source: The Irish Times