Dr. Sabina Amanbayeva, an Assistant Professor at OCU, hosted a roundtable titled “Russian Invasion of Ukraine 2022.” The panel featured members of the Oklahoma Ukrainian community and Nina Murray, a U.S. foreign service officer who was born in Ukraine. The event took place on March 3, 2022, on Zoom.
Amanbayeva was born in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet state. Much of her research has been on Russian translations of Shakespeare. She is hosting a Russian-immersion-style summer camp for high school students in July.
Amanbayeva said that she chose these participants because they are active in the Oklahoma City Ukrainian community. Each participant attended the “Peace for Ukraine” rallies at the Oklahoma City State Capitol building.
Amanbayeva opened the event by stating “I feel like somebody has died, but I don’t know who. It is a very difficult and tragic event going on.”
“I was born in Ukraine, Donetsk – I grew up in Kharkiv, which is right now, as many other cities, under heavy attack,” said Andriy Yablunchanskiy, who works at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
“It (Kharkiv) is one of the largest cities in Ukraine. It’s just like Oklahoma City, it is a large city. It is only 20 to 30 miles from the Russian border.”
Yablunchanskiy said the attacks on Kharkiv started with the bombing of military infrastructure. He says it didn’t take long for this to change. “On day three of this invasion, all of the attacks have been targeted to the civilian areas. I am talking about the civilian infrastructure, the buildings. Those have been heavily attacked,” said Yablunchanskiy.
“Some of my friends, they signed up in the territorial defense, so yes, this city is devastated. The area I live has been heavily targeted. There is nothing really, there is a factory that makes tractors, I don’t know why the reason.”
Yablunchanskiy said his friends living in Odesa are facing the same problems Kharkiv is facing.
“For now, for today, they (my family) are under a Ukrainian flag. The city is totally disrupted from the gas, war now, not many people left. They have a little power from the generator,” said Olena Nesin, who works at the VA Hospital and the OU Health Sciences Center.
“My brother, I have an opportunity to talk to him, I connect through my parents, he is okay now. He is on the territorial defense now,” said Nesin.
Olena Nesin said that her family is expecting more attacks and that her family is alive right now.
“[A] Lot of my relatives stay in bomb shelter,” said Vasyl Nesin, a member of the Ukrainian community in Oklahoma who works at the VA Hospital and the OU Health Sciences Center. Vasyl Nesin is from Vyshhorod, Ukraine. He said that his cousin is caught in a grey zone between the Russian and Ukrainian forces.
“I was born and raised in Lviv, which is in western Ukraine. That is where my mom is right now. It is currently the main area for aid and refugees coming through. I also have friends in Odessa. That is also a hotspot. I am from England,” said Murray.
Sabina said that some of her students had heard Russian propaganda on how the war started. “The war started in 2014. People did not recognize it as an attack by Russia until now,” Amanbayeva said.
“Historically eastern Ukraine, Dontesk, they are historically very close to Russia, to Russian people,” said Victoria Asher a member of the Ukrainian community in Oklahoma City. Asher previously worked as a human resource manager in Donetsk.
Asher said that western Ukraine historically belonged to Austria, Poland, and Germany. “When the Soviet Union disappeared, we took our way, our vector to go and create something that we loved, to cultivate our Ukrainian culture.”
“Russia historically thinks that everyone is an enemy of Russia. No one is (a) friend, everyone is (an) enemy. He thinks that all the European countries surrounding Russia want to fight, want to take them. He thinks they all are enemies.”
Asher said she witnessed violence perpetrated by Russia in 2014. “I came to work, I saw in front of our building coming to work Russian military guys hiding there. They had all these big guns. They are just following you with these guns to see what you are doing and everything. Nobody was saying anything about being Russia. We never wanted to be Russia.”
“We had all these Russian military guys that they are trying to make revolution there. Unfortunately, Donetsk and Luhansk couldn’t stop them. The rest of Ukraine was more or less safe.”
“Once as Victoria (Asher) said they invaded voluntarily military men with no Russian uniform. Russia always positioned this as a civilian conflict,” said Olena Nesin.
“So basically, they created (a) fake republic to protect them. For all these eight years, they always supported them. They send gangs, this so-called government was created by Russia and armed by Russia.”
Asher said that Russia has been distributing passports to the occupied territories so that they can claim the territory is theirs because it is full of Russian citizens.
Yablunchanskiy said that it’s hard to understand a sick mind, but he understands why Putin has a sick mind. “The 69-year-old dude sitting in power, I can tell you cognitive ability has deteriorated. You don’t want someone cognitively disabled,” Yakblunchanskiy said.
Yablunchanskiy said that Ukrainian language is older and simpler than the Russian language. “Mr. Putin wants to unite, create another union. I urge other countries that border Russia to learn their language, not the Russian language.”
“The point that NATO is a threat to Russia is ridiculous. If you ask them why, there is no why, that’s just one line. NATO is there to mitigate threats,” Murray said.
Murray said that NATO was not concerned about Russia until it invaded Donbas and Crimea. She said if Russia truly felt threatened by NATO, it would have invaded Poland and the Baltic states a long time ago.
“(In Russian propaganda) Russia is never the subject. Russia never does anything. Russia will always be the object of the sentence. Ukraine, someone else did this to Russia.”
Murray said if you swap the subject and the object in Russian propaganda you get a clearer picture of what is really going on. “The view that everyone else in the world hates Russia. It is a Russian-centric view. Now people truly don’t like Russians.
“They can’t fight with NATO so what they do, they just occupy the very weak countries. Now we are very prepared, that is why we can fight now. If he does something to NATO countries, Russia will be dead in thirty minutes probably,” said Murray.
Olena Nesin said that Russia had sent soldiers into Ukraine with expired food. She said this was because they had expected to take Ukraine in a few days.
“No Russian sanctions can hurt us more than Russian missiles at this point in time,” said Yablunchanskiy.
Amanbayeva said the conflict is dividing Russian-speakers. She says the invasion of Ukraine is a traumatic event for individuals living in former Soviet countries.
“If you meet anyone from a Russian-speaking country, ask them how they are doing and understand that this community is going through a very difficult time now,” said Amanbayeva
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