Apr 23, 2015

CSMonitor: Kiev has no idea how badly it’s aggravating the Kharkiv region

Kharkov was occupied by German fascists from October 1941 to August 1943. During that time the city saw severe damage alongside with other cities of Ukraine but managed to survive World War II in spite of that. [EnglishRussia]

[…] The tension between Kharkiv and Kiev is all too obvious these days. While pro-Kiev patriots are visible – groups of activists tore down three prominent Soviet-era monuments under cover of night last week – most conversations with people quickly reveal varying degrees of anger and disillusionment with the new revolutionary government. Everybody here, on both sides of the barricades, agrees that they are horrified by what’s happening in next door Donbass and do not want to see the war come to Kharkiv. But experts from both sides of the argument admit it will be an uphill slog for Kiev to win their hearts, in part because of the economic crisis that many here blame on a government they never voted for.

“People in the western Ukraine are inclined to tighten their belts and think ‘we’re at war with Russia, of course there must be sacrifices.’ But people here say, ‘we lived better under [deposed President Viktor] Yanukovych, before these new people came,'” says Alexander Kirsch, a deputy of the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, who is from Kharkiv and an adviser to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk. […]

“Kiev is risking a social explosion here,” Mr. Sidorenko says. “It’s as if they have no understanding whatsoever in Kiev of how people think and feel in Kharkiv. They behave like revolutionaries, treating us like putty to be molded into their new form. They don’t have the vaguest idea of how badly they are aggravating things here.” […]

Read Walled off: In non-rebel eastern Ukraine, frustrations with Kiev mount in full at CSMonitor