Ten years ago, in February 2014, the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine began with the seizure of Crimea and part of Donbas. All these ten years, Ukraine does not give up hope for the return of its territories and, most importantly, its people.
The other day, after the withdrawal of the Defense Forces of Ukraine from Avdiivka in Donetsk region, the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko, published a video in which one of the residents of the completely destroyed city rejoices at the arrival of the Russians.
According to Andryushchenko, this is a “typical representative of the ‘people of Donbas'”, who received humanitarian aid from Ukrainian volunteers in early January, and was ready to welcome the Russians in mid-February.
“A typical portrait of a greedy person. A person with a refrigerator instead of a conscience and a television instead of brains,”
Andryushchenko noted.
But in fact, according to the observations of Gennady Yudin, a native of Avdiivka, a police crew member of the “White Angels” (the crew served in this “hot spot” at the end of last year), not all locals stayed in the city because they were waiting for the Russians.
According to him, many people, even in spite of constant shelling, did not dare to leave, because they believed that “nobody needs them” in other regions of the country.
“This is our land,” “our parents are buried here”… are the most common arguments,” he recalls.
“Some say that the city was destroyed by Ukraine, not Russia, that Ukraine is shelling its peaceful cities… They hear it on the radio. It’s not Ukrainian – they catch the signal from occupied Donetsk. Propaganda works,” he says.
These words are confirmed by former Crimean Liliya – part of her family continues to live on the occupied peninsula.
“I haven’t been to Crimea since 2013, but in the spring of 2021 I was forced to take an urn with the ashes of my deceased sister to Crimea to bury there. And I was forced to communicate with my relatives. Despite the fact that they supported the Russians from the beginning and ran to “referendum”, in conversations about a possible “hot” war, the men’s position was as follows: “Russia has not given us anything these years. If there is a war (it doesn’t matter with whom), we won’t go to war.” But literally in a year of massive propaganda, their opinion changed radically. When my children and I got into the occupation in the spring of 2022, there was no electricity, no gas, and no silence – tanks drove through the streets like minibuses, they were pounding at night so that there was no rest or sleep, relatives from Crimea were happy about the Russian invasion. My mother called me on February 24 and said that Russia is doing everything right: “You will be released and everything will be fine.” And the son-in-law said that in three days we will be defeated and he will come to us in a car with his Crimean license plates to grill shashliks. By the way, later he already said that we need to be even more “made good with rockets”, – the woman recalls.
Liliya is sure that propaganda in the occupied territories is doing its job. According to her observations, the propagandists “brainwash” those who were for Russia from the beginning of the occupation, and those who take a wait-and-see position – not for Russia, but also not for Ukraine.
Coercion vs independent decision
Indeed, in order to survive in the occupation, people have to obtain “citizenship of the Russian Federation”, work at enterprises registered in Russia, register vehicles, change their driver’s license, register real estate in the relevant registers of the occupying country, and so on.
Mental deoccupation
“Children go to school in the occupied territories, and children will go to school after de-occupation. So “mental de-occupation” will require work with children,” adds Artur Proydakov, executive director of the MRIYDIY educational foundation, a finalist of the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine 2023.
He highlights three key points that can help make reintegration faster and easier. First, according to the expert, it is necessary to develop certain methodical recommendations, programs and textbooks for the territories that are currently TOT.
“We must understand that the Ukrainian language, in fact, will be studied as a foreign language. Therefore, first of all, there must be practical basics of mastering the Ukrainian language, we must emphasize vocabulary, reading and understanding the language,” he notes.
At the same time, it is necessary not just to “implant” the Ukrainian language with some radical solutions, but to interest children. For example, through culture – songs by the same Monatik, Kalush and others, through beautiful visual materials…
Secondly, teacher training is extremely important. Conditionally, if the Defense Forces of Ukraine enter Luhansk in two weeks, who among the teachers will be ready to work there?
According to Artur Proydakov, there is already a shortage of teaching staff in Ukraine, so it is worth creating a list of teachers who are ready to join the work in the de-occupied territories in the future. And another challenge is to motivate people. That is, it is necessary to prepare appropriate incentive programs.
Thirdly, flexibility is needed: it is clear that after de-occupation not all schools will be ready to work immediately and offline.
And for the physical de-occupation, the floor belongs to the Defense Forces of Ukraine.