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Memories of a Stolen Homeland
Donbass, Putin’s motives, Ukraine’s fight for democracy, and the collapse of global security promises
It’s been 10 years since I graduated from school. A lot has changed since then — I learned English, graduated from university, worked for several IT companies, became a refugee, and am now a writer and political scientist. I come from a tiny village in Ukraine, and like everywhere else, some of my classmates moved to big cities after graduation, while others stayed.
I came across the Instagram profile of one of my former classmates. I haven’t spoken to her since graduation. She got pregnant when we were still in our final year of school and stayed in our hometown with her husband while I went to university and rarely returned home. Her son is now about nine years old, and on Instagram, I saw a photo from his first day of school. I recognized the hall of the building where I had studied, but a new decoration had appeared— a portrait of Putin on the wall.
If you’ve ever seen North Korean reports, then you know what it looks like. It hangs in the center of the wall, standing out from the other pictures and paintings, becoming the focal point of the composition.
I am originally from the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which is now occupied by the Russian…
