Days ago, President Volodimir Zelensky warned Ukrainians and foreigners that the counteroffensive carried out by Ukraine to lead the occupied territories could not be followed like a Hollywood movie. He assured that it was an operation that needed time. The irony is that what has ended up being followed in Kyiv like a thrilling action movie has been the advance of Wagner’s forces into Russian territory and the challenge of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to the Kremlin.
“They were going to take kyiv in three days and now it is Wagner who is going to take Moscow in two,” Olexander, a 23-year-old who was attending the Kyiv book fair, said this Saturday. As he walked through the long vaulted corridors of the compound, he frequently glanced at his mobile phone.
“The country’s popcorn must be exhausted in Ukraine,” the young man warned ironically. He was alluding to one of the many memes that have emerged since Friday night, when news related to Prigozhin began to go viral.
Everything was moving so fast in Russia that many felt the pressure to check their phones frequently to follow what was happening. “It’s really like a movie,” explained Victoria, a philology student.
“This will benefit us [Ukraine], but we must not forget that if there is a change in Russia, it does not mean that they change their attitude towards the war,” explained the 22-year-old, who was lining up to meet the writer. Colombian Héctor Abad Faciolince, who was in the city to present his book and talk about the Aguanta Ukraine campaign, led from Latin America to recognize the struggle of Ukrainians. “We are here to tell you that you are an example of resistance,” the author of El olvido que seremos later assured in a talk with the public.
During the early morning. Russia launched a new missile attack on Kyiv. Once again, the air defense managed to intercept them, but, as often happens in these cases, one of the parts of the missile hit a tower of buildings. Three people died and eleven were injured. Even so, this Saturday the streets in Kyiv were full, including the book fair, where at the end of the afternoon a series of writers read their poems.
Valentina reminded this correspondent that the challenges for Ukraine, whoever rules in Moscow, will be enormous. “But in the short term it will have positive consequences for our country,” she said. Many of those consulted for this article agreed with this assessment.
Natalia, a 32-year-old engineer whose boyfriend is fighting in Donbass, said that the division inside Russia would be an injection of optimism for the soldiers deployed on the front lines. “It is impossible for this division within Russia not to have repercussions in the trenches. Surely in the next few hours we will have news,” said the young woman, who had the remote hope that we were witnessing one of those events that unexpectedly change the course of history.
“Anyone who chooses the path of the devil destroys himself,” Zelensky said in a tweet that he published hours after the pre-recorded speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Russia used its propaganda to cover up the weakness and stupidity of its government. But now there is so much chaos that no lie can cover it up,” the president wrote.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba, for his part, wrote on Twitter: “Those who have said that Russia was too strong to lose: look now. It is time to abandon false neutrality and fear of escalation. Give Ukraine all the necessary weapons; forget about friendship or business with Russia. It is time to put an end to the evil that everyone despised, but everyone feared.”
