A few days ago President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Ukrainians and foreigners that the counter-offensive that Ukraine is making 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 ended up following Kyiv as a thrilling action film was the advance of Wagner’s mercenary forces into Russian territory and the challenge of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to Kremlin.
“They had to conquer Kyiv in three days and now it is Wagner who will take Moscow in two”, said Oleksandr, a 23-year-old young man attending the Kyiv book fair yesterday. As he walked the long, winding corridors of the compound, he frequently looked at his mobile phone.
“The country’s popcorn corn must be sold out in Ukraine,” warned the young man with irony. He was referring to one of the memes that have appeared since Friday night, when news related to Prigojin began to go viral.
Everything was moving so fast that many residents felt the pressure to look at their mobile phone frequently to follow what was happening. “It’s really like a movie,” explained Victòria, a philology student.
“This will benefit us [in Ukraine], but we must not forget that, if there is a change in Russia, it does not mean that they will change their attitude towards the war,” explained the 22-year-old, who was queuing to meet the Colombian writer Héctor Abad Faciolince, who was in the city to present his book and talk about the Hold Up Ukraine campaign, led from Latin America to recognize the struggle of Ukrainians. “We are here to tell you that they are an example of resistance”, assured the author of El olvido que seremos later in a chat with the audience.
Throughout the morning, Russia launched another missile attack on Kyiv. Once again, the air defense of the capital managed to intercept them, but, as usually happens in these cases, one of the parts of the missile hit a building tower. Three people died and eleven were injured. However, yesterday the streets in Kyiv were full, including the book fair, where in the late afternoon a series of writers read 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”, he said. Many of the people interviewed for this article agreed with this assessment.
Natalia, a 32-year-old engineer with a boyfriend who is fighting in the Donbass, claimed that the division within Russia would be like an injection of optimism for the soldiers deployed at the front. “It is impossible that this division within Russia does not have repercussions in the trenches. Surely we will have news in the next few hours”, said the young woman, who had the remote hope of witnessing one of those events that unexpectedly change the course of history.
“Everyone who chooses the path of the devil destroys himself”, said Zelenski in a tweet that he published hours after the pre-recorded intervention of 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 Dmytro Kuleba, for his part, wrote on Twitter: “Those who said Russia was too strong to lose: look at it now. It is time to abandon the false neutrality and the fear of escalation. You will deliver to Ukraine all necessary weapons; forget friendship or business with Russia. It’s time to put an end to the evil that everyone despised, but that everyone feared.”
