More than ever, I find myself angry and hateful. I am angry that Russia, the aggressor, might get away with what it has done to Ukraine. I am angry that my friends, my loved ones, and I are constantly in danger. But I have no way to release this emotion, and so my anger and hatred builds.
Some 53 percent of my compatriots feel anger, rage, and hatred, as a result of the invasion, according to polling conducted in May by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. Just 2 percent of Ukrainians have any positive feelings toward Russia, compared with 34 percent before the invasion.
None of this is shocking. Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded our land, killed our countrymen and women, and seized our territory. Russia justified its invasion by claiming that Ukrainians hate everything Russian. That wasn’t true, until Putin made it so with this invasion. In fact, it still isn’t: We don’t hate Russian culture, or the Russian language—we have shunned both because we hope that doing so will protect us.
We’re angry at the wider world, too. We are of course grateful for Western military and economic support, which is how we can still fight Russia. But why do so many countries, Western ones among them, still buy Russian oil and gas, providing money that the Kremlin then uses to fund the destruction of Ukraine? Why do Western commentators call for Ukraine, and not Russia, to stop fighting and to make concessions, to give up our land to those who invaded it? Why is the Ukrainian economic and food crisis—to say nothing of our pursuit of justice—less important than inflation or Western well-being?
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