Peter - great episode, enjoyed it. To me, Kyiv's diversity is part of it soul. That includes Ukrainians of Cuban, African, and Asian descent as well as internally displaced persons from the east and refugees from Syria, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Russia, and elsewhere. Accepting and helping the displaced integrate is the right thing to do - but also an investment that can pay off for Ukraine.
This lady is amazing! So positive, so good and gentle. She looks like one of those ppl that make evrth around better, no matter how hard it is. I wish her all the best.
2 years and I am just now watching this, what a great lady who grabbed the bull by horns and took control of her life against so much adversity.. What a champ!
The city is so beautiful and filled with people going through their "normal" routines as contrasted with how we see this city today (March 2022) with the invasion of Russia.
A small but important correction, Peter (joining the others in the comments): it’s Russian invasion into the Eastern Ukraine, but NOT a civil war. Great job on the episodes though! I love your video projects in Ukraine. Thank you for loving my people and my home country!
Nonsense. Sure, Russia poured gasoline on the fire but if this isnt a civil war, how the hell do you explain tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of fighters coming under the banner of the Republics? There is no doubt that Russia is paying their salaries and supplying them but those people joined the fight voluntarily (Russia didnt institute a conscription in those territories). There is also no doubt that some of them have since become Russian citizens (Russia has quietly been offering its citizenship in the Republics under the expedited exemption) but they started out as Ukrainian citizens (with the notable exception of a handful of them early in the conflict who were Russian citizens and who came to Ukraine to stoke the fire of the ideology known as the Russian World). Prior to the conflict there had been no love lost between the East and the Crimea and the rest of the country. Frankly, a civil war should have broken out far sooner than 2014 and, say, in 1993 or shortly thereafter when the central government moved to take the people's language away. For years prior to the present conflict how many times had I heard "Sevastopol is a city of the Russian navy" (po russki "Sevastopol gorod russkikh moryakov")? Hundreds? And I did nothing to instigate those conversation topics. People would broach them with me completely unprovoked and unmotivated. Sevastopol had vehemently and at every corner fought Ukrainization prior to the conflict as a polity that sought to stand up to what they perceived as foreign rule. Putin knew this deepseated sentiment just like anyone who'd ever visited that city and who spent any time with its denizens. Putin is a weasel that capitalized on that knowledge the moment he could (he knew that there would be no resistence in Sevastopol and that the Russian troops would be welcomed as liberators). So, spare me the highfalutin crap about how this isnt a civil war. But, yes, civil wars are often aided by foreign armies and foreign resources. I recommend that you review the 1918-1922 civil war to see how many European countries had their active duty military fighting to prop up the White Guard to defeat the nascent Bolshevik government. And that was called a civil war last I checked.
This is the thingy like you pointed under another video. He is planning to visit other post USSR countries. And quite likely Rossiya is also in this list. So not saying truth about the war is a quite pragmatic choice. Same like a pragmatic choice of the language to study.
As another US man, who has traveled Ukraine and experienced this amazing country. These videos are interesting and a wonderful reminder of what I miss each day, when I am back in the US. My travels started back in mid 2015 bring items over from the US to the soldiers in the war zone. I met many men, who came over from the US to help out the soldiers or the people living in the war zone. Like these men, I fell in love with the country and the soul of the Ukrainian people. It is pretty sad, that upon landing back in the US the first thing, which comes to mind is just getting back on the plane and returning to Ukraine. In a few weeks, I will be returning home :)
She really said something very philosophical at the end. I think all the 5 stories in this episode are great, but this one she could speak English and articulate so clearly.
Peter, the doors in the subway are for the nuclear attack or bombing. In fact there are doors in the subway train tunnels too, usually located at the entrances (exits) of the tunnels. The subway stations effectively become bunkers.
Питер я бы хотел о тебе снять влог и задать тебе вопросы!Очень интересно знать о тебе и что ты теперь думаешь об Украине и какие чувства испытываешь когда вновь прилетаешь сюда?!
Hi Leon, Good question. Overall I have enjoyed my time in Ukraine. Here is something I wrote on my first 3 months living in Kyiv with more description. petersantenello.com/2017/02/06/living-in-kiev-my-first-3-months-of-observations-1/
About thr doors: not all of the station can withhold the nuclear winter (not too deep enough), but Metro is a kind of a bomb shelter :) still hope we never have an urgency to use them this way...
Peter Santenello, well we have Russia as our neighbour... U never know, what the freak in Kremlin might do to make his sick point... so the thread is always there... :(
Sorry Peter, but why don`t you invite people who actually were born in Kyiv, whose parents were born in Kyiv? I do not feel like you anyhow showed the soul of the city from the perspective of native citizens.
1. Якщо не помиляюсь, то однозначно не народжені у Києві лише у 1 та 4 епізодах. А той хлопець, котрий бувший наркоман, наскільки я зрозумів, як раз народжений у Києві. 2. Київ це все ж значною мірою місто тих, хто сюди приїхав і їхніх дітей, а не "корінних". Причому це не лише про останній період, ще перший загальнокиївський перепис 1874 року фіксує, що серед мешканців Києва народжених у ньому ж лише чверть, і якщо подивитись на те, як місто росло далі, то стає очевидно, що відбувалось це переважно за рахунок приїзду нових людей.
Believe it or not it's been hard finding people from Kyiv. Or at least at has been for us. In our casting most of the people weren't from Kyiv. We're searching hard to find our last character that's born in the city.
This girl has so interesting life story) Suria, Donetsk, Kyiv Сподіваюсь, війна не знайде тебе у нашій столиці))) And YES, Peter, not a civil war but hybrid moscovien agression against Ukraine...There is no any "Donetsk nation" or "Luhansk nation" as you already know :o)))
Please Ilyana never say that you love Kyiv and that it's a beautiful city .We see the results with Damascus and Donetsk.hahaha ! ( Just joking as a future Kyiv resident)
In a sense, that war may be called "civil", because this war is an episode of the process of disintegration of the former Russian Empire, which started a century ago.
