‘We Don’t Know Anything About Our Future’
by Viktoria Svetkova
A Ukrainian resident of Crimea talks about
life under the new regime. From IWPR.
We are in a surreal situation. In Yalta everything seems normal, children go to kindergarten and school, we go to work, and there are no Russian soldiers. The weather is nice. If you didn’t read the news, you would think everything was great.
But in reality, the conflict is affecting every aspect of daily life. Schools in Crimea no longer follow the Ukrainian curriculum and children are no longer taking the same exams as those in the rest of Ukraine.
The prices of everyday goods have all gone up. Alcohol is 50 percent more expensive, and food and toiletries are 20 to 30 percent more.
We have Internet access, thankfully, because apart from that we don’t have any independent sources of information. Ukrainian media have no representatives here anymore.
Every day has a surprise waiting in store, and the Crimean government tells us about its decisions only as they happen. We don’t know anything about our future.
It has become dangerous to speak the Ukrainian language or display the Ukrainian flag. If you speak Ukrainian in public, a lot of people won’t answer you, or you are singled out and people will want to attack you. My friend told someone he supported Ukraine, and he was followed home by around 20 people who then tried to break in.
A lot of people are displaying Russian flags in their homes and businesses, even if they don’t support Moscow. And all the government offices are flying Russian flags, too.
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