society
May 3, 2024

"There is no way back!" - Writer Katya Petrovskaya on violence in Ukraine

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: You live in Berlin, but have family and friends in Ukraine. What do you do when you talk to them and see pictures of violence?

Katya Petrovskaya: We are all in shock. Nobody has more control over the situation. I talk to my parents on the phone, there are shots in the background - and it's not a movie! Since the Second World War, there were no more shots in the center of Kiev, certainly not dead by protests. I feel deep sadness and I am very afraid because there is no going back. The spirit was left out of the bottle: the violence, the kidnapped, the tortured, the dead are a historic break in our society.

How do you inform yourself about developments in your home country?

Especially on social media like Facebook and Twitter, because they can respond quickly. They are much more political here, people write what is not reported in the media. However, it is also difficult to meaningfully filter and structure the information from this large pot. Meanwhile, media consultants and IT people are even publishing instructions on how to distinguish wrong from right information. Independent online media also write and analyze a lot.

The Ukrainian-German writer and journalist is following developments in her homeland with great concern.

Do you participate in any form in the protests?

In Berlin there are many initiatives and demos, also in front of the Russian and Ukrainian embassies. What do you do when something like this happens? Do you drive there? Do you write about it? How do you cope with your own restlessness? I wanted to go there but could not do it for a variety of reasons. I would very much like to be there. Now I am here and try to create a bridge. This is more difficult, but also more meaningful. A friend of mine is just as torn as me. She is a photographer, also lives in Berlin and is about to make a photo exhibition * about the people in the epicenter of the mass protests. She is on the verge of despair because she really wants to be there and does not know what's more important. I was even verbally abused by some that I'm not there.

What kind of people are gathered on the Maidan, the Independence Square in Kiev?

Very different groupings, including nationalist. In the media, people are always reduced to East and West, to pro-Russia and pro-Europe, but that's not true. This is a purely political construct. This split is much more complex. There are also young and old people in the east of the country who are for Europe. The border is more about access to information. To the east are many poor people who can only receive the first government channel. Meanwhile, an initiative has been launched, the Facebook messages or other news about the resistance printed and hung up in-house, so that others can read that. The demonstrators are not all oppositional. It's just the whole city. No one can stand this government anymore, which spits in our faces. They want the government to represent and respect them. But it is the merit of the opposition that the protest remained peaceful for so long - and that people were proud of it.

When did the mood change?

The madness began with the adoption of anti-democratic laws on 16 January. What took Moscow three years, the parliament in Kiev decided within minutes by hand signals. That's dictatorial caprice! In addition to the ban on assembly, there is now a law that prohibits the people wearing masks and helmets - even when cycling. This is total idiocy! The next day, thousands of people wandered the streets wearing children's masks and pots on their heads. Another insanity is the call for all non-governmental organizations and foundations to call themselves foreign agents in the future. So all those who work with foreign money are marked as spies. And yet another law states that no more than five cars may stand behind each other. This is to prevent the supply logistics for the demonstrators on the Maidan.

Are women and men alike protesting?

In the big demos, both were represented equally, I guess. Protest nights are most men - the women stay with the children. But medical help is provided by women from all over the country. Last year Miss Ukraine served coffee. I was impressed by the role of the old women: first came the students, then their mothers, then the grandmothers. On one of the pictures you can see old women who are using metal poles to hit stones from the cobblestones and carry them forward - to the boys, who then throw them in the direction of Berkut (a special unit of the Ukrainian militia).That's absolutely incredible! All are against violence - even those who throw. They no longer see any other way out.

20-year-old Sergey Nigeryan fell victim to violence on the Maidan.

And now there are even dead.

The first dead man, Sergei Nigojan, died at the age of 20. He came from the small village Bereznowatiwka, near the metropolis Dnepropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine. His parents fled from the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Armenia in 1992, before the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict (one of the first in the Soviet Union). He himself was born in the Ukraine and came to Kiev because he too was not satisfied with President Viktor Yanukovich. Everyone photographed him, he was perhaps the most beautiful man on the Maidan. Now he is dead - although he did nothing, he was shot in the back. He is the symbol of the escalating violence between the government opponents and the security forces. The situation on the Maidan would have been defused long ago if the Berkut had not circled and beaten the students in the square during the third week of the resistance at night - including women. Only after that did even bigger crowds arrive.

So far, President Yanukovich has barely made any confessions. Do you still have hope that he will give in?

Honestly: hardly. Europe needs to put more pressure and position itself clearly. It is not about interference, but about a sign, a reaction - direct negotiations of the Foreign Minister with Yanukovych. He has driven himself into a dead end. I do not know how he wants to get out of there. If he does not win, he's in court. This government should resign, preferably completely.

* (Yevgenia Belorusets, photo exhibition "Euromaidan, Occupied Spaces", 31.1 - 15.2 in the project space OKK in Berlin 13359, Prinzenallee 29)