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Finding the heart of a people鈥檚 resistance
Clayton Collins
After strong early reporting by Martin Kuz from Kyiv and Lviv, the Monitor now has another reporter inside Ukraine: London-based Scott Peterson, a former Moscow bureau chief with significant conflict-zone experience in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Afghanistan.
Scott walked into western Ukraine from Poland last week, in an authorized crossing, and then traveled by overnight train to the Black Sea port of Odessa, where I reached him yesterday amid reports that the city, west of embattled Kherson聽and Mariupol, may soon be the target of a Russian assault.
鈥淔rom the outside it looks like things are so inevitable,鈥� Scott says, given Russia鈥檚 military might. 鈥淏ut I have been surprised at the level of desire to resist on the part of the Ukrainians.鈥� (See his story, below.)
In Odessa, 鈥渢hey have pulled together, and that has helped them to kind of calm the fear, calm the panic, [to] feel like they鈥檙e doing something constructive.
鈥淚鈥檝e seen sandbag-production lines where people are digging up Black Sea sand to put in sandbags,鈥� Scott says. 鈥淓ven kids are doing this. I鈥檝e seen ... people buying construction-grade girders and having them cut up in metal shops so that their friends can weld them into tank traps. ... [Saturday] night I was in a small apartment [and saw] men and women weaving camouflage nets for the military just using scraps of cloth and fishing net.鈥�
Though Odessa is a city with a reputation for being one of the most pro-Russian in Ukraine, Scott says, none of the Russian speakers he has met has expressed a need to be 鈥渓iberated.鈥�
鈥淧eople resent the fact that their lives have been turned upside down for no reason,鈥� Scott says. They鈥檙e troubled by signs that friends and family in Russia are being 鈥渢urned into zombies鈥� by Russian propaganda. Still, Scott sees signs of heart, and hopefulness.
鈥淎ll of these people are saying, 鈥榃e will find a way,鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淭heir view is not [just accepting] that Russia has overwhelming military force. They鈥檙e looking at it more like, 鈥榃hat force could possibly overcome the desire of 44 million Ukrainians not to be under Russian control?鈥欌��
