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Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, present on Thursday in Bucharest, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin changed his "narrative on Ukrainians" three times in ten years, first calling them a sister nation and then claiming they are Russians, who chose to be a bit different.
The remarks were made during the conference titled "The role of the writer as a militant for free thinking, in a free world," organized by the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest.
The Ukrainian writer said that ten years ago Putin said that Russians and Ukrainians are sister nations, two-three years ago he said that Russians and Ukrainians are a single nation, and right before the war he claimed that Ukrainians don't exist, but that they're Russians who decided to be a bit different. He went on to say that, in fact, Russia and Ukraine have different histories," said the Ukrainian writer.
He added that, from the perspective of Russian history, Ukrainians are not a distinct nation, but that, according to Ukrainian history, the situation is different, adding that he is making the remarks as a person of Russian ethnicity.
According to the writer, the Ukrainian mentality has at its base elements of "organized anarchy, individualism and anti-collectivism". In this sense, he made reference to the fact that in the 20th century, in the Soviet period, 3,000 Ukrainian farmers were deported to Siberia as they did not accept being part of agricultural cooperatives.
Kurkov also said that 30-40% of Ukrainians speak Russian, but that does not mean that they love Vladimir Putin. He mentioned that, in his turn, he is a Russian speaker and he writes especially in that language. He wrote "The President's Last Love" 20 years ago, where Putin appears as a character, and later his books were banned in Russia, Agerpres.ro informs.
The author noted that the war in Ukraine is the "first big war" in Europe in this century, but that it started with the annexation of Crimea and the lack of reaction on the part of most states, noting that Angela Merkel agreed to build Nord Stream 2 and everything seemed alright to Europe until February 24, when they realized that the war would influence not only Europe, but the entire world. He added that the world will learn a lot of things it wished it didn't, but hopes that we will understand that any future war will not only destroy the life of the belligerent nations, but will also influence states that are distant to the war.
According to the author, the consolidation of the Ukrainian nation wouldn't have happened as quickly without Putin, expressing his satisfaction with the fact that the Russian army proved weaker than anyone expected. He pointed out that the West believed Ukraine will last for 2-3 hours and then there will be no more Ukraine, belief contradicted by the current situation where in the 49th day of the invasion, the country is still fighting and proving that it will not yield. He continued by saying that Ukrainian politicians were not interested in the future of the country, but in enrichment, reason for which a true national spirit did not appear before 2005, and that the only person responsible for Ukraine having a strong identity is Putin, as he attacked Ukraine three times, in three different ways, and the common enemy joined Ukrainians into a single power trying to defend their country.
