Dmitri, a resident of Shebekino, Belgorod Region – a small town right next to the border with Ukraine that has been under constant shelling since the start of the war – gave an interview about life there.
Dmitri: I cannot say that people here have got used to the war. They are used to being afraid [...] Naturally, though, passions are heating up, because in every family there is already someone who has suffered or been killed [...]
There are fewer and fewer people in the town, clearly. I think about 30% of the population has left, the rest have nowhere to go and no reason to leave. The authorities are not promising us anything [...]
Of course, the attitude to the government is changing, and in a very negative way [...] It’s not even fatigue, but rather despair and hopelessness. Everyone says: make everything go back to how it was; you are playing with your toys there while we are losing lives [...]
Last year, the governor said in an interview with a federal television channel that shelling of Belgorod Region would stop when Kharkiv Region was incorporated into it. Right after this, people fled Shebekino en masse [...]
Most people in Russia, in my view, do not support the war and do not want to fight. The authorities say that many men throughout the country are voluntarily enlisting, but I do not believe it. I only believe it could be because of money.
I talk a lot with different people, including soldiers. Everyone is very tired and wants to go home, no one sees the goal, meaning or reason for the war [...]
In Vovchansk (a town in Ukraine’s Kharkiv Region, 15 kilometers from Shebekino and 4.5 kilometers from the border with Russia – Republic) it’s just awful, there is no longer a city. What is happening in Shebekino, of course, is not even close to the destruction in Vovchansk [...]
I have relatives in Kharkiv Region, in Ukraine. We have not quarreled. Both me and them, we all understand and support each other. We are not so close, but we always ask each other if we are OK [...]
Shebekino residents collected more than 4,000 signatures for Putin to stop the shelling. Because of that, local propagandists began to call us enemies and provocateurs. Of course, people are afraid to speak out against the war [...]
People will endure and complain from time to time. What else can you do? Petitions will not stop the war; it will end for completely different reasons. But what I know for sure: people here understand that we are trash to our government.
[Edit typo.]
So what's the alternative? Hitler could be defeated by "externals" (i.e. other countries) by force because he didn't have the bomb.
With Putin, that's different. No one in their right mind would suggest invading Russia by force and toppling him, as that would likely lead to nuclear escalation. However, that only leaves an "internal" solution. As we (extern) cannot topple him, his citizens (intern) have to do it instead. And I don't think we have to sit there and silently accept him and his country spreading war in the meantime.
Help me understand. You deserve to live, not acting, because apparently there is no evil you're complicit in. People in autocratic societies who don't do anything against said regime, however, deserve not only their circumstances, they deserve death because they're complicit in all the evils around them.
If so, I find that hard to defend. Not only are there a ton of issues all around you, working on them only needs willpower and stamina, but not much bravery or risk-taking. For people in autocratic regimes, trying to change anything is a massive risk, because they usually can't put any trust in the police or justice system whatsoever. We are not the Borg, individual lives count.
Thank you.
Individual lives lose their importance when they become complicit. And yes, if I end up not standing up to my country doing bad things, then that also counts for me.