‘Putin Can Kiss My Ass’: Ukrainians Say They’re Not Afraid of Russia

KYIV – Anton Sidorov, a 35-year-old father of three, was killed in Novoluhans'ke on Ukraine’s eastern front line on Saturday. Vasyl Antoniuk, who served with Sidorov, remembered his fallen comrade as “a great man.”

“​​You see these guys, we’re all together,” Antoniuk said, gesturing to dozens of his fellow uniformed soldiers, many with carnations in hand to place at Sidorov’s grave. 

“We spent 2014 and 2015 in hell,” Antoniuk said, referring to the first two years of the war when fighting between Ukrainian soldiers and separatists was most intense. “We will resist in the same way now… we will protect our country.” 

For Russian President Vladimir Putin, Antoniuk had a special message, “He can kiss my ass. We’re not afraid of him.” 

The funeral came a day after Putin dramatically fanned the flames of the eight-year conflict by recognising the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, the two areas in Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists. “I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago,” Putin said in a wide-ranging speech. 

More than 15,000 people have been killed since 2014, and casualties continue to mount. Nearly 1 million people have been displaced.

In Donetsk city, a handful of separatists gathered to celebrate and set off fireworks after Putin’s decree. “This is another brick in the roadway we’ve been building since 2014,” said Aleksey Muratov, head of the breakaway region’s executive committee.  

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a televised speech standing in front of a map of Ukraine, saying his country would “not be afraid” of Russian aggression. He said that Ukraine would be sending more troops to the front lines. 

Hours after Putin’s announcement, the UN Security Council held an urgent meeting during which U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, condemned what she said was “Russia’s clear attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” 

Thomas-Greenfield added, “This move by President Putin is clearly the basis for Russia’s attempt to create a pretext for a further invasion of Ukraine. The consequences of this action will be felt far beyond Ukraine’s borders.”

The U.S. and other Western states announced sanctions on the breakaway territories, and Germany announced it was halting Nord Stream 2, a multi-billion dollar pipeline that was set to deliver Russian gas to Europe. 

Putin’s unilateral recognition of the territories violates the ceasefires he agreed to with Ukraine in the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements – the peace process involving France and Germany, which, despite numerous violations by both sides, have helped contain the war mostly to areas around the separatist-held regions. 

With the Minsk agreements no longer adhered to and more than 150,000 Russian troops still massed on Ukraine’s borders, the fear in Kyiv and Western countries is that there’s little standing in the way of a full-scale Russian invasion.

It’s a scenario that people are preparing for across Ukraine. 

In a subterranean factory under a residential building in southwest Kyiv, Oleksandr Dovhiy and his dozens of employees are working around the clock creating military equipment for people fighting on the front line. The workers are men and women who have friends or loved ones currently in the military, and they produce body armour, magazine holders, belts, and bags to be used by soldiers in combat. 

Dovhiy said that since December, when Russia began massing troops on the Ukrainian border, his company has seen a “two- or three-fold” increase in sales. 

“I didn’t choose the business; the business chose me. I was needed to help defend my friends, and the friends of my friends,” he told VICE World News.  

On the front lines, the sporadic fighting has intensified. On Tuesday morning, the Ukrainian government said two soldiers had been killed overnight, and 12 were wounded. 

Serhiy, a 23-year-old Ukrainian soldier serving near the town of Toretsk on the front line in eastern Ukraine, told VICE World News, “These days we can feel the tension at the front line, especially when there is artillery being fired.” 

“They’ve been firing intensely for the last two or three days,” he added, referring to Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists just a few hundred metres away from his position.

But whatever hope some might have isn’t necessarily reaching the frontlines. “I watch a lot of news,” Serhiy said. “It does not give us optimism and confidence.”