ENGLISH

IN A TIME
OF WAR

lexicallab
Since Covid-19 sent most English-language teachers scurrying online back in early 2020, I’ve
been mostly teaching students from three countries I’ve visited a fair few Bmes and have got
to know preDy well: Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. While all wars are horrific, this one is
parBcularly close to home for me personally as I have friends in all three places and know
many of the towns and ciBes where the obsceniBes have been happening.

I first visited Russia in 1999 and must have been back more than forty Bmes since, travelling
the length and breadth of the country – from Kaliningrad in the west to Vladivostok in the
East. I’ve made many good friends there and maintain contact with plenty of people who are
shocked and appalled by what the state has decided to do: friends have been arrested for
such seemingly harmless acts as holding Harry PoDer books with blue and yellow covers;
friends who’ve seen their parents have their noses broken by OMON thugs for holding up
signs saying NO WAR; and – increasingly – friends who have leV, heading for Sri Lanka,
Armenia, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and beyond.

I think my first trip to Ukraine came in 2008 and I’ve been back several Bmes since, again
visiBng many different ciBes and travelling around much of the country. Almost every
Ukrainian teacher I know fled the country since the start of the war, many having witnessed
things no-one should ever see. Some have stayed and managed to keep teaching in
incredibly difficult circumstances, oVen holding classes in makeshiV bomb shelters and the
like. These people are heroic beyond words.

We have also taken into our house here in north London a teacher from Kharkiv and her six-
year-old son. In fact, just in our one street, we now have six Ukrainians living here, which
should give you some sense of the sheer scale of the displacement.

Belarus was the last of these countries that I visited, and I’ve only been to the capital, Minsk.
For many in Belarus, events of the last few months have been parBcularly appalling as the
uprising against Lukashenko’s regime in 2020 and 2021 was hailed by many around the
world as a brave and inspiring stand against a totalitarian leader, and yet now those same
protesters are somehow being seen as supporters of a barbarian. In addiBon, rather than
seeing the reforms they fought for, they’re seeing Belarus brought ever closer to Moscow.

What I’ve come to feel is that there are many layers of vicBms in this mass mess. Of course,
the most obvious and most extreme examples are the Ukrainians who’ve lost their lives,
their homes, their freedom, their livelihoods and much more. However, many on the other
side of the border are also vicBms of the current regime: the gay Russians unable to live
open lives, the feminists demonised by the state, those who oppose the war and see it for
what it is and who face the sack at work, police brutality on demos, and the threat of prison
– or the death penalty in Belarus – for daring to speak out.

I have also started looking back at the last twenty years of trips to Russia and realising that
the signs of a slow creep towards a kind of state fascism were there all along, and that many
of the people I’ve met there have been trying their hardest to stay human in increasingly
difficult circumstances.
When the full-scale invasion happened, I was sBll teaching mixed-naBonality groups,
although it became increasingly hard for Ukrainian students to get online and study. Before
February 24th I was able to see for myself how well people oVen got on and what common
humanity and values many of my students shared. Early on I wrote what may have been a
naïve or overly opBmisBc blog post outlining how we hoped we could keep teaching in such
troubled Bmes. It’s now been viewed over 7000 Bmes, and obviously since then, the desire
to teach mixed groups has become increasingly complicated. Many Ukrainians won’t want to
be in any kind of space – physical or virtual – with any Russians for many years to come.
Plus, of course, Russians and Belarussians, even those who vocally oppose the war, cannot
book courses outside of their home countries.

Despite all of that, I’ve managed to carry on teaching and sBll speak regularly to people in all
three countries both in lessons and via social media. This small offering is a collecBon of
language I’ve taught in response to these conversaBons. It captures things students have
tried to say in class, and reflects the reality of what many people have been experiencing of
late. It’s been harrowing to teach some of this language, and it may well be upseeng to read
in places. I apologise in advance and can only say that you’ve been forewarned.

At the Bme of wriBng – mid-May 2022 – the war shows no signs of stopping any Bme soon,
and it feels more and more like the only way to end the war is to win the war, an eventuality
which would have seismic repercussions for PuBn and the Russian FederaBon. The decision
to invade is looking more and more like a colossal act of self-harm with every passing week.
Just this week, Kazakhstan has signed a deal with Turkey that essenBally removes it from
Moscow’s orbit and brings it closer to Ankara, and Finland has applied for NATO
membership, with Sweden expected to follow suit imminently.

And all the Bme, the death and devastaBon conBnue. The numbers killed in Mariupol cannot
be fully evaluated whilst the city remains under occupaBon, but we’re clearly talking tens of
thousands. At the same Bme, the esBmated number of Russian troops killed in acBon edges
ever closer to thirty thousand – that’s double the number killed in the decade-long Afghan
war. And all for what? This whole disaster could so easily have been avoided and could be
ended tomorrow if the order to pull all the troops out of Ukraine were to be issued.

In the meanBme, we all try our best to get on with our lives, to do good where we can, to
support those in need. I’m spending a lot of Bme trying to talk to Russian followers on social
media who are sBll in various stages of denial; I also talk to Ksenia, our Ukrainian guest,
about the fact that no one naBon has a monopoly on evil and that if we look at history,
we’ve all got things to be terribly ashamed of. I do some voluntary teaching for displaced
Ukrainians. I share stories and arBcles. I keep up with the news as best I can and I read a lot.

I hope for a beDer world for all of us, where ageing autocrats can be ousted from power,
where old men cannot rain down fire and destrucBon on so many, where our best selves can
be allowed to flower and where we see the world as it really is.

UnBl then, please accept this small book as an offering of sorts.

Stay well, stay sane – and stay human.
BEFORE THE FULL-SCALE INVASION OF FEBRUARY THE 24th
Tens of thousands of troops are massing on the border. The Kremlin, perhaps predictably, is
denying that they’re planning an aDack, but that’s hardly reassuring given how oVen they’ll
say one thing and then do the exact opposite.

I’m really hoping we’re going to see a de-escalaIon of the conflict this week and that maybe
they’ll start to pull some troops back from the border.

It’s an act of extreme brinksmanship and I’m hoping that calm heads will prevail and that
people will step back from the brink.

The situaIon is incredibly tense at the moment and I’m really hoping it’s all just
brinkmanship and sabre-raOling. I know how easily it could spill over into real violence but
I’m sBll feeling fairly confident that it can all be resolved through diplomaIc means.

From a Ukrainian point of view, people already feel like they’ve lost land and have had seven
years of frozen war and external interference and we just want the right to self-
determinaIon.

AVer the annexaIon of Crimea, Russia basically set up proxy armies in Donbas. They
funded them, armed them, trained them and in many cases even staffed them. This then
sucked the Ukrainian army into an armed conflict, and that’s been used as propaganda to
soTen Russians up and persuade them that war against their neighbours is a necessary evil.

From a Russian perspecBve, lots of people feel hemmed in by the expansion of NATO and we
feel threatened by the fact there are now American missiles on European soil.
➢ Yeah, but NATO hasn’t threatened Russia or invaded or tried to take any territory. NATO
membership is voluntary and the small states that used to be part of the Soviet Union
are obviously trying to opt in as they’re scared of Moscow – with good reason.

The Kremlin has been allowed to act with impunity. Up unBl recently, there’d been very
liDle kickback from the West – no sancIons, no freezing of assets, no nothing.

I guess you can either see what’s happening as a response to US and NATO expansion and
aggression, or you can see Ukraine’s desire to join NATO as a smaller ex-Soviet country
worried about the threat of the former colonial master and seeking powerful friends and
allies.

None of us know exactly what’s driving PuIn at the moment. All we can do is speculate.

Plans for all of this have been in place for quite some Bme.

We’re hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.
INSIDE UKRAINE
We’ve basically been living under constant shelling these last few days.
The fear becomes all-consuming. It has you in its grip all the Bme.

This is all part of a conInuum. They’re basically using tacIcs they honed in Aleppo and in
Grozny before that,

They’ve cut off the supply routes. They’re basically trying to starve people into submission.

They could withdraw the troops / pull the troops out tomorrow and end the war tomorrow
if they wanted to.

People have been pouring / flooding out of the area these last two or three days.

These fighter jets would come swooping low over the city and we’d hear them before we
could see them. It was really scary / terrifying.

They can hide (out) in the basement if needs be.

They’re having to dig makeshiT graves in the courtyards of the blocks.

They’ve been targeIng civilians trying to escape from ciBes along the green corridors.

They basically laid siege to the city and blocked all routes in and out.

There’s been widespread looIng all across the occupied areas.

They seem to basically be stealing / loo6ng whatever they can lay their hands on.

A student has just sent me a video she made this morning of Kharkiv being shelled.
It’s hard to just turn off and carry on as normal aVer seeing things like that.

Every Bme the sirens go off, we have to head down to basement and hide out.
It’s weird what you can get used to, eh.

People are witnessing things no-one should ever have to see: teenage girls who’ve been
raped and then strung up in the trees outside town, people who’ve had their arms or legs
blown off, the muIlated bodies of people who’ve been tortured and then shot. It beggars
belief that all this can be happening in Europe in the 21st century.

People are sBll managing to go about their daily lives despite the war.

I guess we should try our best to maintain some semblance of normality.

INSIDE RUSSIA
They’re talking about imposing further sancIons on the country – in a bid to put pressure
on the President to change tack.

They’re clearly going to impose a ra7 / barrage of sancIons on the country in the coming
days.
It’s hard to see how things de-escalate at this stage.

It’s very hard to work out what the long game here is, what the master plan is.
➢ Maybe there is no master plan. Maybe it’s all just dick waving!

The way the sanc<ons have been imposed is unprecedented.

It’s a sad indictment of the state of the country that so few public figures have spoken out
against the war.

A lot of guys are basically conscripted into the army and sent to the front under false
pretenses. They’re tricked into it and they’re sent there as cannon fodder.

They basically managed to buy the document that shows he’d done his military service.

The whole system basically brutalizes people.

I don’t know if you saw it in the news, but they’ve been clamping down on the Communist
Party in Siberia and accusing them of plo_ng to overthrow the government.

PoliBcians usually sell either fear or hope – and the former is much more prevalent these
days.

The sancIons are starIng to bite and there are chronic shortages of basics like sugar and
paper. There’s talk of raIoning being introduced in the next couple of weeks.

I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but I read that they’re going to be introducing conscripIon for
people born in 2004.

He’s painted himself into a corner and it’s very hard to see how he’s going to get out of it.
And that’s what worries me most, I guess: I mean, a cornered beast is always dangerous.

We’ve got to break the (vicious) cycle and teach the coming generaIons to be different.

You have to watch yourself because you don’t want people to grass you up / rat on you to
the authori<es because of something you say or write.
I don’t think people here realise yet quite how badly the shit is going to hit the fan.

People have been stockpiling meds in case they run out someBme soon.
There have been queues round the block outside most chemist’s.

I read that they’re going to cut access to the global Internet any day now and we’ll basically
be stuck on the Splinternet.

So many families have been split / broken apart by the events of the last eight years.

We’ve got a six-month stock / stash of kasha, so at least we’ll be able to eat.

We’ve endured hardship before. I guess we’ll manage to get through this somehow.

Prices are going to soar / go through the roof in the coming weeks and months.

As the currency collapses, the prices of things like IELTS exams are going to rocket.

I’m on the lookout for some other way of operaBng online as it’s looking very much like
Zoom will be pulling out of the country.

It was my main bread and buOer, but all that’s gone out the window now as the firm has
pulled out. I wasn’t directly employed by them, though, so I didn’t get a pay-off or anything.

The VPN market is booming so you know, it’s an ill wind that blows no-one any good.

All those poor bastards being shipped out to the front when they should be out dancing and
drinking and daBng. It just breaks my heart.

If you speak out, you run the risk of being hauled in by the police.

I want to be able to speak my mind, you know, to speak out and say what I want to say, but I
always worry that I’m being monitored and that my words could come back to haunt me at
some point in the future. There could well be (serious) repercussions.

People here are quite reluctant to take to the streets and go on demos.
They’re worried that things could turn violent.

People who expressed open dissent used to get disappeared. I mean, if you were caught
saying the wrong thing to the wrong person you could very easily wake up dead the next
day, you know.

The government has a monopoly on power – and a monopoly on violence.

At some point, you have to take a stand and decide which side you’re on.
SomeBmes you need to stand up for what’s right / for yourself / and fight for your rights.
There’s a fine line between patrioIsm and naIonalism . . . . and there’s another fine line
between ultra-naIonalism and fascism.

The enthusiasm of leaders to use their own people as cannon fodder never ceases to both
amaze and disgust me.

I’m struggling to see how the sancIons they’re imposing are going to hit the people at the
top.

Maybe once the oligarchs start to feel the pinch, things might change.
➢ I’m not so sure. I reckon they’ve all got their escape routes planned.

When I watched that speech he made, it sent shivers down my spine.

Seriously. It made my blood run cold.

PoliBcs basically rears its ugly head everywhere these days. There’s no escaping it.

They round up anyone who goes out to protest and take them down to the staIon and
rough them up.

They’re clearly downgrading some of their iniIal aims / objec6ves as they’ve stopped
talking about ‘deNazificaBon’ and regime change – basically because they got their arses
kicked when they tried to take Kyiv.

She’s a leading light in her field and she does a lot of work with people who’ve been
detained on demos and the like.

A lot of guys who come back from acIve service suffer from terrible PTSD.

They’re holding all these big parades here because it’s Victory Day.

I think the way that May the 9th has been co-opted by the state and turned into a
glorifica<on of war and militarisa<on is preDy obscene.

I honestly can’t see any way there’ll be any kind of peaceful soluIon to the current conflict.
AVer all the recent atrociIes, it’s hard to see how you bring both sides to the negoIaIng
table.

Trying to keep the channels of communicaIon open across the borders is really important
at <mes like this. I guess it’s the least we can try to do.

I’m hoping that at some point the Ide of public opinion will start to turn and people will
become more vocal in their opposi6on to the war.
THE PROPAGANDA WAR
Whipping up fears of the enemy within is a tried and tested technique. It works wonders.

The language we’re fed about the current situaBon is highly euphemisIc. I mean, we really
can’t call a spade a spade. It’s all whitewashed through language. It’s very Orwellian.

There’s a crucial need for an independent judiciary and a free press. They’re the central
pillars of a funcIoning democracy. Once they’re undermined, you start to slide into
authoritarianism.

Finding out that relaBves over the border believe state propaganda more than they believe
their own flesh and blood is the ulImate betrayal.

The government is gaslighIng us on an industrial scale.

Not everyone’s ready to face the facts. People tend to believe whatever stories cause them
least discomfort, I guess.

It’s hard to know what’s really going on because there’s a fog of rumour and gossip and
disinformaBon that swirls around, making it hard to glean the real facts.

There’s this swirling fog of disinformaIon, which undermines your sense of objecIve
reality, and so you can never be completely sure what’s fact and what’s ficIon.

Like a lot of people, I guess I’ve tended to disengage from poliIcs over the years.

There’s no real opposiBon anymore.

Any potenBal threats to the government are soon snuffed out.

I think it’s preDy obvious the elecIons here are rigged.

The idea that we have free and fair elecIons is a sick joke.

It’s shocking to see the sheer number of people who’ve clearly been drinking the
government Kool-Aid. They’re totally gone, totally brainwashed. They’re like zombies.

It’s terrifying how quickly some people take on their new rhetoric about enemies of the
state needing to be done away with.

A lot of kids just regurgitate / parrot what their parents have been saying about the topic.

A lot of people are sBll in various stages of denial. It takes a while for the scales to fall from
their eyes.

They’re brainwashed. They just swallow whatever (bullshit) they’re fed.

PROCESSING FEELINGS
I won’t ask how you are. It’s basically a redundant quesIon right now, isn’t it?

How’re you bearing up?

➢ OK, I guess – under the circumstances / all things considered.
➢ I’m just trying to get through the days.
➢ As well as can be expected under the circumstances.

I’m feeling really done in by everything, to be honest.

I’m learning to adapt to the new reality.

I’m trying to fight off this sense of impending doom.

It’s quite a toxic environment at the moment. I mean, I’ve learned the hard way that if
speak out about the war there, people just totally lose their shit / minds.

I’m trying hard not to spend my days doom-scrolling on Telegram.

I can’t turn off. When I get home, I find myself endlessly trawling through all the news.

Work is the only thing that’s keeping me sane at the moment, to be honest.
It helps to take my mind off things.

I’m just trying to work out how to stay afloat and how to weather this latest storm.
I’m trying to branch out into new markets like Kazakhstan.

The whole thing is a total shitshow. It’s an absolute fucking catastrophe.

The whole situaBon is so fucked up . . . pardon / excuse my French.

I’m trying to get my head round the fact that we’re basically on the verge of becoming a
pariah state. We’re being shut out of everything.

I wasn’t expecIng to feel Covid nostalgia quite so soon.

Maybe we’ve all been a bit complacent and not realised where we were headed.
We’ve sort of sleepwalked into things.

I feel like we’ve ended up sleepwalking into this nightmare without realising where we were
headed.
A week ago, we were all saying that things were looking up and that spring was in the air
and so on – and now it feels like another world.

I’m struggling to stay posiIve in difficult circumstances.

I’ve just been in bits most days so I’m trying to limit the amount of news I consume.

I had this brain fog for the first couple of weeks where I couldn’t remember anything.
I couldn’t think straight at all.

I can’t think or plan ahead. I’ve no idea where I’m headed / going or what’s going to happen.
I’m taking things one day at a Ime at the moment.

I was planning to visit the UK this summer, but obviously I’ve had to put that on the
backburner.

I can’t get some of the images I’ve seen out of my head. They haunt me.

I’ve been struggling with my mental health, to be honest. I keep ge_ng these liDle mini
panic aOacks and have to stop and catch my breath and try and calm myself down.

I think I’m OK and then I suddenly burst out crying for no obvious reason.

One thing all this has made me realise is that I’m actually far more resilient than I’d maybe
given myself credit for in the past. I’m made of far tougher stuff than I knew.

I’m finding it hard to contain the seething rage I feel – the anger and the hatred for those
who’re doing this to us.

The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming someBmes – just this awful sense of losing
control of your own desIny, of your own life being out of your hands.

I’ve got three liOle ones and trying to explain what’s going on to them is just heart-breaking.
I have the fear all the Bme, but I have to put a brave face on things and say everything is
going to be fine and then I put them to bed and go off and cry somewhere.

Like most of us here, I also feel hopeful – and defiant!

I’ve just got this constant low-level anxiety going on all the Bme, bubbling away just
beneath the surface, you know.

I just feel this awful sense of shame and guilt. I can’t shake it off – and I’m not sure I
should.
LEAVING
It’s looking very much like we will finally be moving to Switzerland.
We’re sBll sorIng out all the paperwork, but at least it’s all ongoing / moving forwards.

The number of people leaving has accelerated massively since February – for all the obvious
reasons.

I’m planning to stay in Turkey for the foreseeable future. I think I’m very possibly under
surveillance by the authoriBes back home because of comments I’ve made on social media,
so I’m very reluctant to go back home at the moment.

He’s basically had to go into self-imposed exile. He’s based in Poland now. He’s been
speaking out against the government here for almost 25 years now, and of course that’s
brought him into conflict with the powers-that-be.

We took the back roads to avoid the traffic and the madness on the motorways.

They basically just waved us through at the border.

An old classmate of mine sorted us out with a place to stay.

People have been bending over backwards to help.

They’re being shunted from pillar to post and having to move every few weeks.

Some people refused to speak Russian to me when I was in Lviv as a maOer of principle.

We’re looking to maybe move to Canada for a while.

➢ How easy is it to move there at the moment? I mean, can you get visas and stuff?

They took a very roundabout route. They went to Istanbul and then on to Madrid. Then
onto Mexico and now they’ve managed to cross the border into the States, where they’re
claiming poliIcal asylum.

People have been flooding over the border in insane numbers.

I think there could well be a backlash against people who rock / turn up there looking for a
safe haven for a while, but who don’t make any effort to assimilate or integrate.

It’s hard to just up sIcks and move when you’ve built all your life somewhere.

Loads of people I know have decided to up sIcks and go start afresh elsewhere.

There’s inevitably going to be a backlash against Russians given the current climate.
The longer the war drags on, the more anI-Russian senIment you‘re going to see.
My travel passport runs out in June and I basically don’t have the means to get out at the
moment.

Our government here in the UK - in yet another shameful acIon – has basically said
Ukrainians can come here on work visas to pick fruit, to fill the gap leT by all the
Lithuanians who can no longer can and work due to Brexit. Yet again I’m ashamed to be
BriIsh, especially when places like Poland have really stepped up and people there are
doing such amazing stuff.

There’s been a steady flow of people escaping the conflict zone coming over the border.

THE WAR DRAGS ON

The war is clearly just going to drag on and on and become a war of aOriIon, with PuBn
hoping to just wear everyone down.

SomeBmes what we’re told is a terrorist aOack is actually just a false flag aDack carried out
to provide grounds for further wars.

The Kremlin has tentacles everywhere. I mean, when our government here announced the
first tranche of sancIons last night, there was outrage as they were seen as being far too
soT, but you have to remember that the Tories have taken millions from oligarchs with links
to Moscow.

The whole idea that invading armies will ever be hailed as liberators is batshit mad / crazy.

They’re already compiling / puEng together huge dossiers detailing war crimes that are
alleged to have happened in Ukraine. In the end, people who make decisions on maOers of
life and death should be held accountable.

The Nagarno-Karabakh conflict is looking like it’ll flare up again someBme soon.

Moldova is inevitably going to get sucked into this war. The so-called ‘terrorist aDacks’ in
Transnistria this week were clearly a false flag designed to allow Russian troops to come in
and ‘liberate’ the area. It’s the same narraIve over and over again. It’s always the prelude
to annexaBon.

There are rumours flying round that some of the aDacks are false flag aOacks designed to
allow a pretext for a further escala6on of the figh6ng.

Transnistria has been a disputed territory basically since the break-up of the Soviet Union.

There’s huge pressure on EU countries to turn off the tap and stop buying Russian oil and
gas.
There’s going to be a very turbulent few years as we move away from fossil fuels – and it’s
going to hit people’s pockets, which could well spark some kind of social unrest.

The talks have already reached a deadlock as Russia’s demands are never going to be met.

RESOURCES
Here’s a list of arBcles, sources and more than I’ve found useful over the last few months.

The best press coverage here in the UK probably comes from The Guardian, a newspaper
with a long history of speaking truth to power, and which was also excellent at holding our
own government account over Iraq. hDps://www.theguardian.com/uk

The Al Jazeera coverage has also been excellent and again, they’re not noted for their pro-
western stance, shall we say, and were also excellent with the coverage of Iraq and Syria.
hDps://www.aljazeera.com

For serious journalism on the ground, nothing beats the Kyiv Independent, which also runs
an excellent Telegram channel. No hype, no opinions, no memes, no unverified videos. Just
facts.
hDps://kyivindependent.com

Bellingcat has been excellent at piecing together stories and siVing through available
evidence to get to the heart of certain stories. hDps://www.bellingcat.com

Their podcast on the shooBng down of the Malaysian airliner back in 2014 is incredibly
harrowing and gripping.
hDps://www.bellingcat.com/resources/podcasts/2019/07/17/mh17-episode-guide-1/

Radio Free Europe also has excellent coverage of the whole of Eastern Europe:
hDps://www.rferl.org

Here are some random arBcles and websites I’ve found useful:
hDps://www.4freerussia.org/we-can-do-it-again-turning-victory-day-into-its-opposite

hDps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_imperialism

hDps://leVeast.org/against-russian-imperialism/

hDps://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-forget-nato-ukraine-s-problem-is-russian-
imperialism-1.10576686

hDps://chytomo.com/en/quesBon-of-russian-guilt/

hDps://uaexplainers.com/
hDps://digitalindiaweb.com/117560/why-it-is-important-to-understand-russian-tv-
propaganda.html

hDps://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2547048-high-profile-western-media-outlets-
repeatedly-infiltrated-by-pro-kremlin-trolls

hDps://www.V.com/content/e20bedaa-73d0-4d51-8f0f-fa13cfad1u3

hDps://euromaidanpress.com/2015/12/24/new-report-russias-war-crimes-and-
perpetrators-in-ukraine-2014

hDps://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-
features-of-fascism.html

hDps://www.theguardian.com/commenBsfree/2022/feb/27/vladimir-puBn-russia-ukraine-
power

hDps://euromaidanpress.com/2022/02/24/puBns-big-lie-the-donbas-genocide-and-
impending-ukrainian-aDack

hDps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-32137302

hDps://www.theguardian.com/commenBsfree/2022/apr/13/russia-ukraine-chechnya-
moscow-aggression-puBn-vicBms

hDps://www.salon.com/2022/04/09/we-saw-this-coming-for-neighbors-puBns-brutal-
invasion-came-as-no-surprise

hDps://carnegiemoscow.org/commentary/81718

Timothy Snyder’s videos on resisBng tyranny should be shown in every school: hDps://
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhZxrogyToZsllfRqQllyuFNbT-ER7TAu

And this video on the fascist roots behind much of PuBn’s thinking is also essenBal watching:
hDps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31VFwO-6u0

This great series of BBC podcasts unpicks the propaganda war and how it’s being waged:
hDps://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0btv73r

and Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov’s accounts of his daily life are both heart-warming and
heart-breaking at the same Bme: hDps://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m0015hx4

Finally, this documentary based on interviews with people who’ve managed to escape from
Mariupol is an absolute must-watch for anyone who’s yet to fully grasp the full horror of
what’s being done to Ukraine: hDps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z4I1xYbQxU&t=2404s