Date: 22 November 2004 – 23 January 2005, (2 months and 1 day)
Ukrainians overthrow dictatorship (Orange Revolution ...
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/.../2005-03-01/ukraines-orange-revolution
Saturday, March 05, 2022
UKRAINE THE ORANGE REVOLUTION 2004 BEGAN IT ALL
EXPLAINER: Putin’s Balkan narrative argument for Ukraine war
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
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By DUSAN STOJANOVIC
1 of 5
FILE - A woman walks in front of the destroyed former Serbian army headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 24, 2010. Well before Russian tanks and troops rolled into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin was using the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s to ostensibly offer justification for the invasion of a sovereign European country. The Russian president has been particularly focused on NATO’s bombardment of Serbia in 1999 and the West’s acceptance of Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. He claims both created an illegal precedent that shattered international law and order, apparently giving him an excuse to invade Ukraine. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Well before Russian tanks and troops rolled into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin was using the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s to ostensibly offer justification for the invasion of a sovereign European country.
The Russian president has been particularly focused on NATO’s bombardment of Serbia in 1999 and the West’s acceptance of Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. He claims both created an illegal precedent that shattered international law and order, apparently giving him an excuse to invade Ukraine.
Putin’s arguments, repeated several times since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, appear to follow this line: If different ex-Yugoslav republics and the former Serbian province of Kosovo could become independent with Western backing and wars, why can’t Ukraine’s strategic Black Sea peninsula and the rebel-controlled, majority Russian areas in the east of the country split from their mother nations — with Russian help?
With strong U.S. support, ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo seceded over Serbia’s strong objections. Russia, a historic ally of the Serbs, argued then that this set a precedent that could trigger a series of statehood claims elsewhere in the world.
In July 2010, U.N.’s highest court ruled that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was legal but did not outright endorse Kosovo’s claim to statehood.
There are many differences between the Russian attack on Ukraine, seen in the West as one of the darkest moments for Europe since World War II, and the wars in the Balkans that left more than 120,000 people dead and millions homeless. There are also some similarities.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN DIFFERENCES?
NATO didn’t occupy Kosovo after driving Serbian forces out of the former Serbian province, but sent in peacekeepers. Russian troops, meanwhile, took control of Crimea even before its referendum to join Russia was held.
NATO intervened in Kosovo only after significant evidence of Serbian abuses against ethnic Albanians, including mass killings and deportations. Russian forces intervened in Ukraine with no major abuses or violence reported against ethnic Russians.
Kosovars declared independence but did not join their ethnic brethren in neighboring Albania in a single state. Crimea, which has a majority Russian population, signed a deal to join Russia two days after the referendum which was deemed flawed and undemocratic by the West.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN SIMILARITIES?
Both interventions started with false claims that ethnic minorities are being persecuted in neighboring countries. The Serb-led military unleashed a heavy barrage of artillery against towns and villages in Croatia in 1991, something similar to the initial attacks by Russian forces against Ukraine.
Just as Croats, Bosnians and Kosovo Albanians feared Serbian repression during the autocratic rule of late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, ethnic Russians feared Ukrainian nationalists.
WHAT DID PUTIN SAY?
“(German Chancellor Olaf Scholz) has just said that the people of his generation — and I certainly belong to that generation myself — find it difficult to imagine some war in Europe,” Putin said following talks with Scholz in Moscow on Nov. 15.
“But all of us were witnesses to the war in Europe that NATO unleashed against Yugoslavia,” Putin said. He recalled that it was a major military operation involving bombing strikes against a European capital, Belgrade.
“It did happen. Without any sanctions by the U.N. Security Council. It is a very sad example, but it is a hard fact,” Putin said.
He has argued that by intervening in Kosovo, the West created a precedent with longstanding consequences.
WHAT IS THE WEST’S TAKE ON THAT?
At the press conference with Putin, Scholz hit back at the Russian president’s arguments over NATO’s actions in Kosovo, saying this was done to prevent genocide, referring to the persecution of Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces.
Western leaders have repeatedly rejected Putin’s arguments, saying Kosovo was a unique case due to the large number of victims during the Balkan wars amid the violent breakup of Yugoslavia. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel had insisted that Putin’s analogies between the West’s actions in Kosovo and Russia’s intervention in Crimea are “shameful.”
WHAT COULD BE THE CONSEQUENCES?
There are fears that the pro-Russian Serbian leadership could try to use the international attention focused on Ukraine to further destabilize its neighbors, particularly Bosnia where minority Serbs have been threatening to join Serbia.
European Union peacekeepers in Bosnia have announced the deployment of some 500 additional troops, citing “the deterioration of the security internationally (which) has the potential to spread instability” to the region.
Kosovo’s leadership fears Serbia could be encouraged by Russia to try to intervene in its former province to stop the alleged harassment of minority Serbs. Kosovo has asked NATO for a fast track to membership in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, something neither Serbia nor Russia would likely accept peacefully.
Kosovo officials have rejected Putin’s parallels between the NATO intervention in Kosovo and his invasion of Ukraine as “totally baseless and ridiculous.”
___
AP Balkan correspondent Dusan Stojanovic covered the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s and events in Ukraine in 2014.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Well before Russian tanks and troops rolled into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin was using the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s to ostensibly offer justification for the invasion of a sovereign European country.
The Russian president has been particularly focused on NATO’s bombardment of Serbia in 1999 and the West’s acceptance of Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. He claims both created an illegal precedent that shattered international law and order, apparently giving him an excuse to invade Ukraine.
Putin’s arguments, repeated several times since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, appear to follow this line: If different ex-Yugoslav republics and the former Serbian province of Kosovo could become independent with Western backing and wars, why can’t Ukraine’s strategic Black Sea peninsula and the rebel-controlled, majority Russian areas in the east of the country split from their mother nations — with Russian help?
With strong U.S. support, ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo seceded over Serbia’s strong objections. Russia, a historic ally of the Serbs, argued then that this set a precedent that could trigger a series of statehood claims elsewhere in the world.
In July 2010, U.N.’s highest court ruled that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was legal but did not outright endorse Kosovo’s claim to statehood.
There are many differences between the Russian attack on Ukraine, seen in the West as one of the darkest moments for Europe since World War II, and the wars in the Balkans that left more than 120,000 people dead and millions homeless. There are also some similarities.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN DIFFERENCES?
NATO didn’t occupy Kosovo after driving Serbian forces out of the former Serbian province, but sent in peacekeepers. Russian troops, meanwhile, took control of Crimea even before its referendum to join Russia was held.
NATO intervened in Kosovo only after significant evidence of Serbian abuses against ethnic Albanians, including mass killings and deportations. Russian forces intervened in Ukraine with no major abuses or violence reported against ethnic Russians.
Kosovars declared independence but did not join their ethnic brethren in neighboring Albania in a single state. Crimea, which has a majority Russian population, signed a deal to join Russia two days after the referendum which was deemed flawed and undemocratic by the West.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN SIMILARITIES?
Both interventions started with false claims that ethnic minorities are being persecuted in neighboring countries. The Serb-led military unleashed a heavy barrage of artillery against towns and villages in Croatia in 1991, something similar to the initial attacks by Russian forces against Ukraine.
Just as Croats, Bosnians and Kosovo Albanians feared Serbian repression during the autocratic rule of late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, ethnic Russians feared Ukrainian nationalists.
WHAT DID PUTIN SAY?
“(German Chancellor Olaf Scholz) has just said that the people of his generation — and I certainly belong to that generation myself — find it difficult to imagine some war in Europe,” Putin said following talks with Scholz in Moscow on Nov. 15.
“But all of us were witnesses to the war in Europe that NATO unleashed against Yugoslavia,” Putin said. He recalled that it was a major military operation involving bombing strikes against a European capital, Belgrade.
“It did happen. Without any sanctions by the U.N. Security Council. It is a very sad example, but it is a hard fact,” Putin said.
He has argued that by intervening in Kosovo, the West created a precedent with longstanding consequences.
WHAT IS THE WEST’S TAKE ON THAT?
At the press conference with Putin, Scholz hit back at the Russian president’s arguments over NATO’s actions in Kosovo, saying this was done to prevent genocide, referring to the persecution of Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces.
Western leaders have repeatedly rejected Putin’s arguments, saying Kosovo was a unique case due to the large number of victims during the Balkan wars amid the violent breakup of Yugoslavia. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel had insisted that Putin’s analogies between the West’s actions in Kosovo and Russia’s intervention in Crimea are “shameful.”
WHAT COULD BE THE CONSEQUENCES?
There are fears that the pro-Russian Serbian leadership could try to use the international attention focused on Ukraine to further destabilize its neighbors, particularly Bosnia where minority Serbs have been threatening to join Serbia.
European Union peacekeepers in Bosnia have announced the deployment of some 500 additional troops, citing “the deterioration of the security internationally (which) has the potential to spread instability” to the region.
Kosovo’s leadership fears Serbia could be encouraged by Russia to try to intervene in its former province to stop the alleged harassment of minority Serbs. Kosovo has asked NATO for a fast track to membership in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, something neither Serbia nor Russia would likely accept peacefully.
Kosovo officials have rejected Putin’s parallels between the NATO intervention in Kosovo and his invasion of Ukraine as “totally baseless and ridiculous.”
___
AP Balkan correspondent Dusan Stojanovic covered the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s and events in Ukraine in 2014.
SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=KOSOVO
Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Thesis on The Kosovo Crisis and the Crisis of Global Capitalism
(originally written May 1999, Bill Clinton set the stage for George W. to invade Afghanistan and Iraq for humanitarian purposes.)
http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/01/war-whats-it-good-for-profit.html
Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Thesis on The Kosovo Crisis and the Crisis of Global Capitalism
(originally written May 1999, Bill Clinton set the stage for George W. to invade Afghanistan and Iraq for humanitarian purposes.)
http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/01/war-whats-it-good-for-profit.html
Putin critic who left Russia flees Kyiv as “double refugee”
By JUSTIN SPIKE
1 of 5
By JUSTIN SPIKE
1 of 5
Olena, a Russian citizen fleeing from Kyiv, Ukraine (no family name given for safety reason) stands near the River Danube in downtown Budapest on Friday, March 4, 2022. Olena who years ago left her home country in opposition to Vladimir Putin's government has been forced to flee again — this time from her adopted home of Kyiv — as Putin's armed forces assault Ukraine. (AP Photo/Balazs Kaufmann)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — To Olena, it feels like Vladimir Putin has been chasing her for years.
Fed up with Putin’s government, the Russian citizen left her native country six years ago and moved to Ukraine, where she helped raise funds for women and children whose homes had been destroyed in years of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region.
Then, this week, she was on the move again — fleeing her adopted home of Kyiv ahead of Putin’s invaders.
“It looks like I’m a double refugee now because first I fled from Russia because I was against Putin,” said Olena, who spoke on condition that she be identified only by her first name for fear of reprisals against her or her family. “I fled from Russia, and then Russia came to Ukraine.”
Olena and five colleagues left Kyiv after three nights in a bomb shelter, the thuds of explosions reverberating. They arrived in Hungary on Thursday after a harrowing, three-day flight.
Seated on a train in the Hungarian border town of Zahony before departing for the capital of Budapest, Olena said she had participated in anti-Putin protests in Russia, but came to realize that “Putin will just rule for as long as he lives. So I chose to vote with my legs and leave.”
She moved to Ukraine, she said, because she was inspired by the Maidan revolution of 2014, when sustained protests forced the ouster of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych.
“As long as Putin is in power, I will never go back,” she said.
But now, Ukraine was no longer an option, either — for her or for the hundreds of other refugees who boarded the train for the five-hour journey from the border to Budapest. Dozens of volunteers greeted them, offering food, transportation and accommodation.
Olena was grateful to be in friendly territory, but the future looked uncertain. “I have no home, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I just have to hope,” she said.
She lost access to her money after Ukraine blocked the bank accounts of Russian citizens, fearing they would be used to finance Russia’s assault on the country.
“I understand their reasons, because they are afraid that Russians will use this money to fight. But I’m just a civilian. I just lost all my income, I lost all my source of money, and I lost my bank account, just because of this Russian passport,” she said.
That passport, she said, caused her problems on the journey from Kyiv. Some Ukrainians expressed hostility, associating her with the enemy.
But she stressed that many Russians, at home and abroad, oppose the war, and she hopes “people would separate the government from common people that don’t want to fight.”
“Ukrainians are like a brother people,” she said. “We can’t fight amongst each other. Putin is the real enemy. When Putin came to power, I didn’t like him but I didn’t realize the whole scale of his insanity.”
On Thursday, Olena and her colleagues were given a place to stay in a leafy suburb of Budapest. It is a welcome respite.
“We don’t hear explosions anymore. We don’t hear sirens every two hours, when we have to pack our things and rush to the bomb shelter,” she said. “When we crossed the border it was such a relief that we are alive and we are safe.”
___
Balazs Kaufmann in Zahony, Hungary, contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the Ukraine crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — To Olena, it feels like Vladimir Putin has been chasing her for years.
Fed up with Putin’s government, the Russian citizen left her native country six years ago and moved to Ukraine, where she helped raise funds for women and children whose homes had been destroyed in years of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region.
Then, this week, she was on the move again — fleeing her adopted home of Kyiv ahead of Putin’s invaders.
“It looks like I’m a double refugee now because first I fled from Russia because I was against Putin,” said Olena, who spoke on condition that she be identified only by her first name for fear of reprisals against her or her family. “I fled from Russia, and then Russia came to Ukraine.”
Olena and five colleagues left Kyiv after three nights in a bomb shelter, the thuds of explosions reverberating. They arrived in Hungary on Thursday after a harrowing, three-day flight.
Seated on a train in the Hungarian border town of Zahony before departing for the capital of Budapest, Olena said she had participated in anti-Putin protests in Russia, but came to realize that “Putin will just rule for as long as he lives. So I chose to vote with my legs and leave.”
She moved to Ukraine, she said, because she was inspired by the Maidan revolution of 2014, when sustained protests forced the ouster of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych.
“As long as Putin is in power, I will never go back,” she said.
But now, Ukraine was no longer an option, either — for her or for the hundreds of other refugees who boarded the train for the five-hour journey from the border to Budapest. Dozens of volunteers greeted them, offering food, transportation and accommodation.
Olena was grateful to be in friendly territory, but the future looked uncertain. “I have no home, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I just have to hope,” she said.
She lost access to her money after Ukraine blocked the bank accounts of Russian citizens, fearing they would be used to finance Russia’s assault on the country.
“I understand their reasons, because they are afraid that Russians will use this money to fight. But I’m just a civilian. I just lost all my income, I lost all my source of money, and I lost my bank account, just because of this Russian passport,” she said.
That passport, she said, caused her problems on the journey from Kyiv. Some Ukrainians expressed hostility, associating her with the enemy.
But she stressed that many Russians, at home and abroad, oppose the war, and she hopes “people would separate the government from common people that don’t want to fight.”
“Ukrainians are like a brother people,” she said. “We can’t fight amongst each other. Putin is the real enemy. When Putin came to power, I didn’t like him but I didn’t realize the whole scale of his insanity.”
On Thursday, Olena and her colleagues were given a place to stay in a leafy suburb of Budapest. It is a welcome respite.
“We don’t hear explosions anymore. We don’t hear sirens every two hours, when we have to pack our things and rush to the bomb shelter,” she said. “When we crossed the border it was such a relief that we are alive and we are safe.”
___
Balazs Kaufmann in Zahony, Hungary, contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the Ukraine crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Horrific deja vu in Ukraine for those who fled other wars
By AJ NADDAFF and CHRISTOPH NOELTING
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By AJ NADDAFF and CHRISTOPH NOELTING
1 of 9
Orwa Staif, a Syrian student in the city of Kharkiv, sits on the sofa in the apartment of his parents in Nuremberg, Germany, Thursday, March 3, 2022. When Russia launched its war on Ukraine, Staif joined the exodus of people fleeing the onslaught. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
NUREMBERG, Germany (AP) — When Russia launched its war on Ukraine, a Syrian student in the city of Kharkiv joined the exodus of people fleeing the onslaught. It was the third time that 24-year-old Orwa Staif, who grew up in the suburbs of Damascus, was being displaced by war and crises.
For Staif, it was a jarring déjà vu: columns of people, many on foot, carrying what few belongings they could, desperate to escape bombs and missiles. He had seen it all before, in his native Syria.
“The same sounds of bombs that I heard in 2013, I heard now in Kharkiv. I told my friends ‘I can’t believe I’m reliving the same experience’,” Staif told The Associated Press in Germany, where he has since reunited with his family.
According to the United Nations, more than 1 million people have fled Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, the swiftest refugee exodus this century. They fled to neighboring countries, with Poland taking in the highest number.
In 2013, rebels fighting to topple Syrian autocrat Bashar Assad were in Staif’s hometown of Douma, at the doorstep of the capital, Damascus. Airstrikes, shelling and street fighting were common.
His father defected from the army and the family was forced to leave Syria. Like so many other families, they scattered — some went to the United Arab Emirates, some to Germany. Staif went to neighboring Lebanon, where he graduated from high school.
In 2019, the situation in Lebanon deteriorated dramatically, with the economy crashing and people taking to the streets in mass protests. Poverty and inflation soared in an unprecedented economic collapse.
Staif’s father advised him to go study in Ukraine, where getting a visa — at least in theory — was easier than in other places. Staif succeeded and moved to Ukraine the following year, in February 2020.
When Russia invaded last week, pummeling Ukrainian cities with airstrikes and shelling — including Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city — many piled into trains and cars to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, before heading to the Polish border. Staif managed to get on a train for a 16-hour journey to Lviv, and from there continued on foot toward Poland.
Over the weekend, the line of traffic stretched for 30 kilometers (19 miles), backed up with cars and people. The unlucky ones without transportation had to make the trip on foot. Women, the elderly and children were among the masses — along with some foreigners, mostly students from other countries.
“This journey is so tough. I can say ten years of displacement. Whenever I get used to a place, I get new acquaintance with my friends and then I leave everything and go,” Staif said.
“It’s so hard and so disappointing for me and I hate it... It’s the war wherever I am. Crises all over the world and those places that I’ve been.
A Yemeni student of mechanical engineering, a young woman evacuated from Kabul when the Taliban seized Afghanistan and others share much of Staif’s story.
Mohammad Shamiri, 23, from Yemen’s capital of Sanaa, arrived in Ukraine four years ago to study mechanical engineering at the Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University.
“I never imagined this could happen here,” in Europe, Shamiri said.
While escaping Ukraine, the sound of war and bombing was much more intense, he added. In Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting since 2015 against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who overran Sanaa, the bombardment was more intermittent.
Shamiri said he walked for 20 hours with a friend, a fellow Yemeni, carrying bags in subfreezing cold. Temperatures dropped to 17 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8 degrees Celsius). Like Staif, he described spending a night outside, in the open.
At the border, guards gave Ukrainians priority in leaving the country, pushing back and beating non-Ukrainians, he said. Shamiri was hit with a baton and saw people tasered, he said. When he tried to film this with his smart phone, a border guard grabbed the phone and made him delete all photos and videos.
After finally crossing over, he arrived at a hospital in Krakow, Poland, where he and his friend are now being treated.
For Masouma Tajik, a 23-year-old from Afghanistan, solidarity amongst neighboring states has been unique in this war. She had been in Ukraine for about six months since being evacuated from Kabul, escaping the Taliban, before she had to flee again.
After spending a night sleeping on the floor of a cold church in Lviv, she was connected to Polish volunteers via a WhatsApp solidarity group, and one crossed the border to pick her up and bring her over.
“Many things happened that reminded me of Kabul. But the kindness that I was seeing on this journey was remarkable,” she said. “In Afghanistan, you saw neighboring countries like Iran, Uzbekistan and Pakistan close their borders to Afghans.”
Tajik said she had no trouble at the border, and despite having an expired 15-day visa, the guards gave her a warm smile and let her through.
“When I left Afghanistan and went to Ukraine, they welcomed me warmly and I felt the home that I had lost,” she said. “I hate war. I am tired of it. It has taken people from me who are dear to me. I cannot afford to lose more.”
Fellow Afghan refugee, Jawad Akmal, remembers speeding to the Kabul airport one night in August, escorted by Ukrainian Special Forces. He said his relief was enormous when he boarded the plane to Kyiv along with his family. His wife, he later found out, was pregnant with their sixth child.
They were waiting to be resettled in Canada, their final destination, but after six months living in a Kyiv hotel room, he found himself in the middle of another war, unable to find food for his children and afraid he would be arrested with expired documents before he could make the police understand he was a refugee.
It was easier in Afghanistan, he said.
“At least that was my country, a place where I could talk to people in my own language, to ask for help to find shelter for me and my family,” he said over the phone from Kyiv, just hours before they left for Poland, traveling for more than a day on a bus crowded with fleeing Ukrainians.
Staif recalled walking all evening and night from Lviv, reaching the Polish border before dawn. People slept in the street. They ran out of food and water. The images are forever in his mind, he said, “people, in the thousands, all headed to the border, Ukrainian women and children.”
From Poland, Staif flew to Prague, the Czech Republic, where his family picked him up in a car and brought him to Nuremberg, Germany.
“I loved Ukraine, I loved the country. Everything was perfect for me until the Russians came,” Staif said. “For me, this isn’t a happy ending,” he added, even though he was grateful to be reunited with his family.
The software engineering student said he was supposed to finish his last year of studies in Ukraine. “Now I don’t know.”
“I might have to start all over again,” he said.
___
Naddaff reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed.
NUREMBERG, Germany (AP) — When Russia launched its war on Ukraine, a Syrian student in the city of Kharkiv joined the exodus of people fleeing the onslaught. It was the third time that 24-year-old Orwa Staif, who grew up in the suburbs of Damascus, was being displaced by war and crises.
For Staif, it was a jarring déjà vu: columns of people, many on foot, carrying what few belongings they could, desperate to escape bombs and missiles. He had seen it all before, in his native Syria.
“The same sounds of bombs that I heard in 2013, I heard now in Kharkiv. I told my friends ‘I can’t believe I’m reliving the same experience’,” Staif told The Associated Press in Germany, where he has since reunited with his family.
According to the United Nations, more than 1 million people have fled Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, the swiftest refugee exodus this century. They fled to neighboring countries, with Poland taking in the highest number.
In 2013, rebels fighting to topple Syrian autocrat Bashar Assad were in Staif’s hometown of Douma, at the doorstep of the capital, Damascus. Airstrikes, shelling and street fighting were common.
His father defected from the army and the family was forced to leave Syria. Like so many other families, they scattered — some went to the United Arab Emirates, some to Germany. Staif went to neighboring Lebanon, where he graduated from high school.
In 2019, the situation in Lebanon deteriorated dramatically, with the economy crashing and people taking to the streets in mass protests. Poverty and inflation soared in an unprecedented economic collapse.
Staif’s father advised him to go study in Ukraine, where getting a visa — at least in theory — was easier than in other places. Staif succeeded and moved to Ukraine the following year, in February 2020.
When Russia invaded last week, pummeling Ukrainian cities with airstrikes and shelling — including Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city — many piled into trains and cars to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, before heading to the Polish border. Staif managed to get on a train for a 16-hour journey to Lviv, and from there continued on foot toward Poland.
Over the weekend, the line of traffic stretched for 30 kilometers (19 miles), backed up with cars and people. The unlucky ones without transportation had to make the trip on foot. Women, the elderly and children were among the masses — along with some foreigners, mostly students from other countries.
“This journey is so tough. I can say ten years of displacement. Whenever I get used to a place, I get new acquaintance with my friends and then I leave everything and go,” Staif said.
“It’s so hard and so disappointing for me and I hate it... It’s the war wherever I am. Crises all over the world and those places that I’ve been.
A Yemeni student of mechanical engineering, a young woman evacuated from Kabul when the Taliban seized Afghanistan and others share much of Staif’s story.
Mohammad Shamiri, 23, from Yemen’s capital of Sanaa, arrived in Ukraine four years ago to study mechanical engineering at the Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University.
“I never imagined this could happen here,” in Europe, Shamiri said.
While escaping Ukraine, the sound of war and bombing was much more intense, he added. In Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting since 2015 against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who overran Sanaa, the bombardment was more intermittent.
Shamiri said he walked for 20 hours with a friend, a fellow Yemeni, carrying bags in subfreezing cold. Temperatures dropped to 17 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8 degrees Celsius). Like Staif, he described spending a night outside, in the open.
At the border, guards gave Ukrainians priority in leaving the country, pushing back and beating non-Ukrainians, he said. Shamiri was hit with a baton and saw people tasered, he said. When he tried to film this with his smart phone, a border guard grabbed the phone and made him delete all photos and videos.
After finally crossing over, he arrived at a hospital in Krakow, Poland, where he and his friend are now being treated.
For Masouma Tajik, a 23-year-old from Afghanistan, solidarity amongst neighboring states has been unique in this war. She had been in Ukraine for about six months since being evacuated from Kabul, escaping the Taliban, before she had to flee again.
After spending a night sleeping on the floor of a cold church in Lviv, she was connected to Polish volunteers via a WhatsApp solidarity group, and one crossed the border to pick her up and bring her over.
“Many things happened that reminded me of Kabul. But the kindness that I was seeing on this journey was remarkable,” she said. “In Afghanistan, you saw neighboring countries like Iran, Uzbekistan and Pakistan close their borders to Afghans.”
Tajik said she had no trouble at the border, and despite having an expired 15-day visa, the guards gave her a warm smile and let her through.
“When I left Afghanistan and went to Ukraine, they welcomed me warmly and I felt the home that I had lost,” she said. “I hate war. I am tired of it. It has taken people from me who are dear to me. I cannot afford to lose more.”
Fellow Afghan refugee, Jawad Akmal, remembers speeding to the Kabul airport one night in August, escorted by Ukrainian Special Forces. He said his relief was enormous when he boarded the plane to Kyiv along with his family. His wife, he later found out, was pregnant with their sixth child.
They were waiting to be resettled in Canada, their final destination, but after six months living in a Kyiv hotel room, he found himself in the middle of another war, unable to find food for his children and afraid he would be arrested with expired documents before he could make the police understand he was a refugee.
It was easier in Afghanistan, he said.
“At least that was my country, a place where I could talk to people in my own language, to ask for help to find shelter for me and my family,” he said over the phone from Kyiv, just hours before they left for Poland, traveling for more than a day on a bus crowded with fleeing Ukrainians.
Staif recalled walking all evening and night from Lviv, reaching the Polish border before dawn. People slept in the street. They ran out of food and water. The images are forever in his mind, he said, “people, in the thousands, all headed to the border, Ukrainian women and children.”
From Poland, Staif flew to Prague, the Czech Republic, where his family picked him up in a car and brought him to Nuremberg, Germany.
“I loved Ukraine, I loved the country. Everything was perfect for me until the Russians came,” Staif said. “For me, this isn’t a happy ending,” he added, even though he was grateful to be reunited with his family.
The software engineering student said he was supposed to finish his last year of studies in Ukraine. “Now I don’t know.”
“I might have to start all over again,” he said.
___
Naddaff reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Kathy Gannon in Islamabad contributed.
'How can I survive': stranded Chinese run gauntlet in Ukraine
Cao hunkered down in a bomb shelter as Russian shells thudded outside near the devastated Ukrainian city of Chernihiv (AFP/Dimitar DILKOFF) (Dimitar DILKOFF)
Laurie CHEN
Sat, March 5, 2022
Cao never imagined his holiday in eastern Europe would involve hunkering down in a bomb shelter as Russian shells thudded outside near the devastated Ukrainian city of Chernihiv.
The 25-year-old, one of about 6,000 Chinese nationals who were in Ukraine when war broke out, described feeling helpless and abandoned after essentially being told by China's Embassy in Ukraine to fend for himself.
"The embassy told us to find a way to solve the problems we're facing by ourselves," he told AFP from a small town outside Chernihiv where he has sought refuge with a local family.
"They said that fighting is everywhere, they aren't able to do anything... Shouldn't this be a nation's responsibility?" he said via China's WeChat messaging app.
China waited until war broke out to announce evacuation efforts for its citizens, weeks after Western countries warned theirs to leave, and has avoided condemning its close ally Moscow.
China's foreign ministry has expressed concern for the safety of its nationals and on Thursday said it had helped more than 3,000 evacuate.
The first two flights carrying evacuees landed back in China on Saturday, state media said.
- Running the gauntlet -
But many more remain stranded.
"We want to leave, but there are no cars. I'm afraid I'll be killed if I attempt to walk several hundred kilometres," Cao said, giving only a nickname.
With Ukrainian airspace shut, some Chinese have joined the desperate rush to catch trains out of the country or are risking the perilous drive to its western borders to get on flights.
A Chinese national was shot and injured on Tuesday while attempting to flee Ukraine, state media reported, without specifying who fired on him.
Cao said locals had been kind to him, offering food and shelter, but added: "I don't know how much longer I can stay in a stranger's home for free. How can I survive?"
Other Chinese have claimed they faced hostility and even physical attacks from Ukrainians angry over China's reluctance to condemn Russia, and have called for Chinese Internet users to avoid inflammatory posts.
China's internet is frequently a forum for nationalistic, pro-government views, and many users have cheered Putin online in comments apparently condoned by Chinese censors.
But last week China's Weibo platform deleted hundreds of misogynistic comments about "taking in Ukrainian beauties."
"Bullets won't fly out of the screen and hit you, but some inappropriate remarks may cause all of us Chinese here unnecessary trouble," a Chinese man in Kyiv who identified himself by the surname Lin said in a Weibo video uploaded Sunday.
Lin later told AFP by phone that he was shot at by armed civilians while shopping for groceries last week, but played down local hostility as isolated incidents.
- 'Enormous pressure' -
"The psychological pressure on us is enormous... but the embassy is actively coordinating evacuation plans which makes us feel reassured," said the 28-year-old stand-up comedian, who was in Ukraine for personal business.
He said some objectionable comments online "don't represent all Chinese people's attitudes towards the Ukraine conflict."
Lin said that he would evacuate to the western city of Lviv by train on Saturday before attempting to drive to Poland. He said he refused an embassy evacuation spot because his Ukrainian girlfriend was not eligible.
Some Chinese have received little sympathy back home despite their plight.
A Chinese student in Kyiv on Tuesday posted a recording of her desperate call to an embassy staffer, who advised her to shelter in place or board a train to Lviv by herself.
She later deleted the post after being targeted by a barrage of unsympathetic posts calling her an ingrate.
Recent patriotic Chinese action movies have promoted the idea that citizens facing danger abroad will be rescued by their country, but the reality has been different for Cao.
"I can't believe that a country ... would not only be useless but also shamelessly says it will never abandon a citizen and ends up abandoning a whole load of citizens," he said.
lxc/dma/jfx
Cao hunkered down in a bomb shelter as Russian shells thudded outside near the devastated Ukrainian city of Chernihiv (AFP/Dimitar DILKOFF) (Dimitar DILKOFF)
Laurie CHEN
Sat, March 5, 2022
Cao never imagined his holiday in eastern Europe would involve hunkering down in a bomb shelter as Russian shells thudded outside near the devastated Ukrainian city of Chernihiv.
The 25-year-old, one of about 6,000 Chinese nationals who were in Ukraine when war broke out, described feeling helpless and abandoned after essentially being told by China's Embassy in Ukraine to fend for himself.
"The embassy told us to find a way to solve the problems we're facing by ourselves," he told AFP from a small town outside Chernihiv where he has sought refuge with a local family.
"They said that fighting is everywhere, they aren't able to do anything... Shouldn't this be a nation's responsibility?" he said via China's WeChat messaging app.
China waited until war broke out to announce evacuation efforts for its citizens, weeks after Western countries warned theirs to leave, and has avoided condemning its close ally Moscow.
China's foreign ministry has expressed concern for the safety of its nationals and on Thursday said it had helped more than 3,000 evacuate.
The first two flights carrying evacuees landed back in China on Saturday, state media said.
- Running the gauntlet -
But many more remain stranded.
"We want to leave, but there are no cars. I'm afraid I'll be killed if I attempt to walk several hundred kilometres," Cao said, giving only a nickname.
With Ukrainian airspace shut, some Chinese have joined the desperate rush to catch trains out of the country or are risking the perilous drive to its western borders to get on flights.
A Chinese national was shot and injured on Tuesday while attempting to flee Ukraine, state media reported, without specifying who fired on him.
Cao said locals had been kind to him, offering food and shelter, but added: "I don't know how much longer I can stay in a stranger's home for free. How can I survive?"
Other Chinese have claimed they faced hostility and even physical attacks from Ukrainians angry over China's reluctance to condemn Russia, and have called for Chinese Internet users to avoid inflammatory posts.
China's internet is frequently a forum for nationalistic, pro-government views, and many users have cheered Putin online in comments apparently condoned by Chinese censors.
But last week China's Weibo platform deleted hundreds of misogynistic comments about "taking in Ukrainian beauties."
"Bullets won't fly out of the screen and hit you, but some inappropriate remarks may cause all of us Chinese here unnecessary trouble," a Chinese man in Kyiv who identified himself by the surname Lin said in a Weibo video uploaded Sunday.
Lin later told AFP by phone that he was shot at by armed civilians while shopping for groceries last week, but played down local hostility as isolated incidents.
- 'Enormous pressure' -
"The psychological pressure on us is enormous... but the embassy is actively coordinating evacuation plans which makes us feel reassured," said the 28-year-old stand-up comedian, who was in Ukraine for personal business.
He said some objectionable comments online "don't represent all Chinese people's attitudes towards the Ukraine conflict."
Lin said that he would evacuate to the western city of Lviv by train on Saturday before attempting to drive to Poland. He said he refused an embassy evacuation spot because his Ukrainian girlfriend was not eligible.
Some Chinese have received little sympathy back home despite their plight.
A Chinese student in Kyiv on Tuesday posted a recording of her desperate call to an embassy staffer, who advised her to shelter in place or board a train to Lviv by herself.
She later deleted the post after being targeted by a barrage of unsympathetic posts calling her an ingrate.
Recent patriotic Chinese action movies have promoted the idea that citizens facing danger abroad will be rescued by their country, but the reality has been different for Cao.
"I can't believe that a country ... would not only be useless but also shamelessly says it will never abandon a citizen and ends up abandoning a whole load of citizens," he said.
lxc/dma/jfx
Edmonton’s queer history highlighted through new website and walking tour
Sarah Komadina
On a snowy and cold day in Edmonton, Kristopher Wells and Michael Phair stood together holding maps they helped create. The maps are for the Edmonton Queer History Project's walking tour downtown, and the first stop is Michael Phair Park.
Wells commented to Phair just how important he is to the community, and how special it is the downtown park honours him. Phair is humble and said it was a group effort to get here today.
READ MORE: Edmonton park named after former city councillor and LGBTQ rights advocate
"We are an important part of the city. We're recognized in that, we're welcomed -- that's part of our history now," Phair said.
Phair remembers the S.S. Pisces gay bathhouse raid in 1981. Police arrested more than 60 gay and bisexual men. He remembers what the first Pride parades looked like, as well as the devastating time when the first detected Edmonton case of HIV/AIDS was confirmed in 1984.
READ MORE: 'Lives were ruined': 40 years after Edmonton's Pisces bathhouse raid
"When in '84 the first individual with HIV was identified in Edmonton, it was in fact members of the gay and lesbian community -- which I was a part of at that time -- who put together what became the AIDS network and it was a group from our community that really worked to assists folks," Phair said.
"The advent of HIV/AIDS was a horrible time personally, and for everyone else who was involved. Everyone that was impacted died within two years without exceptions."
The walking tour map has 27 spots. Among the stops are GATE, the first major LGBTQ2+ organization to help grow and support the community; the Roost, one of the longest-running queer spaces; and Centennial Plaza, where the Edmonton Pride Festival was first held. In the early days, it was small and people marched with bags over their heads -- not like how the event is held today.
The tour is meant to give people an idea of the adversity the queer community went through to gain acceptance -- but it's only one element of the Edmonton Queer History Project. A new website has been launched that lays out this history on a Pride timeline. There is also a podcast called From Here to Queer that dives into the issues.
"I think it's important for any city or any group to make sure that the history doesn't get lost," Phair said. "I think it's important for us who lived through this that we are able to tell our story and that other people can look at it and read our story and learn from it as well.
"It really is great quality work... I think it will speak to people for generations."
Phair stressed there is still work to be done for future generations.
"There's discrimination, but it's not supposed to happen now, and there's laws against it," he said.
"There's more work that needs to be done... we did it in the past and you need to do it in the future as well."
Sarah Komadina
On a snowy and cold day in Edmonton, Kristopher Wells and Michael Phair stood together holding maps they helped create. The maps are for the Edmonton Queer History Project's walking tour downtown, and the first stop is Michael Phair Park.
© Global News Kristopher Wells and Michael Phair look at the Edmonton Queer History Project walking tour map.
Wells commented to Phair just how important he is to the community, and how special it is the downtown park honours him. Phair is humble and said it was a group effort to get here today.
READ MORE: Edmonton park named after former city councillor and LGBTQ rights advocate
"We are an important part of the city. We're recognized in that, we're welcomed -- that's part of our history now," Phair said.
Phair remembers the S.S. Pisces gay bathhouse raid in 1981. Police arrested more than 60 gay and bisexual men. He remembers what the first Pride parades looked like, as well as the devastating time when the first detected Edmonton case of HIV/AIDS was confirmed in 1984.
READ MORE: 'Lives were ruined': 40 years after Edmonton's Pisces bathhouse raid
"When in '84 the first individual with HIV was identified in Edmonton, it was in fact members of the gay and lesbian community -- which I was a part of at that time -- who put together what became the AIDS network and it was a group from our community that really worked to assists folks," Phair said.
"The advent of HIV/AIDS was a horrible time personally, and for everyone else who was involved. Everyone that was impacted died within two years without exceptions."
The walking tour map has 27 spots. Among the stops are GATE, the first major LGBTQ2+ organization to help grow and support the community; the Roost, one of the longest-running queer spaces; and Centennial Plaza, where the Edmonton Pride Festival was first held. In the early days, it was small and people marched with bags over their heads -- not like how the event is held today.
The tour is meant to give people an idea of the adversity the queer community went through to gain acceptance -- but it's only one element of the Edmonton Queer History Project. A new website has been launched that lays out this history on a Pride timeline. There is also a podcast called From Here to Queer that dives into the issues.
"I think it's important for any city or any group to make sure that the history doesn't get lost," Phair said. "I think it's important for us who lived through this that we are able to tell our story and that other people can look at it and read our story and learn from it as well.
"It really is great quality work... I think it will speak to people for generations."
Phair stressed there is still work to be done for future generations.
"There's discrimination, but it's not supposed to happen now, and there's laws against it," he said.
"There's more work that needs to be done... we did it in the past and you need to do it in the future as well."
Wells was part of the team behind the walking tour and website. He is an associate professor at MacEwan University and a Canada research chair for the public understanding of gender minority youth. He said this project would have made a world of difference for him growing up.
"So much of this queer history is not taught in our schools," he said. "You go in your textbooks and you're not learning about these LGBTQ2+ pioneers -- you're not learning about the community that contributed so much to our city and our province and our country.
"When you're written out of history, when you're written out of your textbooks, what does that tell you about the worth and value of your identity? It tells you without a past, you have no future."
Wells said being gay in the 80s and 90s was a dangerous time.
"I remember in the mid-90s going to the Roost, the gay bar," he said. "I learned some powerful lessons: you parked your car far away from the front door, and then you raced to the front door before someone would grab you and beat you up. And you learned the lesson never to leave the club on your own -- you always travel in a pack.
"Despite that danger, and what was more important to you to be willing to take that risk was to be able to find community."
Wells said he wants young people to take pride in their identities and to learn about the generations that come before them.
"We want to inspire them to keep the work going moving forward."
Wells said the project is going to be constantly taking in people's stories.
"We hope this inspires others to come forward," Phair said. "Empty your closets -- we want your old photographs, your newspaper clippings, we want to hear your stories.
"We've just started with 27 locations in the downtown, but we know queer history happens everywhere."
There will be a public launch event at Michael Phair Park on March 8 at 10 a.m. After speeches, there will be a guided walking tour with Phair and Darrin Hagen.
"So much of this queer history is not taught in our schools," he said. "You go in your textbooks and you're not learning about these LGBTQ2+ pioneers -- you're not learning about the community that contributed so much to our city and our province and our country.
"When you're written out of history, when you're written out of your textbooks, what does that tell you about the worth and value of your identity? It tells you without a past, you have no future."
Wells said being gay in the 80s and 90s was a dangerous time.
"I remember in the mid-90s going to the Roost, the gay bar," he said. "I learned some powerful lessons: you parked your car far away from the front door, and then you raced to the front door before someone would grab you and beat you up. And you learned the lesson never to leave the club on your own -- you always travel in a pack.
"Despite that danger, and what was more important to you to be willing to take that risk was to be able to find community."
Wells said he wants young people to take pride in their identities and to learn about the generations that come before them.
"We want to inspire them to keep the work going moving forward."
Wells said the project is going to be constantly taking in people's stories.
"We hope this inspires others to come forward," Phair said. "Empty your closets -- we want your old photographs, your newspaper clippings, we want to hear your stories.
"We've just started with 27 locations in the downtown, but we know queer history happens everywhere."
There will be a public launch event at Michael Phair Park on March 8 at 10 a.m. After speeches, there will be a guided walking tour with Phair and Darrin Hagen.
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