I spent about 6 weeks in Ukraine back in 2010, visiting a good friend of mine in Kiev. I got to travel to places like Lviv and Odessa, and got to know her circle of friends who were all then just starting out in their lives after university.
If you had told them then that this would be happening today, it would have surprised none of them. Russia has been a cold shadow looming over Ukraine since its independence, dimming the hopes and expectations of generations of young Ukrainians who have always sensed that their future as a western democracy might be a fever dream.
It saddens me so much to see their fears and most pessimistic expectations validated. It makes me sick to think how they must be feeling now. And it makes me really angry.
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