I have not been able to write for a while because of my internet connection, but I am back now. Today, I am going straight into it with a Life Snippet of a Ukrainian man I spoke with in Thailand.
He gave me a totally different perspective on Ukrainian society since the war. I do not have enough knowledge of Ukrainian society (as well as Russian and other relevant nearby societies) to determine whether I agree or disagree with his take, but I found his perspective interesting because it forced me to wrestle with my underlying assumptions of the place based on the Pro-Ukrainian media common in the US. Friends I have shown early drafts of this to from places that tend towards a Pro-Russian bias told me it caused them to question their own assumptions as well, leaving them unsettled in a way that forced them to grow.
At the very least, he raises serious questions about the usefulness of suffering, war, and violence. I hope his story also helps you work through your own perspective in a unique way. (For a second perspective on the war in Ukraine, see this interview I did with an Ukrainian couple while visiting Borneo, Malaysia.)
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The man is a young adult from Kiev, but he fled Ukraine and is now traveling the world. He illegally crossed the border into Romania (paying $12,000 to be smuggled across by a group that offers this service for many Ukrainians, especially Ukrainian men who do not want to be forcibly conscripted to fight).
He left Ukraine because he got sick of the corruption. He said corruption has been widespread in Ukraine for decades, and even though the current war with Russia distracted people from it, it’s still rampant. He thinks Zelensky is a corrupt and bad leader.
He also was concerned about forced conscriptions, telling stories of government vehicles driving around the city looking for young men to grab and enlist on the spot. He said there are two types of Ukrainians: patriotic zealots who stay in Ukraine to fight and those who flee because they are sick of the place. Most of the latter settle in different parts of Europe where they work, especially as construction workers.
He works as a product manager for an online gambling company, something that allows him to work remotely, so he has been able to travel the world. He dislikes working for a gambling company and does not like the work of a product manager, but it gives him an income and the flexibility to work wherever. Ultimately, he wants to make video games as a designer and animator.
He has been traveling throughout Southeast Asia, spending several months in Indonesia and Vietnam. Now, he is in Thailand for three months where I met him. (The other Ukrainian couple I interviewed also worked in tech and were traveling throughout Southeast Asia. In contrast to the Ukrainian immigrants who work in construction or other blue collar fields in Europe, their education and expertise in tech seems to give them more flexibility in where they work and more disposable income to travel.)
He plans to go back to Europe for a little bit and then travel to Japan where he hopes he can apply for some kind of asylum or refugee status to allow him to live there permanently. He thinks Japan is unlikely to grant it to him, but he will try anyways. His Japanese is at JLPT N4, enough for basic conversations, and he needs to improve it to be successful.
He doesn’t like European cultures, preferring East Asian cultures. He finds them more spiritual, deep, and profound, especially places rooted in Buddhism and the idea of karma. To him, the faith instills a positive spirituality leading to joy and wellbeing. He sees Europe as more secular and superficial.
For him, Russian and Ukrainian cultures are secular just like European cultures, but the romanticization of suffering lies at the foundation of the form of Christianity there. Since the war, Ukraine has become an arena for people interested in glorifying suffering. He thinks this leads to a type of spiritual degeneracy that he strongly disagrees with.
For him, Russia, Ukraine, and also Belarus are fundamentally similar cultures. If Ukraine hadn’t decided to Europeanize, it would have ended up like Belarus, and he considers all three countries to be awful. Each is built on decades of conflict and misery. He also does not think there will be an actual winner of this war. If one side does manage to win, the powerful countries in the world will create an excuse for a new conflict anyways.
Ukraine for him has become a kind of masochistic society, reveling in the suffering of war and glory of defending freedom. Through this, those who romanticize suffering can endlessly live it out. I sense that he looks to Buddhism and Buddhist countries in Asia as a potential alternative that he sees as embracing peace and love instead of suffering and its resulting violence.
Because of all this, there is nothing left for him in Ukraine.