In Ukraine, some Russians take up arms against Putin – Peninsula On
Odessa, Ukraine–When Andrei Krasilnikov hugged his wife good-bye last week and climbed onto a bus to take him back to the frontline in eastern Ukraine, his motive was typical of those fighting for Kyiv — to defend his family and future from what he perceives as Russian aggression.
What sets him apart from his brothers-in-arms is his Russian citizenship.
Krasilnikov, 48, is one of several Russians fighting as a volunteer against the pro-Moscow insurgency in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Like many Ukrainians he views the conflict as “a war by Russia against Ukraine” rather than a home-grown uprising.
“The thing is, we are not fighting against Russians but against (President Vladimir) Putin’s army,” he said. “Not everyone in Russia supports Putin and his regime… a regime that is militarised, a police regime that can do whatever it wants with its own people.”
Though he has lived in Ukraine’s southern Russian-speaking city of Odessa for a decade and has a Ukrainian wife and son, the Moscow-born Krasilnikov still holds a Russian passport.
His friends in the pro-Kyiv Aydar battalion view that “completely normally,” he said, recounting taking heavy artillery fire with them in the Lugansk region in February, shortly before the latest ceasefire came into effect.
“They shook my hand and said that I was a true Russian who understands everything.”
Back in the land of his birth, however, he had to break off ties with friends who started calling him a “fascist” after he took part in protests last year that ousted the Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych.
“They got it in their heads that Ukraine has a fascist regime and a junta,” Krasilnikov said, using the terms employed by Russian state media to describe the country’s new pro-Western government.
– Fear of deportation –
Despite risking his life for Ukraine, the irony for Krasilnikov and other Russians opposing Putin here is that they still face suspicion from Kyiv even though going back home may mean time in a Russian jail.
Krasilnikov has had an application to renew his residency permit rejected by suspicious authorities and he says one reason for staying at the frontline is that immigration officials won’t go looking for him there.
“I cannot go outside Ukraine to Russia because I am more than sure that I will get arrested there,” he said in an interview in Odessa a few hours before heading to the front.
AFP