Natalya Kondel's political epiphany got here on February 27, 2014 - the day Putin despatched his troops into Crimea. It was the second she misplaced her concern and realised that passive resistance to the Kremlin boss and his regime was not an choice. Originally from western Ukraine, Natalya, now 55, had moved to Ekaterinburg within the Urals on the eve of the Soviet Union's implosion in 1991.
For over 20 years she labored on the Russian nationwide railways, constructing a cushty middle-class life for herself in her adopted metropolis and regarded Russia her pure house.
But that every one modified after Ukraine's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from energy within the wake of the civil unrest unleashed by the Maidan Revolution of February 2014.
A bitter and enraged Putin ordered his troops into Crimea after which organised an rebellion by pro-Moscow separatists in jap Ukraine, leading to in the present day's full-blown struggle.
Kremlin propagandists gleefully whipped up nationalist fervour, openly demonising Ukraine and its residents in an try to justify Putin's plan of action. In one specific outrageous piece of pretend news, Russian media broadcast "testimony" from Galina Pyshnyak, a "resident" of Sloviansk, by which she claimed Ukrainian troopers had crucified a three-year-old boy in public.
The abrupt change in public attitudes in direction of her native nation got here as a brutal shock to Natalya and left her disorientated and in despair.
"Suddenly masses of people started to hate Ukrainians and considered them Nazis - all on account of the TV," she recalled throughout a dialog with Express.co.uk.
Natalya is initially from western Ukraine however has lived over 20 years in Russia (Image: TV2)
"I went around in a state of bewilderment for a couple of days. I was lost and didn't understand how I could live in these circumstances. How could they suddenly start to hate Ukrainians? At work, people were saying Ukrainians were bad people."
Up to that second, the 55-year-old had been a passive critic of the Putin regime, confiding her misgivings in regards to the nation's descent into authoritarianism to only a small circle of shut associates.
But now she felt compelled to take extra direct motion, even when that meant probably forfeiting her liberty and endangering her life. Searches on the web and social media introduced her into contact with a gaggle referred to as Ekaterinburg for Freedom, which organised a peace protest in September 2014, as preventing intensified in jap Ukraine.
Attending the protest, Natalya quickly realised that many individuals have been in opposition to Putin's Ukraine coverage, which helped increase her morale and make her understnad she was not alone. She went on to develop contacts with the Urals department of Memorial - an organisation initially set as much as examine crimes in opposition to humanity dedicated by Stalin and which was compelled to shut down on the finish of 2021 as a part of a Kremlin crackdown on civil society.
Natalya additionally repeatedly went to the "Strategy 6" protests held on the sixth of each month to focus on the destiny of political prisoners in Putin's Russia. It was a possibility to maintain the highlight on the Kremlin's struggle in Ukraine.
"Already at that time there were hundreds of political prisoners - imprisoned for their beliefs," she defined.
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Natalya (proper) holds a placard throughout a protest in Ekaterinburg (Image: TV2)
"They hadn't killed or harmed anyone - they had simply expressed their opinion. We had placards with the names of those incarcerated for their political views and those under investigation.
"The protests lasted two hours. I informed my colleagues that for the primary quarter-hour of the protest, I might stand with my very own massive placard saying 'Don't wage struggle with Ukraine' and with a Ukrainian flag."
Like most anti-Putin protesters in Russia, she soon came into contact with the Kremlin's formidable machinery of repression, as she and her friends were arrested by police and fined for their activism.
Putin's decision to press ahead with a full invasion last year had serious consequences for Natalya's safety. Already on the police's radar due to her political activism, they started to follow her social media activity with her family and close friends in Ukraine, among whom are those who have signed up to fight against the Russians.
After a social media post by her nephew calling for resistance to the Russian occupation, she was brought in for questioning one Friday towards the end of summer. The investigators wanted to know everything about her Ukrainian relatives - among other things where they lived and worked.
She point blank refused, telling her interrogators: "When you began this struggle it is best to have thought of the truth that there are Ukrainians residing right here in Russia who've shut ties with Ukraine.
Ukrainian artillery opens hearth (Image: Ukraine General Staff)
"You should have understood that your actions will bring suffering to my family and friends - so it is clear that I will never be loyal to you.
"And what's extra, by your individual draconian legal guidelines you branded me as your enemy - an open enemy."
At the end of the interrogation, she was told detectives would consider her deposition and call her again on Monday. But she immediately suspected they were planning to arrest and imprison her and that she had to flee - a contingency for which she had already planned.
A friend drove Natalya to her flat from the police station, where she picked up a small suitcase she had previously packed for emergencies and from there she went to the airport and bought a ticket to Kazakhstan. She spent five months in the country, helping a charity raise money to rebuild schools destroyed in Ukraine by Russian rocket attacks.
With the help of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, she eventually obtained a humanitarian visa for Poland, where she arrived in early February.
Natalya's feelings towards Russians are ambivalent and conflicted. She claims that only a minority are "mad supporters" of the war and rationalises their behaviour - almost excusing them.
Ukraine war (Image: Getty)
"Yes, there are some who consider the propaganda - that the Ukrainians have been chargeable for the atrocities in Bucha and Irpin, for instance," she said.
"They do not wish to consider - they do not wish to have this dissonance of their heads - they see, they perceive the info however they consciously ignore the reality - it is less complicated to agree with the Kremlin's line than oppose it."
However, she admits to feeling hatred and contempt for those Russians who are "detached" to the war. By this, she means people who view the war as an inconvenience.
"I get mad once I meet folks for whom the struggle has 'ruined their plans' - they could not care in regards to the struggle, however they care about the way it has modified their earlier comfy lives.
"I can not forgive these folks. My family and associates have suffered terribly in Ukraine.
"I've seen what they're going by first hand. They name me by video and present me what's occurring. Do you know the way a lot evil there's on the market? I already really feel that I typically hate these people who find themselves detached to all of it. It's dangerous to dwell in hatred, it isn't good."
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