What a week.

Thoughts on my country sending civilians to die in Ukraine.

Photo by Natalya Letunova on Unsplash

What a week.

Last week, my country announced a total mobilisation of civilians in a criminal war against Ukraine. Even though the media (and Putin himself) call it partial, we all know never to trust a KGB agent by now.

Anyway.

This post is not about what it all means. There are many articles about that already in all mainstream media and on my Medium blog. And if I start ranting about what might happen next to Russia or Ukraine or the world, for that matter, you’ll be reading this until the cows come home.

So don’t even get me started on that.

This post is about how it feels.

And it feels… weird.

This mobilisation feels as if the war was declared again. Only this time, I don’t have the safety of “At least Russia isn’t being bombed” — a cynical thought, I know, but true.

For the past seven months, as the war unfolded, I empathised deeply with Ukraine. My YouTube interviews, articles on Medium, in Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and other outlets, are all evidence of that.

However, when the mobilisation was declared in my country — Russia, not Ukraine — empathy flew through the roof.