The Ukraine War: Run

This article aims to give another angle on the war, focusing on the experiences of those who have not been heard as much as others.

While many freedom fighters stay in the country to fight, and others have fled the country, many more are still in the country regardless of their will. Under martial law, men from the ages of 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country. These people include husbands, brothers, sons, fathers, and grandfathers who have had to stay put while their families find refuge in other countries. The Ukrainian refugees, primarily composed of women and children, who have successfully left the country as of March 5, already number about 2.2 million and counting.

As with other outpourings of refugees, there is an expectation that there will be a refugee crisis, but the opposite has happened. Unlike with different groups of people (like refugees from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan etc.), European nations have opened their doors wide to the flood of Ukrainian refugees. While there are many examples of this, one presented by Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, captures the differences in the ways refugees have been welcomed. He said that Ukrainians coming to Hungary were coming to a “friendly place” that would accept them, but two months earlier when faced with another wave of refugees he said that Hungary would not only keep its restrictive policies, but that "[Hungary isn’t] going to let anyone in." This pattern of resistance to refugees from the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa has been consistent across the European Union, but with this new wave of refugees come different sentiments. This includes a sweeping EU policy that all Ukrainian people automatically have the right to live and work in the EU for three years. This is in opposition to Europe’s past handlings of refugees. In fact, in this article from the UN, Europe is accused of having “ambivalence,” being “securitarian,” “[forgetting] the principles of justice, equity, and freedom upon which the very delicate issue of border management should be based.”

The new reception of Ukrainian refugees is partly based on the ties between Ukraine and its neighboring countries. However, there are official statements from European leaders that suggest other reasons, like this one from the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, who said, “These are not the refugees we are used to… these people are Europeans. These people are intelligent, they are educated people.” The double standards used to measure these refugees do not just come from world leaders, but also certain journalists. There are many quotes to choose from, but one that fully captures this ideal is taken from the words of an Al Jazeera English presenter who in his reporting said, “These are not obviously refugees trying to get away from areas in the Middle East [or]...in North Africa. They look like any European family that you would live next door to.” Other statements used words like “civilized” and “middle class” to describe how bad the situation was for Ukrainian refugees. In response to these media reports, the AMEJA (Arab and Middle Eastern Journalist Association) gave a statement rejecting “orientalist and racist implications that any population or country is “uncivilized” or bears economic factors that make it worthy of conflict.”

There have been other disparities among refugees, particularly people from Africa and South Asia who have been in Ukraine for their education or employment. There have been multiple accounts of African and South Asian people having trouble crossing through the borders of Hungary and Poland because “[guards] have to let ‘Ukrainians’ through first.” This has led to testimonies like this one from Clement Akenboro, a Nigerian student who is studying economics, who said that not only was he thrown off a train headed for Poland but “They [dragged] all the Black guys from the train."

There are still others attempting to flee their country, but not Ukraine. These are Russian citizens who are steadily streaming into Finland. There are also reports of Russians abandoning the war effort, and even one account of a Russian captive crying and talking to his mom about how he was lied to by the Russian military. There are further reports of Russian military personnel abandoning their equipment in Ukraine. The Pentagon has also said that Russia is attempting to recruit Syrian fighters in its fight against Ukraine. There are also reports of nearly 5,000 Russians being arrested for protesting against this war. Adding insult to injury, many private companies, from Starbucks to Mastercard, have been cutting all ties to Russia and suspending services in the country. Russian state media has been trying to keep up appearances by restricting social media and controlling the news broadcasted across Russia. It also banned independent Russian media, like Dozhd (a program that got about 25 million views daily), when these programs did not present the official narrative given by the Russian government. This is not the war of the Russian people or even Russian elites; this is the war of Vladimir Putin. In response to the actions of Putin and his army, Zelensky has said this, “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war . . . There will be no quiet place on this earth for you, except for the grave.” There will be nowhere to run.