What is your connection with Ukraine?
I’m the son of a Catalan father and Ukrainian mother. My father and my uncle, for various reasons, married two Ukrainian childhood friends who grew up in Munich. My grandparents and my cousins' grandparents fled Stalinist repression and ended up in post-war Germany. My mother and father decided to settle in Barcelona. My mother decided that her children should have Ukrainian names. I speak Ukrainian with my mother and she also brought us up with her country's traditions. My grandparents were very clear that they would never return to Ukraine. My parents have returned to visit the country and my aunt and uncle have a house there. They live in Barcelona for 6 months and Ukraine for 6 months. Now, in the middle of the war, we have family in Lviv, in the west of the country, and we are extremely distressed about the current situation. We feel a mixture of sadness and anger.
Did people see it coming?
The conflict goes back a long time. However, those of us who know and follow the situation in Ukraine were aware that the situation had been simmering for several years, especially since 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the situation in the Donbas region. Now it has blown up and Putin has shown that he’s capable of anything.
"We have family in Lviv, in the west of the country, and we are extremely distressed about the current situation. We feel a mixture of sadness and anger".
What news are you getting from Ukraine?
We speak to relatives every day using the Signal app. They tell us that they hear sirens sounding when the bombing is about to start, that they see planes passing overhead, and everyone is very tense and anticipate that more things could happen. In the area where they are, closer to Poland, the situation is still quite calm. As yet, Russia has not conquered any large city, but there are more and more combat zones and this means the situation is very tense and complicated. It’s a very large-scale invasion. My mother’s cousins’ family are all there. Both men and women.
The women can leave and the men have to stay. That’s correct, isn't it?
It's heartbreaking to see how whole families are arriving at the border and the men have to stay in Ukraine because they’re not allowed to leave. There are women too fighting in the Donbas region, and also women who are crossing the border to leave their children with relatives in Poland and then going back to Ukraine to fight on the front lines…
In the media, we’ve even heard reports about Ukrainians who live in different parts of the world and have decided to join the front lines…
If, at any time, humanitarian action is planned on the border, I would like to go there. There is a feeling of total helplessness. I was brought up with the culture of this country and very much feel that I belong, even though I have never set foot in Ukraine.
There have been more and more expressions of solidarity over the last few days. How do you feel about this?
The messages of encouragement are greatly appreciated. I take part in the rally that is held every evening in Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona, and we are trying to get organized to send material over there. I have the support of the Hospital Clínic management to organize actions, always in coordination with the consulate and other solidarity initiatives by several NGOs such as the Red Cross and other hospitals, to see if we can do something to help.
"I’d like to see Catalan society being a bit more pro-active and getting more involved".
Is Catalan society responding well to this situation?
Since there is fear of a third world war, and we don't want to send troops or armies from other countries, arms are being sent. I don’t want there to be a war anywhere the world, but these weapons are helping the Ukrainian army to hold out for the time being.
It’s true that there are lots of Ukrainians at these rallies in Plaça Catalunya, and I would like Catalan society to get a bit more involved in these actions. Although these days, lots of colleagues from the hospital, friends, etc. have send a lot of warm messages of support and I appreciate their kind words. I’d like to see Catalan society being a bit more pro-active and getting more involved.
I’d also like people to be more careful when expressing their opinion. With the pandemic, everyone was an epidemiologist, with the volcano on La Palma everyone was a volcanologist, and it’s important to have the whole context when giving an opinion. Russia and Ukraine are brotherly nations, and it makes me very sad to see how Russian soldiers are falling and leaving orphaned families in Russian. Russian society is the victim of a dictatorship where there is no freedom, where the opponents or dissidents are poisoned, or are banned from standing for election, where the conflict in the Donbas region, the Ukrainian army no doubt made mistakes too... but in Catalonia, what we definitely must do is to avoid comparisons between what is happening there and what is happening here. What we want is for brotherly nations, such as the Russians and the Ukrainians, to live in peace.
Do you know the Ukrainian health system?
It's a public system and, as in the former Soviet republics, the academic level is very high. Maybe they don’t have access to cutting-edge technologies or the top drugs, but the doctors’ training is very good. It’s obvious that our health system is in better shape, and the health emergency caused by a war has blown this system out of the water. Now, if medical supplies are sent to Ukraine, we must not only think about medical supplies for the war wounded but also for all the people who, for example, might run out of insulin, or have no antibiotics…
"If medical supplies are sent to Ukraine, we must not only think about medical supplies for the war wounded but also for all the people who, for example, might run out of insulin, or have no antibiotics… "
Do you dare to predict what could happen in a few days’ or weeks' time?
It’s very hard to know what will happen in a week’s time. There are several questions that will be resolved over time. Will they install a puppet regime controlled by Russia? There’s been talk that they wanted to make Viktor Yanukovych president again – which in my opinion would be a real disaster. Their idea is to go back to the situation before the Orange Revolution in 2004. In other words, to have a pro-Russian, Putin-friendly government. A real disaster.
