Volodymyr Vasylevskyi said it is unbelievable how everything changes every hour in his native country of Ukraine.
The international student in the film and video production program at the College of the North Atlantic’s Bay St. George Campus watches the news every day and is saddened that the Crimea area of Ukraine is now an occupied territory by Russia.
He doesn’t feel that the recent referendum in Crimea represents the objective of the people in that territory, due to what he said are falsifications that exist there from Russian propaganda.
Vasylevskyi said in Crimea about 60 per cent of the population are Russians, while 25 per cent are Ukrainian and the remainder are Tatars, a Turkic people who were deported by Stalin from Crimea to the east of the former USSR in 1944.
The Tatars began to return to their native land of Crimea in 1989 and have increased in numbers since that time, now making up a minority of the populace.
“For me, as a Ukrainian, this is not good. I fear that Russia will not stop in Crimea and that Vladimir Putin will take over eastern and southern parts of Ukraine,” he said.
Vasylevskyi said the Russian president wants to rebuild the former USSR as a modern Russian empire and Putin understands that’s impossible without the Ukraine, so he needs Ukraine territory.
He said the biggest problem now is the new Ukraine government trying to handle the situation and stopping Russia from seizing more territory.
Vasylevskyi believes all democratic countries need to help Ukraine as the country can’t stand up to Russia alone, due to the size of the military Russia has.
He thinks his parents are safe from any Russian seizure of territory due to their city being a long way from the eastern and southern sections that Putin likely has his eye on.
Vasylevskyi said he doesn’t believe sanctions from Canada and the U.S. will have any effect on Russia and said the only thing that would help is if all the democratic countries in the world stop trading deals with Russia, which means that country would be isolated from the modern world and ruined economically.
But in saying that, he doesn’t believe it will happen because of the dependence that Germany has on gas from Russia.
Meanwhile in his program at the college, Vasylevskyi wants to try and make his contribution of what has happened in Ukraine and combine it with his living in Canada through the production of a short film.
“I want to show how events in Ukraine have effects on my living in Canada and show the relationship of Newfoundland and even Stephenville with the Ukraine,’ he said.
Vasylevskyi said the script could change, just as things are changing in the Ukraine; however, he still hopes to complete the film by the end of his semester in late April.
Twitter: WS_FrankGale
