Photo: People in Kyiv wait to board an evacuation train to Lviv Gleb Garanich / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Sofa, Mykolaiv:
I am also only half Ukrainian, my dad is Russian, but he lived most of his life in Ukraine, so he loves this country. I think one of the main differences between our peoples is courage. I remember from history lessons at school that Ukrainians have always bravely fought for their freedom, no matter what. I also think that Ukrainians are honest, we are ready to tell each other even sad news, without propaganda and lies. And finally, I see now that the Russians do not have the Russian spirit at all, I see only sheer Russian stupidity. No cohesion and understanding
Halyna, Poltava:
I think, the main difference is that Ukrainians highly appreciate freedom. But for Russians, it isn’t the main thing in their lives. We are ready to fight for our independence, but they find it useless.
Ukrainians and Russians are different from political point of view. In Ukraine, we have a great example of democratic society. But Russian is a country with totalitarian system and autocracy. And for the majority of their people, it’s absolutely normal. We can freely choose our authority and express our position, if we don’t agree with it anyway. But Russians can’t do that. And as we saw recently, a big group of them can run away from only one riot policeman!
Also, especially now, during the war, we can see that Ukrainians really appreciate human’s life. The life of our soldiers and civilians means a lot. We always try to do everything possible to protect and save the lives of our people. However, in Russia, the life of every single person is about nothing. They don’t regret sending their people to wars in different countries just for annexing some other territory. And why? For self-affirmation of their dictator?
That’s ridiculous for us, but Russians take this as a national idea. And it’s a pity, that from such policy of the Russian leader and silent support of the Russian people we have such horrible war again.
Marina, Ukraine:
I saw that point a lot on Twitter. Russians have a cult of a small person. Who can’t change anything. Who is insignificant and narrow-minded. Who will die unnoticeable. Not remembered by anyone. Russians consider themselves as small people. They live by that unsettled rule. Don’t be individual. You’re not worth attention. You have no right to express your opinion. There are big people. Trust them. They know what’s better for you. Obey their will.
We, as Ukrainians, will never allow that to happen to us. If we don’t like something, we change it. We have freedom. In our souls, our bodies, our minds. We have a cult of big people. We want to be those big people.
Daria, Kropyvnytskiy:
russians are politically immature people. They lack national identity, they are xenophobes, devoid of respect for others. As this war have shown, the imperialism of the russians is an almost insurmountable phenomenon. That is why the russian “leader” managed to launch the ideas of chauvinistic imperialism in the war with Ukraine so easily. But the main difference between us is that Ukrainians are the nation of freedom. Unlike them. russian are born slaves, russian die slaves. Lina Kostenko once wrote: “Every nation has its own diseases. The disease of russia’s is incurable”.
Natalia, Kyiv:
A sense of justice is inherent in all living beings, but the ways to achieve this very justice are different. Some people expect that everything will be provided to them, others take responsibility and solve their problems themselves
Ukrainians are more family people and connections between them are very strong. Ukrainians are proud of their children and support them, are proud of exactly what they are directly related to, at the same time russians are proud of their country and victory in the second world war. And in the light of recent events, the question arises, could the Russians have won the war of 1939-1945 without the Ukrainians. I hope it will be the issue of researching for historians in future.
Ukrainians are very practical people, they can live today and make their life prosperous. The Ukrainians never boast, they have a lot, but never tell about it, they are afraid to jinx.
russians are very boastful, they do not have but want to and that is why they are always unhappy, because somebody can have more. They dream about future, they are dreamers without any foundation.
Ukrainians are very brave and courageous. Ukrainians are always unsatisfied with their governors. They criticize them mercilessly. The proverb where there are two Ukrainians, there are three hetmans is not just a joke, but exactly what is rooted in the minds of people. Ukrainians are responsible, they do not fear difficulties, the slogan: “if you want to do well, do it yourself” is a significant point of the character. At the same time, Ukrainians value peoples’life and struggle to save as more as possible, photos and videos of the last 23 days are proof.
russians are violent and lazy. According to the latest polls, 70% of russians support their president in his aggression against us, the bombing of the theatre in Mariupol where it was written children is an evidence of their violence. And for now we can find out many examples. The fact that Russians shoot at civilians, which means that the value of human’s life for them is zero.
Their laziness developed from folk tale stories where the magic fish will perform their plans for the future, a kind tsar will decide all their problems, and if this tsar steals he is allowed to do it, because when he (russian dreamer) is a powerful and almighty one, he will steal more.
Courage, free spirit, responsibility and criticism are qualities which are basic and lead to freedom and democracy, and today we pay very high price for our right to live.
