For most, the horror is a distant one, though Facebook posts indicate many have ties to Ukraine. For one Madison woman, the Russian invasion of Ukraine brings back memories and fears.
Sirje Kiin, an Estonian writer married to Dakota State University professor Jack Walters, has seen Russian brutality before. After becoming prime minister in 1999, President Vladimir Putin brought the small country of Chechnya to its knees with bombing attacks.
In 2008, Russia moved tanks and soldiers into the country Georgia, after years of escalating tension. In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, previously part of Ukraine.
“He had done this again and again and again,” Kiin said, her passionate outrage clear.
Since the invasion, Kiin has been monitoring the news from numerous news agencies, not only in the U.S. but also in Estonia, Russia and Finland, where she used to teach at a university. She said Putin is telling the Russian people that Ukraine does not exist as a separate country.
“Kyiv was a city when Moscow didn’t exist,” she said to refute “another lie” that Putin has told.
Having grown up in a country one-quarter the size of South Dakota nestled between Russia and the Baltic Sea, she knows what it’s like to live in a country where many of the citizens are of Russian descent and speak Russian. This makes her sensitive to what Ukrainian Russians may be experiencing as they see soldiers speaking their language seeking to destroy their homes.
“Most of the Russians living in Ukraine don’t want it,” Kiin said, explaining the invasion splits families.