Ukrainian war: “The Russians are trying to ban our holidays”

“The Russians are trying to ban everything Ukrainian here: language, as well as traditions. Even Ukrainian holidays are forbidden.”

This is the sadness and fear of a voice rarely heard from inside Ukraine – accompanied by a person who lives in one of the regions that the Russian occupies in the country. We call her Maria.

Since the United States is leading efforts to negotiate peace in Ukraine, those who live under Russian occupation face a brutal, repressive future.

Indeed, the Kremlin has placed great restrictions designed to overcome Ukrainian identity, including harsh penalties for anyone daring difference.

Now, there are concerns that Kiev is forced to abandon some of Russia’s lands as part of a potential ceasefire or peace.

Ukrainian officials refuse this, but Moscow says that at least wants to capture four Ukrainian regions partially controlled – Donetsk, Luhanssk, Khairson and Zaburizvia – as well as the Peninsula of the island of the island of the island of the island of Crimea, which was included in 2014.

Because of the repression by the Russian authorities, speaking to the media and even your relatives in the occupied territories can be risky.

Kremlin has also launched a large -scale campaign to force the Ukrainians in the occupied territories to take Russian passports. Evidence indicates The Ukrainians are deprived of health care and freedom of freedom unless they take Russian citizenship.

Maria (not her real name) said that she was a member of a group of underground resistance, all of which launches a campaign of peaceful resistance in those lands, especially through the distribution of publications and newsletters.

In an interview with the BBC program today, I used the Ukrainian proverb to describe the danger you face: “You have fear in your eyes, but your hands are still doing it. Of course it is scary.”

BBC cannot reveal its real name or location in order not to endanger it.

The atmosphere of fear and doubt is that when I was trying to contact the occupied Mariopolis, I was accused of being a Russian journalist.

One person told me a direct message to social media: “You will not like what I say. People like you are killing if I tell them the truth.” Pray that they are from the city of the port, which the Russians seized in May 2022 after a bloody siege, which he left in a state of ruin.

Later, I asked some Ukrainian friends if I could talk to their relatives living in the occupied areas. Everyone said no – that will be very dangerous.

Sofia (not also her real name) is a village in the southern Zaburisia region of Ukraine. It was occupied on the fifth day of the 2022 comprehensive invasion, and it is an hour -driven south of the city of Zaborisia, a main regional center that is still under the control of Ukrainian.

Sofia is now in the United Kingdom, but her parents are still in her village and told me about the care she needs when you talk to them.

“About a year ago, my father was searched by the (Russian security service) FSB. They confiscated their phones, accusing them of telling the Ukrainian army about the place where the Russian forces were stationed. This was not true, and later the Russian army told me that their neighbors had been reported. For this reason I do not try to raise anything like that.”

“I have to read between the lines when they tell me what is going on.”

Talking to them at all has become more difficult. Sofia says that her parents are not even able to decorate their mobile phones or secure their car because they refuse to take Russian passports.

“It has become really embarrassing without Russian identifiers,” she says.

Yiva, who also changed her name, has a sister working at the Russian nuclear power plant.

“Whenever we move from the weather or our children to our sponsors, its tone changes,” says Yiva. You told me: “You don’t understand! “

“What I understand is that being a worker at a nuclear power plant, it is possible that her phone will be listened to,” Yiva told me. She also says that her sister often repeats Russian -supporting novels when talking to her.

Another friend, Katrina, told me that a person you knew in the occupied part of the Jeresson area was thrown into a punishment for speaking with her brother who was helping the Ukrainian army. Katraina told me when I asked to deal with her friend: “I can’t endanger them.”

According to Maria, Russian departments install monitoring systems to monitor any manifestations of the opposition. “They put a lot of CCTV cameras to control everyone, to find all activists,” she says.

Several Ukrainian activists have been killed or disappeared under the Russian occupation. According to the Ukrainian rights group ZMINAAt least 121 activists, volunteers and journalists were killed during the comprehensive invasion, most of them during his first year.

Before the invasion, Russia put the lists of activists to arrest or kill them, the group says.

Recently, the authorized authorities are advancing in Russia A set of repressive laws Against dissidents. It can be punished due to its alleged transgressions such as spreading “wrong information” or “distorting the reputation of the Russian army or supporting” extremism “.

On the Crimea alone, 1279 cases have been launched so far on charges of “distorting the reputation” of the Russian armed forces, The Ukrainian government office says to the Crimea. Accordingly, 224 people were imprisoned in the occupied Ukrainian region to express opposition, and most of them are members of the original Crimea community.

Despite the risks, a number of underground resistance groups are active in the occupied parts of Ukraine.

Zla Mavka, whose name takes from a legendary Ukrainian creature, is a violent movement of females that mostly focus on distributing posters and bulletins across the occupied areas.

In Meltopol, the Zaburisvia area, the parties target and transport the occupation forces while the Crimea group Attish Participate in the survey and sabotage.

Meanwhile, the yellow tape movement is distributed in the Ukrainian symbols in the occupied territories.

Because there are no independent media in the occupied parts in Ukraine, it is difficult to check the impact of these activities. However, there is no evidence indicating that they have caused a great disturbance of the occupation forces.

Maria says that all streets are lined with Russian propaganda.

“In the city centers, everything is covered with Russian propaganda: advertising boards with Putin’s face, Putin and people who call it the heroes of the private military operation. There are flags everywhere,” I told BBC.

The Kremlin banned the Ukrainian and independent media, including the BBC, and propaganda was sent from Russia to create friendly media in the occupied territories. After many professional journalists fled, they were forced to employ local teenagers to publish Moscow’s novels.

Next propaganda begins early in school, children are forced to attend the glorification of the Russian army and join paramilitary groups such as Yunarmia (Youth Army).

One of the Russian textbooks justifies the invasion of Ukraine by falsely depicting it as an aggressive state run by nationalist extremists and is dealt with by the West.