Last Thursday, Violetta Soboleva fiercely stood alone by the Hall of Languages. With a somber expression and tears streaming down her face, she holds a sign in her hands. Immediately, this sign catches everyone’s eyes as they walk by. The sign reads “Stop the war. Putin is Hitler.” A bold statement to say the least.

There’s a brief pause when fellow students read this sign, analyzing the depth of the statement and then they go on their way to class, without a care. But Soboleva still continued to stand there because she knows the seriousness of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. All Syracuse University students should stop and realize how dangerous this conflict is.

Soboleva, a 23 year-old SU graduate student, is from Russia and is also half Ukrainian. She has spent her years in both countries where her family resides. When she received a phone call from her relatives at 5 a.m, Ukrainian time, Soboleva felt sheer horror as she discovered they were getting bombed by Russia. The panic she heard over the phone made her worry for her family and other Ukrianians fighting for their lives, “They woke up … in the morning and they were getting bombed.”

There was a stay-at-home order put in place in Kyiv last Thursday due to these attacks, and people were told to seek shelter if they heard sirens. Still, many Ukrainians started fleeing Kyiv in a frantic manner with the sound of sirens ringing through their ears. To add to the tension, Russia has made it extremely difficult to maintain a visa, which for Soboleva, an international student, creates a problem as it may make it harder for her to travel home and Russians to leave the country.

Putin’s public voice and use of propaganda towards his nation promotes his actions as a good deed. “Putin and Russia (are) not calling it a war. … They call it ‘military help.’… They say they are helping Ukraine, but they went on our terriitory and started terrorizing people,” Soboleva said. With this intense censorship, citizens are facing undisclosed consequences. Soboleva sums up the totality of this as the censorship is having a huge effect on the citizens’ views of nationalism and military efforts. “Russia is the new North Korea,” she said.

The disinformation Russia has communicated to civilians puts a hardship on her family, with her dad in the military and her relatives suffering, Soboleva said, leaving her stunned and frustrated. “My dad is in the military, and his sister is suffering. He is saying it’s for the good. I don’t understand why he’s saying this. He believes in their propaganda,” she said.

Putin addressed the issues in his recent speech, and in doing so, he suggested the state of Ukraine was not one at all. He then went on to talk about Moscow’s recognition of two separatist regions in Ukraine, which initiated him to send “peacekeeping forces” to keep control. Although many did not know it yet, that was just the start of what was to come: escalating into what we are facing at this moment.

Many Russian citizens have taken to the streets to protest Putin’s actions. According to Radio Free Europe, since Friday, there have been protests all across the country, including 54 different cities, including thousands of angry citizens protesting in the center of Pushkin Square in Moscow. Their bravery comes with many ramifications, though, as Russian officials have stopped any form of political rebellion.“Citizens of Russia went to the streets, but the police are shutting it down and stopping it,” Soboleva said, “They are getting fines upwards of $150.” Marina Litvinovich, a prominent Russian human rights activist, was fined an equivalent in American currency, $350 for her participation in the protests. Citizens’ efforts have been squashed and ended in arrests of hundreds of people. The display of citizens’ preferences and lack of governmental translation upsets Soboleva.

“I feel Russian people don’t deserve this. They’ve been locked in jail. I feel guilty that I could do this while they’re being jailed,” Soboleva said. With her Ukrainian and Russian backgrounds, she feels as if she’s trapped between her nationalities and her First Amendment right in the U.S., to speak out against Putin. But with this guilt comes some anger. Ironically she feels as if she’s the only one using her rights, here at SU, to speak out against this injustice. She feels as if America is not doing enough to the best of its abilities, to prevent further fatalities from happening and that SU students do not really care about the seriousness of these events.

The Biden Administration has not been as forceful as some might have assumed. After supporting much military action in the 1990s and the invasion of Iraq, President Joe Biden has become hesitant about using his military power, which was what prompted him to pull out military troops in Afghanistan, according to BBC News. Although no strong military actions have been taken, the U.S. government, along with the EU, put strong penalties on Putin. Sadly, though, this might not be enough to stop him from redrawing the entity of Europe and killing thousands of innocent people.

So there Soboleva stands, alone in the cold. In a strong symbolic manner she represents the Ukrainian and Russian that resides in her. She calls out to us, her fellow students, to see, not only her, but to see the citizens of these countries as they are, people. To see them as people calling out for help against a government that claims to protect them.

With all that’s happening in Europe, SU students not only need to reach out to international students, but be a friend. They may be alone here on campus and are often the only ones in their family who are allowed to voice their opinion on this matter. While their families overseas may be struggling to survive, international students like Soboleva are bravely taking stands to display their worries. SU students need a collective call to action, and they need to truly appreciate the efforts international students of Russia and Ukraine are displaying. Those students whose families are being terrorized need to be supported by the U.S., as we are a campus of one.

Sophia Leone is a freshman broadcast, digital journalism major with a minor in political science. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at seleone@g.syr.edu.

Published on February 28, 2022 at 12:55 am