There's been a lot of talk about why the media and Western governments care so much about what's going on in Ukraine when there's devastation in Yemen, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Sudan and Syria. I've heard it was because the images of blond, blue-eyed children raises more awareness. Now, the fact that Ukrainians aren't so-called Aryans aside (our "natural" look is brown haired with brown eyes actually), the answer to this is partially our location and partially our history in the Diaspora.
Firstly, Ukraine is in Europe and thus, the governments of Europe sort of have to give a shit about what happens on their continent. Secondly, we feed the world. If Ukraine isn't exporting their grain, soy and sunflowers - it's a global catastrophe. The ramifications of this war are going to be on a global scale - prices will increase for everything. And no one but Russia is to be blamed in this.
Now as for the history of the Diaspora - well that's often overlooked. I mean, it's sort of Russia's own fault that we've been shifted to countries in all corners of the world. They could have left us along after their Tsarist Empire collapsed, but no - they invaded and so we emigrated (yes, the first initial wave was under Austro-Hungarian rule, but that was more economic than it was politically motivated). After the Second World War, Stalin could have just said: you do you. But no, instead, he threatened any socially-conscious Ukrainian with death, so yes, we fled again - and there was a lot of us. After the fall of communism, Western democratic capitalism was far more encouraging than whatever the hell was happening in Russia. So we left again. Russia attacks in 2014 - more of us flee.
All of those that fled have, for the most part, kept some of their Ukrainianness alive. Some more than others. Some married non-Ukrainians and some of have lost their history. But that identity, however small, is still there. And so, while we might have been immigrants, while we have had to toil in factories and mines to get our families situated in a foreign land - we sent our daughters and sons out into the world was not only as successful citizens of our adopted countries but conscious Ukrainians. And not only citizens, but within the very center of power in some countries and even leaders of states and provinces. This took decades - we were once regarded as little more than dirt when we arrived on the shores of America or Canada. We worked hard to get here (I'm not saying others don't, but we had a bit of a head start from the late 1800s). So our voice can be heard on the national and international stage.
Now, that ultimately, is Russia's fault. If they hadn't seen Ukrainians as threats and allowed us to live as we wanted - the large majority of Ukrainian Diaspora wouldn't have been living abroad. And that's what's so weird about this current war: Russia can't eliminate Ukrainians. We're everywhere, in every corner of the world. And now we're more conscious of who we are because of your war against us. And the only option you have is to basically destroy the entire world in order to destroy Ukrainians. And while I can say that's self-destruction - as we've seen in this war, Russians aren't exactly motivated by smart ideas.
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