Russians in Aotearoa worry about how they will be viewed by Kiwis following the war

Yulia is wary – even this far from Moscow – of speaking to media about Ukraine. 

Her fear is not for herself, studying at university in the safety of Aotearoa, it’s for her family. 

Yulia is not her real name used here. She reflects on being a Russian expat in Aotearoa during the war, and about misconceptions some Kiwis have about people from the invading nation. 

“It was terrifying, the first day going on social media and seeing Russia invaded Ukraine,” she tells me over Zoom from self-isolation in her student flat. 

With increased Russian censorship and companies like Facebook leaving Russia, her biggest worry was waking up and having no contact with her family back home, but, so far, her family and friends are all okay. 

Yulia’s family does worry about the increased anti-Russian sentiment in western countries since the war began, but she says on the whole Kiwis have been supportive although more people have been curious about her opinion on the war.  

Her dad who is part Ukrainian became nervous when he couldn’t make contact to family in Eastern Ukraine during the first days of the war. 

Yulia says the most absurd part of the war is how interlinked Russians and Ukrainians are and that she never felt the need to explain her family history because “they are almost the same, speak the same language, [but with] different traditions”.  

She says her family is not an outlier with her friends and the majority of Russians having Ukrainian family members, and with Russians and Ukrainians living on both sides of the border. 

“My friends have actually been captured by police officers in the protest,” Yulia says, referencing the anti-war protests thousands attended in major Russian cities. 

She believes the Russian Government has done well in hiding domestic opposition even before the war, for example with the 2021 arrest of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. She says it has been getting worse with the Government now blocking foreign websites and starting to check phones on the street. 

“We were raised to see both sides, but sometimes it’s hard because I can’t understand any other perspective in this situation at all.” 

Yulia says a lot of Russians are scared to be vocal about opposing the war because they risk everything, including their career. 

There are also a lot of Russians who don’t have access to independent media or even reliable internet, and Yulia wonders how they can be expected to oppose the war let alone know what is happening in Ukraine. 

Russian state media maintains there is no war in Ukraine, labelling it a special military operation, and the Government has shut down independent media that don’t tow the government line. 

She wants Kiwis to understand that the internal political situation in Russia is complicated and to find out what is actually happening before making conclusions about an entire country. 

CAPTION: The Russian Embassy in Wellington spray-painted with Ukrainian colours as Russians in Aotearoa worry about how they will be viewed by Kiwis following the war. 

Image: Rohan Latta