Andrei Kurkov – Putin must be taken

“There is only one solution to the war against Ukraine, and that is to kill Putin,” said Andrei Kurkov.

There is a serious writer sitting in front of us at the café table in Oslo. His gaze is dark, he is dressed in black, and he thinks the only people who can stop Putin are his own people.

Andrei Kurkov was at home in Kyiv when Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24. The night before, he and his wife Elizabeth had company at home in the spacious apartment in the historic part of town. They served homemade Ukrainian borsch and red wine, around the table sat an ambassador, two opera singers and a journalist from English The Guardian.

– It was a nice party, but there was a seriousness over us when we broke up at night, he says.

A few hours later, Kurkov, his wife and son are awakened by roaring plane alarms and explosions. War is a fact.

– I woke up with a jerk and understood that now everything would change.

– How did you react?

-With shock and disbelief. I realized that Ukraine was under attack, at the same time it was completely unreal.

Writes diary

He looks tired, has bags under his eyes, and orders coffee with milk and sugar.

– I try to keep my spirits up, and for me writing and communicating is the only way to do it.

Andrej Kurkov has slept an average of four hours a night since the attacks began. The working day starts at five every morning with a writing session lasting up to nine, about what is happening at home in Ukraine. The texts will become the “Kyiv diaries” which will reach Norwegian bookshelves in the autumn. Close and personal, he describes what is happening in his home country.

Kurkov is considered one of Ukraine’s foremost authors, and his books have been translated into more than thirty languages. After Russia’s conquest of Crimea in 2014, the authorship took a new turn, and he now spends his time writing reports and analyzes for foreign media.

Soviet upbringing

Kurkov was born in St. Petersburg, his mother was a doctor, his father a test pilot at the factory of the famous aircraft designer Oleg Antonov. The family settled in Kyiv when Andrej Kurkov was two years old.

Growing up in the Soviet Union was strictly controlled.

– It was the only reality we knew, says the author.

To avoid serving for the KGB when he became a conscript, he served in the military as a prison guard in a prison in Odesa. It was during this period that he began to write.

– One of my jobs was to write reports for the communist parties, and I therefore got access to an office with a typewriter, Kalashnikov, electric coffee pot and a lot of military newspapers.

He wrote the reports by cutting from newspapers, the rest of the time he spent writing children’s books. He made his breakthrough as a writer in 1996, with the book “Death and the Penguin” which has been translated into 21 languages, including Norwegian.

Kurkov is currently president of Ukrainian PEN, the world’s largest writer and freedom of expression organization, and is responsible for safeguarding Ukrainian journalists and writers. After the outbreak of the war, he has become known as a prominent voice in the struggle for a free Ukraine.

Too dangerous to be

On the day of February 24, it becomes clear that it is too dangerous to stay in Kyiv.

Together with his wife and son, he packs what he can fit in the family’s old station wagon, and decides to travel to the cabin a few miles outside Kyiv. The family quickly realizes that it is also too dangerous, they have to move on to Lviv where the two oldest children of twenty-four years stay. The trip takes 22 hours, the queues seem endless.

Along the way, they see abandoned car wrecks, Ukrainian military vehicles, cannons and armored vehicles. They see Russian planes whizzing over them, the situation is tense and unclear.

– I went into a bubble, I just focused on coming forward and blocked all other thoughts, says Kurkov. He is in Oslo to talk about the situation in his home country.

When they finally reach Lviv, the family gathers. Mother, father, three grown children. They hold each other.

Kurkov shows pictures of the family on the phone.

– It was good to be together.

– How did you feel as a father?

– I felt a strong despair when I saw how sad and confused my children were. There were strong feelings about knowing we had to leave.

He is not allowed to sleep that night.

– I was restless and restless, and wandered around beautiful Lviv. All I could think was if all this would be destroyed, shattered with our democracy and our way of life.

Long-suffering and vengeful

At dawn he passes a gun dealer and sees the queue of young boys and girls waiting for the store to open. He is struck by how young they look.

He scrolls through a picture on the phone. The queue outside the arms store is long for people who want to defend their country.

– Freedom is more important than stability and money for us Ukrainians, for the Russians money and stability are more important than freedom. That’s the difference, and it’s worth fighting for.

Plan to return

He empties the coffee cup. The phone rings and beeps constantly. Since the war began, his articles have been published in a large number of foreign newspapers, including Norwegian.

In Lviv, the family of five spend a few hours together before traveling on to the Carpathians, the mountain range bordering Ukraine. Exactly where the rest of the family is staying now he will not reveal, but the plan is to return to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

– It was heartbreaking to break up. We have no idea when we will be reunited.

He shows pictures of the children, taken through train windows with his mobile phone. Kurkov documents as much as he can of what is happening.

The youngest son insisted on going straight back to Kyiv, despite the warnings.

– It was impossible to stop him. For him, staying anywhere other than in his hometown was not an option.

– You must be terrified that something will happen to him?

– Yes. It is an unstable and difficult situation to stand in.

So far, the son is fine, and the apartment has not yet been hit during the attacks. The family has set up a joint chat group where everyone has a daily duty to report. He has also downloaded an app that alerts air strikes. He is constantly awakened in the middle of the night, and does not get peace until he knows that the family is safe.

Putin does not care about death

Andrei Kurkov has no faith in any imminent solution in Ukraine.

– I think the war will be long-lasting, with great human losses and enormous destruction. Putin does not care how many people have to die for him to win, neither by Russians nor Ukrainians.

The author believes that everyone must familiarize themselves with what is happening in Ukraine.

– Most people are well acquainted with Russian history, but there is too little knowledge about Ukraine’s history, and how developments after the fall of the Soviet Union have led to the current situation.

Solved Putin’s “Riddle”

He goes out in the spring sun that shines over Oslo.

– Many have empathy for us and the great humanitarian crisis, but it does not matter much if people do not understand the political conflict that affects an entire world, including Norway.

Andrei Kurkov has no idea what will happen to him when he returns to Kyiv, but he knows that the Ukrainians will not give up the fight for a free country.

– We will fight for our freedom until the last second.

Kurkov looks at his watch, he is already too late for the next appointment. He uses every minute of the day to spread information about what is going on in his home country.

– Our freedom has cost us so much, that’s why we do not let go of it.

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