Above all, do not say his name. Do not show his face. He still has family in Chechnya. Fear for him. For his loved ones. “If they see me here, they will chase me if I return to the country,” he said, dark eyes, face hidden by a mask and a hood.
However, he joined the Ukrainians, gathered this Sunday morning on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, in front of the Negresco, to denounce the Russian strikes. From a few hundred around 10 o’clock, they ended up with more than 500 to the cries of “Stop war” and “Close the sky”.
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“His Blood Brothers and Sisters”
Standing, flag of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria [nom du gouvernement séparatiste tchétchène en exil] in hand, nothing could stop him from screaming with “his blood brothers and sisters”: “Putin is a terrorist.” “My people have been suffering for 20 years because of Russia, Putin is a murderer. He killed more than 5,000 people in three days in Ukraine. In my country, there have been between 200,000 and 300,000 civilians killed in 20 years.”
He, here, in solidarity with the government of Kiev – “and many of my compatriots think the same”, he swears. While its president, Ramzan Kadyrov, demands that Zelensky apologize to Putin and send him several thousand soldiers as reinforcements. “It’s awful”…
In the middle of the crowd, Medina, Isane and Lisa, their hair covered with a veil and their eyes full of tears, are Chechens too. “Grozny”, says the youngest. “We are wholeheartedly on the side of the Ukrainians, we have experienced this too”.
A little further on, the Moldovan flag flies over the Mediterranean. VItalie holds it with a firm hand: “There are women and children under the bombs. We can’t let this happen without saying anything, without doing anything.”
With Liudmila, Belarusian, he accompanies two Ukrainian friends. Natalie and Tamara, whose son Ilia and husband, Yuri, are in Kiev. She was able to hear from them. “They spent the night in the metro to take shelter from the bombs. And they’ll stay still, to avoid getting caught”Tamara breathes, sobbing.
“They are in danger, we are in danger”
It is Liudmila who decrypts: “In fact, outside there are Russians pretending to be Ukrainians. They are spies. The only way to flush them out is to speak in Ukrainian. In Kiev everyone speaks Russian but not necessarily Ukrainian.”
They also have relatives in Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine 500 km from Kiev: “It’s war too, there’s fighting in the streets, with soldiers, there’s tanks, not just bombs.”
On the Prom’, the Ukrainian national anthem resounds. “Neither the glory nor the freedom of Ukraine is dead. Luck will smile on us again, young brothers. Our enemies will perish like dew in the sun.”.. It gives chills to Serge, Katevan and Nutsa, of Georgian origin. They are from Cannes. “20% of Georgia is occupied by Russia”, begins Serge. “After Belarus, Putin is trying Ukraine and after that it could be us, there is a major risk. He wants to reform his great Russia”, he laments.
A little behind, Alexandre and Ludmila proudly carry their Belarusian flag. That of the opposition to Lukashenko, banned by the regime. They are from Carros. “We stand in solidarity with Ukrainians. They are in danger. And we too are in danger”.
They are from Polotsk, a strategic territory for the Russian army. “We still have family in Belarus. We think of them. We think of the Ukrainians who are suffering”. Today, “We are all Ukrainians”.
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