Marina Lagutina was born in Moscow and spent much of her life in the Soviet Union. She was a corporate Director and successful small business owner. Marina has retired to the Island of Cyprus and returns home a couple of times a year.
Why do you think it happened
You know that in Ukraine there lived people of both nations: Russians and Ukrainians. And they lived in friendship during the time of the Soviet Union and for a time after they separated and became independent. After the so-called Orange Revolution, in 2014, the people who came to the top office began to refuse everything Russian. They refused the Russian language in schools and offices, government offices, they refused Russian speaking channels on TV, and so on. They also did a lot of things against Russians. So, because of all these things we are now at war. They were historically Russian areas and the people didn’t want to live in this country with this government. That’s why I think it’s it happened.
How do you feel about that
I feel very sad… very sad. Of course, Russia was waiting eight years and during these years areas were bombed by the Ukrainian Army and nationalists. So now after eight years Russia tried to find a way to stop that. You know everybody knows about the Minsk agreement, where the Ukraine president and other groups, France and Germany, signed an agreement to stop that, and on this agreement the Ukraine government was supposed to find the way how to stop that and how to move forward and how to live. But they never did anything by this agreement.
I was very surprised when Europe and America said that Russia broke this agreement. Yes, Europe and America said that Russia doesn’t do anything by this agreement but Russia never was a part of the agreement. This was between Ukraine, Luhansk, Donetsk, France, and Germany. I think Russia was not a part of this agreement, so Russia couldn’t break it. They couldn’t cancel that. We’re not part of it, so for eight years we try to ask the Ukraine government to do what they signed in this agreement. They had to find a way how to live with the Donetsk and Luhansk republics. They didn’t do that.
In all the world, Europe, and America, they say that they didn’t see that Russia was not a part of the agreement. So then Russia was a victim. We don’t want to fight but we’re forced to because finally, finally, they killed so many people. They bomb schools, hospitals, they bombed a house, people’s houses. So finally, finally, Russia had to save the Russian people in Ukraine and yeah that’s good to do.
How do you think this will end
I hope, and all the Russians are hoping, that the Ukraine people who ran from Ukraine to Russia (we have a lot of people, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people who came to Russia) with their children; full families, they come and they put children in school. Their parents could have a job. They have a place to live, they have what to do, they have even some money from the Russian government.
\We hope everybody with that Ukraine government finally will sign any agreement with Russia about the way Ukraine will live later. They must be a neutral, peaceful county and we hope it will happen. If not, the Russian army will force them to do that. Why it is still not done? Only because Russian army doesn’t bomb buildings, civil objects. The Ukraine army; they put the machines guns… we will say they put it in the places where people live. They do that because Russia will not bomb that. If they will not do that, the Russian army will finish that in a week. But opposite to what Europe and America says, Russians never bomb civil people, civil objects, buildings, and schools. They only bomb army objects; that’s what I think.
This is part two of our three part series on Ukraine and the conflict there. Here are links to the other two articles: Part I & Part III