As standoff between Russia and Ukraine continues and tensions in Ukraine’s east grows analysts and journalists around the world try to understand what is really going on in the country and what ordinary Ukrainians really want.
Danish journalist Michael Andersen, who’s been working on civil society projects in Ukraine for some 17 years, has also made an attempt to find the truth in his new documentary, “Ukraine: A Dangerous Game,” released on the Al Jazeera English website on May 15.
A 25-minute movie shows EuroMaidan Revolution protests in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and several cities in Ukraine’s now annexed Crimea peninsula.
Apart from the protesters’ voices from around Ukraine, the movie features sociology experts, historians and journalists from different regions who argue different points of view.
Nataliya Chernysh, a sociologist from Lviv, claims 95 percent of young Ukrainians say the nation is their motherland and the Ukrainian-Russian language issue is a tool for manipulation. Russian President Vladimir Putin “is the loser from the beginning,” Chernysh said.
A historian from Simferopol, meanwhile, ensures that Crimea has always been a Russian territory.
The movie shows how divided the country stands today, although the conclusion at the end is put straightforward – weapons in Ukraine’s restive southeast are “Russian money, Russian media and basically Russian manipulation of people who live here.”
Howeverm the author says what is going on in Ukraine is not a civil war, rather banditism, and there actually is a hope.
“The most impressive moment was listening to local experts explaining the real situation – which is less hopeless than we hear from the media,” Andersen said.
