“Ukraine, forgive us,” reads a handwritten poster taped to the fence among flowers near Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow.
Several dozen people came to Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow on June 15, the official day of mourning in Ukraine, to bring flowers and to express their condolences after 49 Ukrainian soldiers killed in a terrorist attack on Ukrainian military plain on June 14.
“We ask to forgive us, maybe to understand, but mostly to forgive,” says a woman in the video posted to YouTube on June 15. “Please forgive us if you can,” she says in the camera as tears fill her eyes.
The video that has already gathered more than 60,000 views on YouTube was shot by Russian journalist Sasha Sotnik of the video project Free News.
Sotnik was also the one who asked people to come to the embassy.
“I asked everyone who cares about the situation between the Kremlin and Ukraine to come to the embassy at 6 p.m. and they did, not many people though, and even some provocateurs, but no one paid any attention to them,” Sotnik says. In his Facebook post he said he calls on people to come for a shooting, not for any kind of rally. “This is allowed according to Russian law, so this evening no one was arrested,” a journalist says.
Sotnik has posted the video from the event the same day. “May this video be seen by every Ukrainian who thinks Russians are their enemies,” the cutline under the video reads.
“The evil has swollen Russia and moved on to Ukraine, we couldn’t stop it and I feel my guilt in it,” says a middle-aged man in the video. Other people in the video also ask to forgive them for not being able to stop their authorities, say they are ashamed of their own country and wish all the best to Ukrainian nation.
Russians came to the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow to express condolences for the June 14 shooting down of a Ukrainian military transport plane by Kremlin-backed separatists in Luhansk Oblast, killing 49 soldiers.
Even though no one from the embassy went out to thank people, Sotnik says those who came weren’t disappointed. “It was important for people to show to Ukrainians that not everyone in Russia supports the Kremlin,” he explained. “After all someone should rebuild the bridges that authorities burn.”
Ukrainians had a lively reaction.
EuroMaidan Revolution activist Lida Pankiv was one of many who shared the video on Facebook.
“Those who kept the conscience and common sense are now asking for forgiveness for those who never had either conscience or common sense,” Pankiv wrote in her post. “It is just such a pity that apologies won’t give the lives back.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
