Ukrainians wary of Russian claims of withdrawal
As Western leaders warned of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine, Yuri Vasylevych and his saxophone quartet played tango to a full house at the Kyiv Philharmonic.
The musician is used to performing under pressure: when pro-EU protests erupted in violence in 2014, in this grand columned hall the show went on to the sound of shooting.
Now Russia has massed troops on Ukraine’s border, to stop it slipping from Moscow’s orbit into Nato, and Yuri says he feels his country has a “gun to its head” once again.
“We were hoping to live like France or Britain, other free countries,” he explained ahead of Valentine’s night performance.
“But eight years on, we’re still coming to work without knowing whether it’ll be calm after our concert or whether there’ll be shooting.”
Despite the musician’s unease, and all the dire prophesies of Western politicians and intelligence agencies, the streets of Kyiv have remained remarkably calm.
The only sign of panic is that word itself graffitied onto a city wall. There’s no sign at all of the Russian assault that some sources were so sure of they even predicted it would come on Wednesday.
But Ukrainians’ long experience of living in Russia’s shadow makes them wary of recent moves that suggest Moscow may be dialing down the tension, just a little bit.
First, Russia’s foreign minister advised President Vladimir Putin that it made sense to keep talking to the West and negotiating his security demands.
Then Mr Putin repeated those demands on Tuesday, whilst insisting he didn’t “want war”.
The same day, his defense ministry announced that some troops were returning to their garrisons “as planned” and published a video of tanks rolling across a road as a soldier with little flags held up the traffic in the snow.
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