“Russians love to show off. To make everybody believe that they are so powerful, so great, so prosperous.”
says Daryna Diachok, a digital marketing specialist who finished a master’s degree in journalism at university.
Daryna comes from Cherkasy originally which is located in the Eastern Ukraine, but moved to Lviv in the Western Ukraine 4 years ago. She likes talking to people and express her opinions to the public. She speaks both, Ukrainian and Russian, which gives her an opportunity to listen to Russia media sources. She’s patriotic about her country.
We have know each other since 2014 when we met for the first time. Dive into the interview to get a better insight into a Ukrainian soul and to see a stance which you have not seen in the European media yet. The authentic stance of a person actually living in Ukraine.
Audio version is available here.
1) Tell me something about yourself (your education, your job and your hobbies) please. Introduce yourself.
My name is Daryna. I was born in Cherkasy in Ukraine in 1995. So I can say I was born in independent Ukraine, not in the Soviet Union. I lived in Cherkasy until 2019. I studied a bachelor’s degree and a masters’ degree in journalism at local university. I moved to Lviv in 2020. I have been living here since. I work as a digital marketing specialist in an IT company. I have been doing it for almost 5 years. That’s my profession.
Is there any difference between journalism and marketing in the way you write stuff?
There is some connection between them. Especially when we’re talking about content writing and how human psychology works. In both professions, you need to understand peoples’ minds, their behaviour, what really touches them. So I guess it has a connection. You need to be as objective as you can about things from both sides in the journalism. On the other hand, you talk about things only from one side in the marketing. It is all about communication.
Thank you for answering the question, but you didn’t tell me anything about your hobbies.
I have a lot of hobbies. I draw and study languages. I love Spanish and I have been doing it everyday for 2 years with duolingo.com. I write about it a lot on my blog. I like riding a bicycle. I have been taking lessons of a horseback riding for almost a year. I really love it. It is an another dimension of hobbies, because it is communication with such a big animal and with your own body. It just has something incredible because you need to feel your body in a quite another way when compared with your daily routine, how you run, how you move and so on.
I also love reading and history. I have some little challenges for myself. I have already read 20 books this year. I really like the process of reading. I can say that I am constantly grasping some information. I listen to podcasts. I try to live my life as interesting as possible.
2) Why did you move from Cherkasy, which is close to Kiev, to Lviv which is in the Western Ukraine?
It was all about my job, because Cherkasy is not such a big city. It doesn’t have so many job opportunities for my profession. When I lived in Cherkasy, I worked as a freelancer for a lot of foreign companies remotely. It was good experience for me but when I got an opportunity to work for an IT company and to get more money I accepted the offer. Moreover, Lviv is a city I wanted to live in. I really love it. It is big enough for me. There are a lot of opportunities. It has a lot of places to go and I like the mood of Lviv and people who live here. I have been living here for almost 4 years. When I am out of Lviv, I really miss it.
3) How are your family, relatives and friends doing in Cherkasy?
My parents, friends and relatives live in Cherkasy. I can say it is pretty calm there nowadays. Of course, they need to go to shelters to save their lives when they hear alarms. There are lots of alarms. It doesn’t mean that there is a big danger to their lives but they need to go to them when Russia fires rockets and fights somewhere. Nobody knows where the rockets fall.
Do you think it is because their rockets are stupid and they don’t know how to guide them?
(Laughing) I guess no. They just fire them and we don’t know what their targets are. It can be an airport or a house somewhere. Nobody knows. I can say there more alarms in Cherkasy than in Lviv. Luckily, Lviv is in the Western Ukraine close to the Polish border. It is very far from the Russian border. Anyway, there is information that their army wants to move to Kyiv via the Cherkasy region. There is a possibility of rockets and a bombing. There haven’t been any bombings and attacks on Cherkasy so far.
How much time do you usually have to spend in a shelter?
Sometimes it is just 15 minutes. You just came there and you need to go back (a slight sound of laugh in her voice). You have to leave because the alarms stop. Sometimes, you need to be there for about an hour. I am talking about Lviv. In Cherkasy, people have to spend there 4 hours or a couple of hours sometimes. In Kharkiv and Kyiv, people spend in shelters a few days.
How much time do you have from the start of the alarm till getting to the shelter?
Approximately ten minutes. It is not far from my house. Actually the shelters are not made specifically to save people from the bombing. They are more similar to basements in buildings. These buildings are safer than just regular buildings. Nobody expected the aggression to happen in Ukraine. We weren’t prepared for it. Nobody could have predicted it 20 years ago. Perhaps somebody predicted it but people tried not thinking about it. I am not sure if there are shelters for everybody in European countries.
I think there are still a couple of them in the Czech republic. I have been in a few of them.
4) What is the current situation in Lviv? Are you contributing to the victory somehow?
Like I said it is pretty quiet in Lviv. Some cafés are working. More shops are working, but they are not working full-time. There is a curfew in place. We need to be at home by 10 PM. In Cherkasy, people need to be at home by 8 PM.
Regarding volunteering, I go to a local youth centre, Lviv Open Lab, where we are helping to make camouflage nets for tanks and vehicles of our army. It is pretty easy and it helps you to do something to feel good about. That you do something for the victory and you help Ukraine. Sometimes it is even hard to find a place to volunteer because Ukrainians are very open to help. They want to help. I guess a lot of people feel bad if they do nothing or they feel they don’t do enough. I know such people. They are trying to volunteer at our office for example. My company has offices in 6 cities and in other countries as well.
My company helps fleeing people to move from the struck cities to the Western part of Ukraine and to Poland. I volunteered as a coordinator to help them to find their place. My company gives them money and help them to reserve flats and apartments. It was my job to find a flat for a person who came. A lot of my colleagues are still doing it.
People are also helping to in big centres which are collecting aid from our Western partners. The centres sort the aid, pack it and send it to people who need it. There is a lot of such work in Lviv. I guess it is the same in other cities. I can only tell you about the current situation in cities which are not in an active phase of war. Because I don’t have any close people in Kharkiv, Mykolaiv or Kherson. I guess some people are even preparing Molotov cocktails and all the things which are needed now in Lviv.
5) Money and food are being collected and firearms are being sent to Ukraine. Does Ukraine need help? If so, what kind of help do you actually need?
In cities, which I have mentioned, where there is the active phase of the war, there is a need for food, medicine and so on. It has been some time since the war started and it is hard to find some medicine. I mean some rare types of the medicine.
I don’t know what the situation with doctors is but I know there are organizations with doctors for volunteering. Doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists to help people to cope with anxiety.
I guess the best type of help which you can do is to donate to big organizations. They really know what people need. You can buy whatever you need for money. I have also donated. My husband has donated. My friends have donated. My relatives have donated. There is a shortage of sleeping bags. You cannot go to a shop and but it. You can’t order it on the Internet because the post is not working at the moment. It is impossible to send things from one city to another one.
Is the post office not working only in the Eastern part?
I guess if the sender is the army, volunteers and the orders from these organization it works.
6) Are all Ukrainians, who are leaving Ukraine struck by the war or is a part of them people who just want to benefit from the situation and migrate to more prosperous and stable countries?
I just know that people who moved to Poland are not poor. They are not the people who want to get to more prosperous countries. They have money to move to Poland and to live there for some time. They may be people who live in Kyiv or have their own cars. I guess that people who don’t have enough money are staying at their homes. They have no resources for that. If you move to Poland or anywhere, you need to pay for food, rent a flat and so on. I think it doesn’t work for poor people. The poor people are just staying at home and are struggling.
7) Who is Zelenskyy for you? Is he a hero? Which way is he helping in the current situation?
I didn’t vote for him at the elections. I criticized him a lot. But now during the war, he has done everything the right way. He behaves the right way and he is trying to find resources. And I can say that he has succeeded in it.
I voted for the former president – Petro Poroshenko. I can’t say he was perfect, but I liked his politics and his experience more than of Zelenskyy. But now during the war, everybody supports Zelenskyy. Our army is doing great. Zelenskyy, ministers are doing the right things.
I don’t know what I will think about him after the war and his politics but he’s doing his job right now.
Did Ukrainians expect a comedian to be such a good leader during such a difficult time?
I guess not all people voted for Zelenskyy. First of all, people could imagine what he would be like by watching the TV series (Servant of the People). It was easy for them to imagine how this guy could be a president.
Was he a bad or a good guy in the TV series?
He was a good guy, of course, definitely. He was a teacher from a secondary school in the TV series.
I guess people always think that they know better what to do with politics, what the president needs to do, what ministers need to do in every country. He depicts such a person in it like: “I am honest, good andcame here to be a president”. In addition to it, to move all oligarchs away and to make our country prosperous and to make everybody happy. I guess when Zelenskyy became the president of Ukraine, he had such illusions that is easy to rule such a country. It has been 2 years since him being elected. I guess he has changed his mind. I mean how it really works in Ukraine. I guess he changed in a good way. He understands everything now. Of course, he has a big team of professionals and experts. They can give him pieces of advice. In fact, the president is not the main person and the only person who rules. Of course, there is a lot of other people who make decisions.
I have watched the TV Series House of Cards. It is an American TV series on Netflix. It was interesting to see the system from the inside. It would be very interesting for me to see the Ukrainian system from the inside. Perhaps it will be possible someday from someone else’s memoirs.
Of course, some people say, especially foreigners: “He is a comedian and blah blah,” but I guess the main thing that he has made is that he has changed the whole system a little bit like fresh blood in the system.
8) How much are Ukrainians and Russian intertwined/mixed historically?
I can say that Russian propaganda has worked a lot of during the years. It started probably 500 years ago. Ukraine has pretty difficult history. There were a lot of wars and other countries invaded our territory. Still, we have a kind of being a rebel inside us. It helps us to save our country during those periods. Of course, Russians like to say: “We’re all brothers. It is a brotherhood of three nations,” but it is a bullshit actually.
It made all people built this kind of brotherhood in their minds so that Ukrainians don’t feel as another nation. I guess it is all about an empire. It helps to build the empire. Because when everybody knows the same language, everybody thinks that you have the same history, the same religion and so on. I am sure these circumstances mentioned help to unite people and to create a big country.
Russia always depicted Ukrainians like a village nation. Some rednecks that just don’t know anything and that don’t have their own culture. They always say: “Oh, your language is so funny and weird.” They also say that Russian language is perfect because there is big Russian culture, great Russian culture. All these novelists and poets. It is something big, great and powerful.
I don’t understand that some people don’t feel angry about it. It is so funny that they called Ukrainians Nazis and that they came here to kill Nazis. Because Ukrainians, Ukraine is invaded by Nazis. Who is Nazi here?
When somebody thinks that their nation is better than others. That’s the Nazi. They just came here like an older brother to help: “Poor Ukraine can’t deal with their problems.” They always talk about Ukraine like it is an object of all these situations. And there is the West and Russia. They are just arguing between each other and Ukraine is just a place where they do it.
Sounds like Ukraine is a battlefield between the West and Russia
Yeah. Ukrainians hate it. We just want to live on our own without any other countries, and Russia interfering. Of course, it is hard to fight with Russia because it has an army, money and so on. It is much bigger than Ukraine.
We can see now that Russia said that their army is one of the most powerful armies in the world. You know, the biggest one. That they have some exclusive weapons which nobody can destroy. And now we can see that their army is not so powerful as they said. And this is about everything with Russia. Russians love to show off. To make everybody believe that they are so powerful, so great, so prosperous.
9) Do you feel any difference in the culture between the western and the eastern part of Ukraine?
I feel the difference in how people are under the Russian control in the western and the eastern part of Ukraine. It is the only difference. Ukraine is pretty big. The Western part of Ukraine was invaded by Poland, a little bit by Romania and some other Wester countries. The Eastern part of Ukraine was invaded by Russia. Of course, they have some differences, but we have the same history. We have the same traditions, folklore, proverbs all these things which make us one nation.
10) What is the attitude of Western Ukrainians and Eastern Ukrainians towards the use of Russian language?
It is not forbidden. You can speak whatever you want to. We can see that people who are defending Ukraine and are fighting against Russian speak Russian. Nobody says anything about it. Of course, it would be great if more people would speak Ukrainian because it is normal. It is how it should be. We speak Russian because of the Soviet union and a Russian invasion a lot of years ago. It is like consequences of that. I guess it was not the choice of people who speak Russian to speak Russian or Ukrainian. They didn’t have any choice. Now, I can see that more and more people, starting in 2014, stopped speaking Russian and tried speaking Ukrainian. It is like their own stance to show that they are true Ukrainians. Of course, speaking Russian doesn’t make you less Ukrainian, but still Ukrainian language, our culture, traditions are the most valuable things we have as a nation.
11) You studied journalism. How widespread are disinformation campaigns in Ukraine?
I can say that Russian informational war started a long time ago. They really know how to do it. How to spread misinformation.
Did it start in 2014 (annexation of Crimea)?
It started earlier. They prepared for that. I mean for the scenario of 2014. Yanukovych was a president that was fully pro-Russian (He was the president of Ukraine from 2010 until 2014.) He was like a Russia puppet. When he became the president, he ruined everything: Ukrainian economics, Ukrainian army. So that Russia could just come to invade our territory in the Eastern part (Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast) in 2014. Russia just also came and annexed Crimea. It was a prepared action. When there was the Revolution of Dignity and a new president and new people came, they found out that we were short on our foreign exchange reserve. Our economics was so damaged that our currency became 3 times cheaper than it had been before. They (Yanukovych’s government) kept the exchange rate on the same level because they needed to create an illusion that everything was okay. And the same situation was with our army. Yanukovych terminated conscription. Now we have the conscription again. It is obligatory for people, I guess, from 18 to 27 years of age. Then In 2014, Putin just came and took our territory because there wasn’t enough resources to fight him back. Now we’re ready for that. We can fight him back. And I can say that we’re fighting back successfully.
And now I am back to the information war (she is laughing). Another thing why he was able to take our territory in 2014 was because of the informational war. People in the Eastern part of Ukraine were told that Ukrainians don’t like people who speak Russian and hate it.
In addition to it that they make you suffer and that the only thing that can help them is Russia. And that they need to help Russia to come here. It is interesting that one woman from eastern part of Ukraine said while crying: ”I was so stupid that I believed it and that I was so glad that Russians forces came to Ukraine.” She also said that some priests were telling her that Russia, Ukraine and Belarus need to be together because they are all one nation – brothers. They kept telling this more and more. These people also watched Russian television and read Russian newspapers. They were just in a bubble of the Russian propaganda.
Do these people still think that Russian will help them?
I hope no. I am sure there is a couple of people who still think and are glad that Russia came here.
One of the advantages of these horrific events is that the idea of: “Russia, the saviour,” may disappear. They will see Russia’s true face. It is the only think which help us to build our own nation without looking back at the Soviet Union and other stuff.
12) What kind of propaganda do you get in Ukraine? Do you get propaganda from both sides (Russian and the western one)?
I don’t think than we have propaganda from the Wester side. You don’t need propaganda for something you feel is all right. There are two vectors of the development of Ukraine. One of them is the Russian vector and the other is the European one.
Most people support the European vector. I guess it is also about mentality. When I compare Russians, Ukrainians and even people of Belarus. Each of them have a different mentality. Of course, I am a Ukrainian and I love talking about my nation in a good way.
I can also say that that there are still some pro-Russian politicians. They came and started their own politics. They set up their own TV channels and media. They started talking in a good way about Russia. They are just trying to frighten people that they will suffer if they don’t want be a friend with Russia. You can say it is some kind of an opposition and it is okay to have the opposition. It is how democracy works. But it is not a real opposition. They are just Russian puppets. They are trying to make media and to put all this bullshit into people’s minds.
What do pro-Russian politicians have from saying these things? Do they get a big yacht from Putin?
I’ll give you an example. It was from the latest news. Negotiations to make the peace took place yesterday between Ukrainian and Russian delegations. They were talking about what they wanted to make the peace. The Russian delegation said they wanted Ukraine to state that Crimea belongs to Russian. They wanted Ukraine to accept the separatist republics and to accept that they are legal and independent. The third thing, the new one was that they wanted one of the pro-Russian politicians, the leader of Ukrainian opposition to make him the prime minister.
Do you think that their main reason is to gain more power?
I’m sure they have some money for it. It is money. It is power. I don’t know what else. We can see their mansions, cars, whatever. We can see it from the news and from all these stupid negotiations. We can see that Russia wants to give them power to be Russian puppets so that Ukraine becomes a Russian puppet. They even tried to make Yanukovych, the former president, the president again now. I guess it is pretty clear what they want to do from their actions and what these politicians have from it.
13) How do ordinary Ukrainians perceive the situation?
We all understand that it is a war. It is not just a special operation like Putin says. This war started in 2014, not two weeks ago. I guess that everybody understands that we need to do as much as possible to destroy this regime, to make these Russian troops go away from our territory.
There is a lot of anger and hate because a lot of people are suffering. Their houses are ruined. They can’t live as they lived before. Their relatives are in danger. I think that changing the president of Russia may improve the situation now, but it won’t change the situation in general. I am talking about Navalnyj for example. It is a much better option than Putin. I guess he is more pro-European politician. Anyway he’s imperialist according to the posts he has written on his Facebook. I think a lot of people in Ukraine just want to kill Putin, to make him disappear and to stop all the pain. We don’t want to have only the peace and that’s all and not to have our territories back. We want them back and be part of the European Union and to be a member of NATO. I guess these are the only things that can guarantee that people feel safe in our country. We need partners. We cannot do everything by ourselves.
14) Why do you think than Putin is doing what he is doing?
I think that he is trying to keep his power and to show everybody that he is a very powerful person. That he’s the only guy who really matters. A guy who can change the world if he wants to. That he can invade any country if he wants and so on. Like a guy with big balls. I guess he has enough money, but now he wants power and he wants to keep it. I guess he wants this big myth of the greatness of Russia and to make a big empire and to be the emperor of it and to rule it and to feel how cool he is.
I guess this is the only thing which has been poisoning our lives for decades. Not only Ukraine, but it is also Georgia, Moldova, Finland and even Japan. Russia has been poisoning lives of a lot of people for decades. And they keep doing it.
15) Is it only Putin or all Russians are bad?
It is not only Putin, it is Russia and people who live there. Some European leaders say that Russians have to fight back. You need to change all this stuff but these people are too frightened to do this.
Putin is the main person there, of course. He created the regime. Russians aren’t just trying enough. They’re trying like Belorussians. It was like a year ago, when they tried to overthrow Lukashenko.
We also had a dictator in some way, Mr Yanukovich. He also had arms and troops and a military power. People still came and fought him and overthrew him and his regime. Around 100 people died. It was a horrible price for that.
Do you thing that ordinary Russians or just Putin is the representation of beliefs or all Russians or just a part of it?
Nowadays, we can see that half of the Russians is supporting the military invasion. They think: “Yeah, Putin is a great guy and he’s doing the right things.” Do you know his main argument to invade Ukraine about NATO?
During the talks between Gorbachev and Baker in 1990. James Baker III (Secretary of State, USA) said: „If we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a part of NATO, there would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO 1 inch to the east,“ (Source 1, Source 2). An actual written agreement was not made. Russians are known to do as they promise. On the other hand, Western countries would like to have everything written down. I assume it was a cultural misunderstanding. Do you mean this argument that he feels threatened by NATO?
Yes, I can say that. When I am watching videos where some journalists are asking Russians why they support the invasion and why they think it is the right thing to invade Ukraine, they say: “NATO threatens us and we don’t want to NATO country near our border.” It is so stupid to say, but people just keep saying this phrase they heard on the Russian TV. They are like zombies. Even if they are still zombies they need to take responsibility for these actions. Even if you didn’t vote for Putin, you still live in that country and you don’t do anything and you didn’t do anything to have another president, to have another life to change all of it. I guess everybody’s responsible. And it is not only Russians. I like to read Russian chats and their comments. Sometimes I read: “We cannot do anything about that because it is the way it is”. They have fear of protesting because Putin made a law that they can be imprisoned for 20 years if they protest. Now, Russia is transforming to USSR 2.0 and they don’t do anything about it. Some people just leave Russia to countries where they can move to and they still don’t do anything. They just say: “Okay, Let it be”. Who can change it? Who can stop him? If not his own nation. Nobody I guess.
16) Do you speak both, Ukrainian and Russian language?
Yes, I do.
That’s everything on the topic of Russian-Ukrainian crisis and now the last question.
17) If you didn’t have to concern yourself with earning your living, what would you do in your life?
I worked on a project for a local NGO. The NGO concerned itself with culture and cultural activities. I had my own little internet radio named Sunfish radio where I made a podcast about culture, about Ukraine and Ukrainians that made some cool things. I guess I will continue something like this. I enjoy it. I enjoy talking to people. I like spreading my own stance. I still have my own blog. I talk about cool things there. I have just started a blog about Ukrainian history on TikTok. I do it because I like spreading information and because I am really proud of my country and of people who live here. At my job, I work on tasks which I believe in. I can say that my life is pretty perfect in this sphere, because I do what I want to and I love my profession as well.
Thank you for your interview. That’s the end of it. Your answers gave me a better insight and I think such insight hasn’t been seen in Europe yet.
