Vladimir Putin claims, "The purpose of this operation is to protect people who, for eight years now, have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime.”
As an Indian who can barely keep up with politics in India, I had never even heard of Volodymyr Zelenskyy until the war broke out. I knew Putin's reputation of being a hard task master. I had also seen how the Russians patronise him when I travelled to Russia in 2019. Yet, I can barely believe this statement. Ask me why?
I do not believe this statement because I see on TV, civilians fighting, mounting Russian tanks and standing defiantly unarmed in front of trained and armed forces. I see people leaving behind their homes and families, children, not to take shelter but to pick up arms. I see pictures of a 79-year old lady learning to fire a gun. I see pictures of a very young girl with perfectly manicured nails in 5 different shades of neon holding the gun, ready to fight. That's not a sign of suppressed and tortured citizens. That's a sign of proud patriotic citizens, who had dreams and lives, which they have put on hold to defend their country from a maniac.
The trolls may tout Zelenskyy as a comedian or a TV President, but his one call has made these citizens pick up arms and fight to defend their country in a war where they are severely outnumbered and heading towards a certain defeat. They did that because he refused to quit on them and stood with them in the middle of the war. They did that because he declined the offer of evacuation for him and his family with his now famous words, "I need ammunition, not a ride." He is letting people send their loved ones across borders in camps, but chose to stay back with his family and children. If that's not the sign of a leader, I don't know what is.
