<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/07/ukraine-sudzha-russian-town-kursk-region>
"One morning recently, historian Yevhen Murza and comedian Feliks Redka, both
from the city of Sumy in eastern Ukraine, hitched a lift into
Ukrainian-occupied Russia. Their mission on arrival in Sudzha, the town that
has been at the centre of Ukraine’s dramatic push into Russia’s Kursk region,
was an unusual one: to record the latest episode of their long-running podcast
series, dedicated to popularising Ukrainian history.
The deal was agreed via Instagram with a fan of their podcast who is serving in
the Ukrainian army. In exchange for a drone that Redka had bought with proceeds
from a recent standup tour, the soldier agreed that he and his friends would
give the pair a ride to Sudzha and back.
On arrival in the town, which had a population of 5,000 before Ukraine’s
incursion into Russia a month ago, Murza and Redka quickly set up their
equipment and began recording.
“This is not just entertainment content,” said Redka, at the start of the
podcast, his amazement audible in his tone of voice.
“Today we are making a historical document … We will tell you about the
Ukrainian roots of the town of Sudzha.”
The occupation of Sudzha has indeed been one of the most remarkable twists in
the 10 years of war between Russia and Ukraine that began with the annexation
of Crimea and establishment of proxy regimes in the eastern Donbas region in
2014.
There, and in other parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia since the full-scale
invasion in 2022, a key part of Russia’s narrative has been to erase places’
Ukrainian history and insist that they are all “historical Russian land”.
Now the reverse is happening in the small corner of Kursk region currently
controlled by Kyiv."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
