UK-based Russians ‘horrified’ by war in Ukraine

Many Russians living in Britain have denounced President Vladimir Putin’s actions.

A demonstration in London to denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Rebecca Speare-Cole/PA) (PA Wire)

Russians living in the UK have said they are “horrified” and “appalled” by President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Dr Uliana Bashtanova, a senior postdoctoral researcher in chemistry at Cambridge University, told the PA news agency that she was “ashamed” for her country.

She said: “(The war) should be stopped immediately.”

I’m afraid that Russia will suffer greatly and we will suffer with it for many years

Professor Larissa Fradkin

The 52-year-old has been going to anti-war protests, has sent food parcels to refugees at the Ukrainian-Polish border and donated money to support young children in Kharkiv.

She said none of the Russian expats in her circle back Mr Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

Her colleagues at a Cambridge Russian amateur theatre, where Dr Bashtanova is a director, come from all parts of the Russian-speaking community and are “all absolutely appalled”, she said.

Dr Bashtanova left Moscow for the UK 22 years ago, a move partly driven by concerns over the rise of a former KGB officer to political power.

Those fears have come true, she said, as “everything which is happening now is how Putin was taught about the world as a KGB officer”.

1. Dr Uliana Bashtanova, a Russian senior postdoctoral researcher at Cambridge University, says she is ‘ashamed’ of Russia’s actions in Ukraine (Uliana Bashtanova Handout/PA)

She does not believe Russians back home would support the war if they were properly informed.

She said: “First, nothing could be resolved by the war.

“Second, there is no proper opposition in Russia as leaders of opposition are imprisoned or forced to flee the country.

“It’s really difficult for the Russian people to organise themselves against the war and there is lots of propaganda going on through TV, and most opposition radio stations are blocked, so it is really difficult for them to get any information.

“I don’t think that Russian society, if they were given proper information, are for the war, definitely not.”

She said many do not know about the high number of casualties and any protest action is “brutally suppressed”.

This was echoed by Larissa Fradkin, 73, professor emeritus at London Southbank University, who said many Russians are “flooded with disinformation”.

She told PA: “It is absolutely unbelievable the level of propaganda that people have been exposed to.”

She said most Russians she is in touch with are, like her, “absolutely horrified” by the war.

“I think it’s the end of the Putin regime, but how long it will take, nobody knows.

“I’m afraid that Russia will suffer greatly and we will suffer with it for many years”.

3. Professor Emerita Larissa Fradkin, a Russian living in Cambridge, says she is ‘absolutely horrified’ by the war (Larissa Fradkin Handout/PA)

She has heard about many compatriots who are against the war but do not voice their views for fear of being imprisoned.

Prof Fradkin said she herself is worried about expressing her opinion “because as you well know they are quite capable of killing people on UK soil”, but that “somebody has to speak up”.

She said she also knows some people, including highly-educated Russians in the UK, who back Putin’s invasion, a fact she called “heart-breaking”.

Prof Fradkin has lived in the UK for nearly 40 years. Born in the Baltic Sea area of Russia, she left the country as a stateless political refugee in 1973.

She has a close connection to Ukraine, as her 74-year-old aunt lives in Kyiv and they speak on the phone every night.

“When we speak I can hear explosions,” the professor said.

Both Dr Bashtanova and Prof Fradkin said they have not personally felt a shift in attitudes towards Russians in the UK yet, but expect that to change.

Prof Fradkin said: “I hear stories of Russian children at school suffer because other children shout at them: ‘You’re Russian, are you going to bomb me?’.”

Russian cultural organisations based in Britain have also spoken out against the war, with Pushkin House writing on its website: “As the oldest independent cultural centre based in the UK focusing on Russian culture, we feel it is now more important than ever to speak out.

“Pushkin House stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and condemns the Russian invasion and military aggression that is now affecting millions of innocent people in Ukraine.”

Lord Godfrey Cromwell, director of the Britain-Russia Centre and The British East-West Centre, a UK non-government organisation dedicated to working with Russia, called the war in Ukraine “a tragedy”.

He said: “While historically many borders in this region have changed over time and there may be ethnic and other links between Russia and its neighbours, these provide no excuse for invasion of a sovereign state.

“At some point the fighting will end and politics resume, but we don’t see an easy end-game here – for Ukraine, for Russia, or for the wider world”.