Hello Anastasia, been a while. Not sure if you made it back to Kyiv yet. Flowers are blooming all over the city and Pascha celebrations are being planned. The babycia's were out selling their flowers and pussy willows on Palm Sunday. Berdyaev (who was actually Ukrainian but seems to have fallen for the Russian narrative based on what I have read of his so far) explains it well in his book ("The Russian Idea"-just started reading it) when he talks about how Russia has a "messianic" vision of itself from the people in the village to those in the Kremlin. They are somehow convinced (and have been for at least 500-600 years) that they are a holy land and are somehow in God's plan for the coming of the Revelations of St. John. So, add the religious fervor to the political and you have a people who can slaughter Ukrainians as if they are God-given crusaders. I don't think most in the West quite understand how this is part of the collective consciousness of Russia. Putin's just the one driving the bus, just about everyone else has happily paid the fare and are willingly on board. Slava Ukraina!