“Nothing, absolutely nothing can justify this aggression, this killing of innocent people,” young film director Ilina Perianova says. Ilina is one of the protesters in front of the Russian Cultural Centre in Sofia, where Russians living in Bulgaria organized a protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ilina Perianova is Russian on her mother’s side, her father is Bulgarian. Her Russian grandparents are World War 2 veterans.

“They are both highly decorated. They fought in the war side by side with Ukrainians against genuine Nazism,” Ilina says. Here is how she comments Putin’s aggression and his so-called “de-Nazification” of Ukraine:

“The pretext to attack Ukraine was absolutely phoney, it was pure propaganda. Unfortunately, it has spread to a great many people, including in Bulgaria who believe Russian trolls and media spreading fake information. How do I explain it? On the one hand we have some shared history with Russia, we regard Russians as our liberators, we both have Slavic roots. But the other reason is the widespread disinformation and, I am sorry to say, the low education levels in society.  Because to be sufficiently well informed one needs to have access to reliable sources and, most importantly, to want to get acquainted with all points of view. I made a point of researching the so-called “other point of view”, but what I have seen is a twisting of facts which change all the time.”

Against the backdrop of climate change this is a war that is terrifying but it is also the last thing our afflicted planet needs, Ilina says, and adds that it is also a war for coal and natural gas, and that something that is not being talked about are Ukraine’s large gas, oil and other deposits. “Make no mistake, most wars at the moment are caused by drinking water and food shortages,” Ilina says.

“I see a country under attack which is one of Europe’s biggest breadbaskets,” Ilina Perianova says further. “And it surprises me to see how many people do not realize that this is going to affect us and will cause hunger globally. As to climate change the battle we should now be waging is the battle to preserve nature. We must protect the remaining species, we must begin the fight for saving insects, bees, all beings living around us. Because we are all totally interconnected. One of the biggest fallacies of humankind is that we are above nature, above all other living beings,” Ilina Perianova says.

Yet the young film director ends with the message that at this time, when we are appalled by what is happening in Ukraine, we must not live in paralyzing fear, we must seek hope and light inside of us that will take the human race out of the blind alley it has hit.

Photos:courtesy of Ilina Perianova