'Briefly: Russians and Ukrainians at peace... in Bulgaria'

'Bulgaria, a member of the European Union. Additional Russians have reportedly come to avoid being drafted for service.

D Indeed, I saw two generations: pensioners and people in their 30s and 40s, clearly visible on the beach, in restaurants and supermarkets. At the same time, many Ukrainians also moved to Bulgaria after the war started. But don't think that these are exclusively women, as officially stated. You can see thousands of expensive cars with Ukrainian license plates on Bulgarian roads, and almost all of them are driven by young men. I cannot confirm reports that Ukrainian men can easily leave their country by paying bribes at border crossings. But I can confirm that a small army of young Ukrainian males,''judging by their cars, of obviously very good financial status, is in Bulgaria avoiding conscription.

As I saw in Bulgaria, Russians and Ukrainians are enjoying life. As a kid, I saw Czechoslovakians on Bulgarian beaches stuck to the radio in the summer of 1968. They forgot about vacations, all they needed to know was what was happening after the Warsaw Pact armies invaded their country after the uprising in Prague. There is nothing like that about the Russians and Ukrainians in the summer of 2023. I listen to their conversations where they mostly discuss where to spend their money or complain about the services they receive.

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Of course, these are just some of my random impressions, not a sociological study. And I haven't seen any animosity between''Ukrainians and Russians. Perhaps the Ukrainians assumed that the Russians were also draft dodgers like them.

Maybe what I saw is one of the shelters where draft dodgers end up. Perhaps it is a relatively inexpensive shelter, but that is why its clientele is more numerous. To put things in a positive light, it is nice that being far from their capitals, Russians and Ukrainians are not hostile. However, the downside in the case of Bulgaria is that public opinion has a hard time seeing Ukrainians as heroes and defenders of Europe, who need our support for as long as it takes. The opinion of the Bulgarian public and political class remains divided on the issue of the Ukrainian war, and''a significant part of it believes that the West has put Russia in a deadlock, which is why we got the famous result. An 'Atlanticist' majority prevails in parliament, but I doubt that the same majority prevails in society. So Bulgaria will remain one of the "weak links" in the Russian propaganda war to destabilize the West. And it is not entirely Bulgaria's fault.

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