00:00absolutely um in the last two to three months russia has escalated its attacks on ukrainian
00:10critical infrastructure today for example my neighborhood my city is sitting on three to six
00:18hours of electricity per day when russia strikes strikes our electric electrical power grids
00:26it means that the state needs to kind of balance power amongst the citizens and it really becomes
00:34kind of impossible to do the everyday things such as you know doing your laundry or simply taking a
00:40shower or even cooking so it has become very difficult and i think this has been the most
00:47challenging winter so far you're living near kiev and you're able to see out of your window these
00:55missile strikes when they do happen talk to us about living in such a time of uncertainty and
01:01instability absolutely look um i live in kiev and my neighborhood um just sits on the outer skirts of
01:10the city and the region of kiev and my kitchen windows are pretty much like a little um cinema
01:19theater if you want to make you know kind of a bit of a humor out of the situation you get to see
01:24um the actual action from your kitchen and that's very scary um because first of all um the first
01:33thing that a ukrainian should do is go seek shelter when there are air raids but unfortunately shelters are
01:40not available everywhere and you try your best to stay three walls you know apart from your windows but
01:48sometimes you know curiosity strikes and you witness a really bizarre moments out of your window
01:53you you as drones you witness ballistic missiles just flying above um your roof
02:00we can't imagine how difficult it must be to live through that and and of course you know from the
02:07outside we're hearing about these peace talks that are ongoing of course president zelinski is
02:13involved in these peace talks i do wonder though at home in ukraine what is the general assessment
02:19of his leadership especially after his close allies were linked to a major corruption scandal so what's
02:26the general view of him as a leader absolutely that's a fair question i think something that you
02:33everybody should know about ukrainians is that while we're very critical of our domestic politics when it
02:39comes to things such as ukrainian sovereignty we are full behind our ukrainian president who has been
02:46democratically elected so despite the very fact that there has been corruption within his office
02:53and thankfully that correction corruption has been um quite transparent to be honest and that's quite
02:59a good remark about a ukrainian state function um ukrainian people are definitely behind his message of
03:05keeping to the sovereignty of ukraine because quite frankly the peace peace deals are not peace deals
03:12they're business deals between trump and putin so uh ukrainians are full ahead in support of zelensky on
03:18the ground yeah just just on that point you know we are heading into the fourth year of this war in
03:24february next year it'll be the fourth year discussions over peace and the possible cessation of land to russia
03:32that's all on the table and the negotiating table what's the general view about this particular path to peace
03:40well um the deal that's thrown up is not a deal that unfortunately advantages ukraine if we have a
03:46look at um you know the bullet points it only favors russia um amnesty to russian crimes ceding of land no
03:54security guarantees that's not kind of a deal that works for ukraine and we're hoping that perhaps there
04:01will be some more diplomatic talks that do involve europe in pursuing um you know more security
04:07guarantees that are in favor of ukraine because ukraine is the victim and the blatant aggressor
04:13is russia and i'm sorry ukraine is not going to bend to russia's plans of blatantly taking over the
04:20land that it has occupied and there's no guarantee that you won't expand and i i know that you have dual
04:28citizenship uh ukraine australian citizenship you grew up in australia also do you see a time when
04:36perhaps you may return to sydney permanently oh i dream of the ocean of team tams and salt and vinegar
04:46chips every single day and i'm actually i came back to sydney to campus for one semester in the beginning
04:53of the year and it was shocking to come back to sydney you know just twitching at the sound of
05:00airplanes seeing people freely and just fully so living in a democratic and peaceful country it
05:06felt really amazing so at the moment i'm in kiev i'm not too sure what you know the future holds but
05:12i'd love to come back to sydney because i see it as also my you know my home i did move to sydney when i
05:18was seven years old so i do have that you know duality mentality and identity i hope to see more
05:25of sydney in the future but for now i am here
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