PhoenixOfDarkness

Hey Reece! I live in Sevastopol and I was wondering: what is the general opinion out there on Crimea separating from the rest of Ukraine? Truth is, I consider myself Russian (but not zealously patriotic in any way, of course - I love my country, but I'm not a vatnik) and Sevastopol has been experiencing a rapid improvement in infrastructure over the last 5 years, but it pains me to see this conflict unfold because, the way I see it, it's kin killing each other. I might be wrong on this too, so I'm hoping to hear any insight on what the Ukrainian soldiers think of the war and whether they think it's fruitless or not. Best of everything to you and thanks.

Sorry for the long wait! Things are pretty swell here, at least from my point of view. The food is plentiful, the shops are fully stocked, we have power and heating, all that jazz - like any other city, basically. I was born in Sevastopol and I've been here all my (relatively short) life. Here's where things get weird - even when we were in Ukraine, we spoke predominantly Russian. I only ever spoke Ukrainian in grade school or that one time when I spent the whole summer watching Ukrainian cartoons and couldn't remember half the words in Russian, so I spoke some kind of weird combination of the two languages for the next couple months. Can't really say for certain, but I think I felt more Russian than Ukrainian, although it didn't really matter at the time because we all lived in relative unity without any inter-ethnic strife. About the infrastructure - this is really banal, but the main roads of the city were repaired, along with many other less important roads (even the small path leading to my flat is getting repaired). The roads of Sevastopol experienced a lot of neglect during our stay in Ukraine, so the city centre looked more like a wounded, famished beast rather than anything proper. The city has seen loads of construction work for the last five years, from new homes at the Fifth Kilometer (southern part of town connecting to the main highways) to the Historical Boulevard getting restored. Oh, and we have those asphalt-cleaning machines now (http://avisufa.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/dulevo-850-mini-5.jpg - kind of look like these). I'm afraid the port is still facing a lot of hardships as of now, mostly due to sanctions.
Oh, and about the referendum - really sensitive point in the conflict, but as an eyewitness I can assure you that there was a lot of anticipation among the people (more so the people of ages 35-50) surrounding the return to Russia. The referendum was held adequately, my parents (who are quite avid supporters of Putin aswell) went and voted and the winning vote turned out to be pro-Russian. To me it was like: "Woah. Okay. We're here now, and the people that we considered friends a year ago now actively hate us". It felt bizarre. So yeah. That about covers it. Thanks for hearing me out!

Since the language is an important part of national culture, I deemed it fitting to mention it. Regardless of whether or not it's a point worth noting, I still see myself back then as identifying as Russian rather thank Ukrainian if I cared about it (which I didn't).
About the last sentence - I can't really say anything about that since I don't really posess any knowledge on how much oligarchic leeching was endorsed by Russia and I don't understand how that ties into the general discussion. Thanks for the point of view though.

I guess it was fair. The results were overwhelmingly pro-Russian, and I don't see anyone complaining about the move. I really don't like speaking about these kinds of things because, if anything, they just fuel more and more hate, but I am thankful for your levelheadedness.