 most of think tech Hawaii's law across the sea program. Today I've asked Valeria Camphouse to share her personal insights and knowledge of the current Russian-Ukraine crisis. Valeria came across the sea from Ukraine to the United States. She is an American of Ukrainian descent and a Russian-Ukrainian, Russian interpreter and translator. And she works as a court interpreter for the Hawaii State Judiciary. Valeria is proud to be a US citizen. And the insights she shares with us today are her personal opinions based on her own life experiences having been born and growing up in Ukraine and her observations of the recent events based upon her own intimate background knowledge of Ukraine and Russia. Welcome, Valeria. It's good to see you. How are you? Thank you, Mark. Thank you for a great introduction. Aloha to everybody. I'm doing good. How are you today? Okay. I wanna ask a couple background questions. You are an American of Ukrainian descent having been born and raised in Ukraine and eventually moving to the United States and becoming a US citizen and now living in Hawaii. Briefly, why and how did you come to the United States and end up in Hawaii? Well, there is nothing very remarkable in my story. 16 years ago, I met an American guy, fall in love, we're married, we had kids together. We moved initially to Germany. We stayed for eight years in Germany until one day he came over. He said, I got a job offer, which is very hard to turn down. We are going to Hawaii. I said, okay. So here I am eight years after having to start the life twice from scratch in a different world, learning the different way of living, enjoying it and appreciating it every day. Okay, now, going back to your birthplace, Ukraine and let's put up a map of Ukraine. Where were you born in the Ukraine and where did you live in Ukraine? Well, I was born in Eastern Ukraine actually as their hot zone, I would say today. I was born a little bit like 20, 30 miles away from the occupied, Russian occupied territories. I was born in Krasnaya Liman. My parents were both doctors after they graduated medical school, we went up North. So in the North in Ukraine, I spent the first 10 years of my life, I believe I started my elementary schools there. And then I moved to the southern Ukraine to Odessa and I lived there for the next 20 years until I moved with my family to Germany. And I see on the map, Odessa is down at the bottom towards the left of the screen a little bit on the map. Yes, that's right on the Black Sea. It's one of the largest Black Sea ports in the modern Ukraine. Okay, now, I want to dive into these issues. And I know from talking with you and exchanging correspondence, 30 minutes is not enough time to talk about everything, but I want to talk about a few things that have appeared that we've been hearing and also I want your insights and your knowledge. I've heard the word hate used many times in the media to describe the relationship between Russia and Ukraine. Why? I mean, is there really something behind this apparent animosity do Ukrainians and the Russians hate each other? Well, hate is a very strong word, like we talked about this before. And I hope we're not there yet. I hope Ukrainians are not completely irrevocably hating on Russia yet, but definitely what's happening now causes a lot of pain and animosity between the two nations and definitely does not help to build, like, friendship, friendly relationship or any type of brotherly relationship. And despite the fact that most Ukrainians would either have a family member, a relative, a friend on the other side of the border or a partnership of business in any ways, the facts are so that Russia kills Ukrainian people, kills Ukrainian civilians, bombs, residential quarters in Ukrainian cities and nexus territory invades the territory, violates the treaties and various international agreements. So, yes, naturally they are not very loved among Ukrainians and in Ukraine. Yeah, so the, yeah, all right. So there is this history in this background. Now, I wanna now dive into the present. And that may be hard based on our discussions, but what are the issues that have created the current Russia-Ukraine crisis in this winter of 2022? Well, it's hard to look at this winter 2022 as an independent, like separate event. There is a chain of events that is taking us to the 2022 and that started at least eight years ago in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine, when Russia annexed Crimea, when Russia killed Ukrainian soldiers, when there were massive disinformation wars, cyber attacks, hybrid wars, a lot of propaganda that Russia's been generating through all these years. And 2022 is not a separate event. It is just another escalation and another level of conflict among the conflict and the wars that's been going for eight years. This is not this year's event. It's a long lasting war conflict that started from Russia and that has been brought to a worse and more and more serious level, significant level with every year. So the official pretext right now is that Russia is using, is there concern about the NATO border coming closer to Russian border, which they allegedly consider as a threat, kind of doesn't make sense to me regarding that geographically, this is good thousand some miles from Moscow and in reality, they have just another NATO states among the Baltic border and that's two hours drive. So they have NATO literally two hours, three hours drive from Moscow, but they are concerned about NATO coming closer on the southern end. It doesn't make sense. So, but yes, this is what they use officially as a pretext, they are feeling threatened. They are feeling that the ethnic Russians within the territory of Ukraine and Russian speaking people are being threatened. And this is the reason for their escalation on the border. Well, okay. So, and I hear what you're saying that this is not just 2022. And this is a longer experience that has been going on for eight years and the 2022 has just been coming up in the news now. I mean, the gathering of troops. Now, when did Russia start gathering troops at the Ukraine border? And did that happen before 2022? Of course they did almost every year. We heard those stories about the escalation in 2014, 2015, there was actually the regular Russian troops crossed the border of Ukraine in the East before. And that's when the Minsk agreement was actual that resulted in Minsk agreement that was happening in 2018 and it's happening now in 2021, 2022. Yes, it's, I mean, they always been there. It's just the amount of quantity of when they bring more is when they take some more away. And so it's always been happening for many years. And but we hear about it now. It's bigger in the news, it seems to be impending. And why do you think, based upon your background why do you think that Russia wants to invade Ukraine? I heard you talk about NATO and that type of thing. But I mean, that's, it sounds like Russia wants to invade Ukraine. Why do you think Russia wants to invade Ukraine? Well, like I mentioned before, I'm not an expert and it is hard for me to see the global picture and the mass picture. But I strongly believe that, and Putin many times he mentioned that in his own words, he considered that collapse of the Soviet Union in the early nineties as the major geopolitical catastrophe of the modern time. So they have always claimed that the Soviet Union fall was a big mistake. And they, in my opinion, are trying to recreate Ukraine the Soviet Union commemorating it to by the way, 100 year anniversary which is falling onto this year. The Soviet Union was created in 1922 which was exactly a hundred years away. And at that time initially that was Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Transficatia, which is the territory of the present day Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caucasians, Caucasian mountains region. So, Putin is very symbolic. He likes all type of parades commemorating immortal Italians and so on and so forth. So I see, I believe there is a lot of symbolism, you know, that it probably would happen this year. But like I said, that's my guess. Nobody really knows what Putin wants. I wish I knew. Well, and I hear what you're saying is that, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like what you're saying is that Putin would like to recreate the Soviet Union and have a country that incorporates all these other countries again. And so, is that correct? Is that? I believe so. Nobody knows for a fact, but logically, I mean, that's what he's been hinting on and pointing out many times. I mean, they want the former powers, they want the former territories. They always wanted it. They never actually denied that. And the hundred year anniversary is very interesting. It's sort of symbolic in a way. It is a coincidence, but it doesn't look good, I tell you. It doesn't bring any calmness to realize the sad anniversary is coming this way. And you talked about Ukraine being part of the Soviet Union Russia at some point. And does Putin really believe? I mean, wow, I know you can't tell me, but is that your impression? Is that there's this feeling that Ukraine is part of Russia? Well, I mean, they say it out loud that Ukraine is not a country. It's a territory that this is not a full, I mean, full scope nation, that this is one nation, Russians and Ukrainians and Belarus are one people. They keep saying that all the time. That's not a guess. They keep stating it. And indeed, Ukraine and Russia have a lot like over a thousand years of history. That's not the point. And there was a certain time when Ukraine signed a particular treaty with the Russian Empire, looking for some kind of protection and an ally against the Poland, Lithuania and Commonwealth, which ended up in just another treaty broke and Ukraine forcibly joined to the Russian Empire and becoming a portion. And the people were persecuted and the language was forbidden and the schools were discriminated and so on and so forth. So this repeats in the history all the time. So through the timing, at least the last 400 years, yes, Ukraine was forced to be part of Russia. And yet Ukraine was trying to free themselves and trying to keep their national identity and the language and the history and the culture. So it's not just happening in the last eight years that are in the last hundred years and so on and so forth. Okay, so that's a background that we don't usually hear about. Now, you mentioned a little bit about what Putin was saying or I guess that's the Russian government. What are they telling? What is Putin or the Russian government telling their own citizens about what's happening in the current crisis? Well, they've been saying a lot of ugly stories. There is a lot of horror stories that they are bringing to their television. There were stories about Ukrainian army crucifying kids in the Eastern Ukraine. There were, that just recently there were there were stories about Russian insurgents, pro-Russian insurgents in Eastern Ukraine finding the mass graves with thousands of people buried there. You know, allegedly ethnic Russians that were killed by Ukrainians. There is a lot of conversation on Russian television about the fact that Ukraine actually doesn't even live with the mind of their own. They are being told what to do by the Americans, by NATO and this is the cause of hostilities. They say Ukrainians wouldn't be so hostile to us if it were not the involvement of the West. So there is a lot of lies that is going on. In the recent days, there is a lot of horror stories again about the fascism in Ukrainian society. I believe they are kind of heating the conflict up and preparing some kind of information, information influence on the population. But yes, like I said, I mean, I lived in that country for 20 years, for 30 years. I frequently go and visit. My family lives there. They are not true. It is not true, the lie. Oh, okay. Russia is attempting to vilify Ukraine and Ukrainians. Do you have any understanding what, I mean, do the Russian people believe this and do they really want to invade Ukraine or is this just Putin? Can you, you have an opinion on that? I know it's hard to know all the facts, but... Well, I do not know the firsthand knowledge of what Russian people think because I cut a lot of contacts with Russians in regards to the conflict. I want to believe that no sane human being would be willing to go to war or would be willing to live in the war zone. This is simply unnatural. I can't believe there is a sane, healthy human being that would want to go to war. So I understand that when you have, I've been there. I grew up in the Soviet Union. We only heard the Havana side of story and we didn't and we had limited access to the sources outside. So it is very easy to believe a lie when this is the only alleged truth that you receive and this is the only source of information you get or it's the only source of information in your language and you just don't speak any other. Okay, and it sounds like Putin has a goal. He has a propaganda and I doubt if people are going to vocally disagree with him. That's something, right? I want to believe in the good and the people in general, but so far I've seen a report of one human being, one female in Russia in a one person protest against the war. You don't hear the news from Russia that the population, the nation is coming in the streets protesting actively advocating against the war with Ukraine. And that's a fact. All right, now, you talked about, you still have a lot of contacts in Ukraine. What do the Ukrainians want? I mean, what is their position in all of this? We really don't hear that. Well, it is, we actually do, we just don't pay attention, I think. Ukrainians have clearly expressed their intentions back in 2013. They clearly expressed that they want to be a European nation. They want to eventually be ready and join NATO because they want to live in peace and they understand they have a nasty neighbor. They want to be a democratic society and they have done a tremendous past, tremendous work towards the democratic process in the last 30 years of the country's existence. They want to be able, they want to be an open nation with the open borders. They do appreciate the fact that they are welcome in Europe and they are very welcoming people by themselves. So I strongly encourage you, but when peace finally settles in that land, please go visit, I'm sure you will love it. It's a beautiful country. Okay, now, one thing we've heard about a lot of leaders talking with Putin, but we really haven't heard about Zelensky, president of Ukraine, talking with Putin. Is there a relationship there? Is there a problem? Is there any respect between them or is a chance they could meet and work this out? Is that a realistic or is that an imaginary idea? Well, thank you for the question, by the way. My opinion, again, not as an expert, right? That there is very little to talk about because first of all, these are two nations at war. Second, because Zelensky simply doesn't have anything that Putin wants to offer. He cannot offer Putin once Ukraine as a territory. As a province of Russia, of the Russian Empire. And this is not, and he doesn't want anything less than that. And Zelensky will not be able, no president will be able to offer that. The people will not let them do that. So on top of that, I believe Putin is a type of their leader, of the country leader, which understands two languages. It's the language of money and the language of power. So I do not see him having a serious intent to speak to the president of Ukraine unless he absolutely has to, he's forced to. And unfortunately that only be achieved if the third parties like the European Union, United Nations, United States will get involved in this process. And that's the only times when it was happening before. Okay, what, you know, it doesn't sound like there's an opportunity to talk and meet and work something out. But so what are the Ukrainians thinking about? What's the atmosphere based on your discussions with your friends and relatives in Ukraine? First of all, how will they respond? And what do you hear from your friends and relatives about that? Well, this is the toughest question probably of all you've asked me so far because it's a very personal questions. And I do have a lot of people I potentially can lose, which is the worst possible scenario I can see. My husband and I would offer all of them a safe home in case they want to come. None of them is intending to leave the country. They say, this is my home. And as long as Ukraine exists, this will be my home, this is where I'm gonna leave. A lot of them are willing, I know a lot of my friends were actually preparing to join or joining the territorial defense. And a lot of my family is supporting the troops today. In one way or the other, they've been doing that from day one. They all at home, they all very calm. I tell you that there is much more panic here in the United States that I see than back in Ukraine. They have toilet paper and water and food supplies in the stores. They celebrate Valentine's Day today. They sing songs yet and they are trying to cheer each other up, but I do understand everybody's very stressed and very concerned. Mental is they are prepared for the worst and they do not plan on just surrender. Nobody's talking about surrendering. It's, they are very brave and strong people. And it also sounds like they've been at war. I heard you use those words for several years. I mean, we don't realize that maybe, but really what's been going on is they've been at war. And so they're maybe are more used to what's going on and they're not surrendering. Right? They are at war. You are absolutely right, they are at war. They've been in war since 2014 when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. When Russia invaded the eastern part of Ukraine, the Donetsk area, it never ended. Okay. Now, you are now a U.S. citizen. That's correct. But you have a background in Ukraine. You know a lot about it. You have family there. Oh, you're proud to be a U.S. citizen. I know you've told me that. But what as a U.S. citizen of Ukrainian descent should the U.S. do with respect to this crisis? What why? It is hard for me to say. I have very little background in the international politics and conflict resolution unfortunately, but I understand your brain needs friends. They need a lot of guidance. It's a very young democratic nation, which is at war with a very big authoritarian country. So it is natural that Ukraine needs the military support. It is natural that Ukraine is incurring huge financial losses right now. This is understandable. Economically, it is affecting Ukraine to a tremendous extent. It is affecting Ukraine tremendously. So of course Ukraine will need financial support and economic support. I do believe what the United States of America is doing for Ukraine today is tremendous, is really big. And every Ukrainian knows that. Every Ukrainian knows who is a friend and who is an enemy with little exceptions of course. Every nation, every society has exceptions, right? Every rule has exceptions. But I really hope that America will still be there, will still be an ally, a friend of the Ukrainian people. And I hope that Ukraine will remain independent, free nation, which will remain American ally and that will remain like that for years. So you think America, you want America to continue to stand up for Ukraine and Ukraine is facing a totalitarian enemy in set war? Yes. And do you want that support? Yes, I wanted to bring that up. I understand we're running out of time right now. But one crucial thing I wanted to say, especially considering what our politicians, the Hawaiian politician, the politician Tulsi Gavrid said the other day, you know, why do we have to get involved? Ukraine is not even a democracy. And I mean, Putin has a real deal on, Carson said, Tucker Carson said the same thing. Putin has a reasonable concern there. It's his fear of activity. We just need to give them what they want. No, this is Iran approach to, I mean, this is, it is a very big misconception to think that even if Putin takes over Ukraine, he will settle down, get satisfied. He said, okay, I got everything. I want it, are we good? No, this is far beyond Ukraine. And I'm glad the Americans understand that. This is far beyond just taking, grabbing that territory. The Soviet Union is coming back. Putin has done a lot to bring it back in the former might, in the former sphere, territorial presence. And he wants the power. He wants the former powers, the Cold War era when he could, when he had to say, not just in Eurasia, not just in Europe, but all over the world. And he will be attempting to achieve it whether through the energy dependence, whether through financial dependence, whether through military presence, whether through nuclear power, let there be no doubt. It's not just about Ukraine. So given him that what he wants right now is kind of 1939 approach. So there's a greater, there's a greater threat to the rest of the world and other countries from all of this. I haven't doubted that. In order to close this off, are there any relevant, positive Ukrainian words that you can translate for us and share with us that might help us? I might need another hour for that, but still. So like I said, Ukraine is great. Ukraine is an absolutely unique nation like nothing else probably in the world. And right now they have a lot of things changed in the last eight years for them. There is a very special word that you might want to try and remember, Ukrainians, besides saying hello today, they really meet and greet you with Slavo-Ukrainian. Slavo-Ukrainian means glory to Ukraine, which is actually a Ukrainian, somewhat Ukrainian way of aloha. It's not just a hello or goodbye or thank you. It's a spirit. It's a spirit of resistance. It's a spirit of hope. It's a spirit of strength. It's the way of belonging. Slavo-Ukrainian, glory to Ukraine. And you will always hear Yeroyam Slava. Glory to your heroes. We remember our heroes. We remember our history. So this is a way to say hello. And at the same time tell Ukrainian, I stand with you. I support you. I know what you're fighting for. Okay, Slavo-Ukrainian, something like that? Slavo-Ukrainian. Slavo-Ukrainian. It may take me a while to get that, but how about aloha? Aloha, Heroyam Slava. All right, thank you very much. It was my atmost pleasure. Thank you, Mark, for having me today. Darya, thank you for being my guest today and sharing your personal knowledge, your personal insights. Aloha.