It’s in 4000 miles from Ukraine

On the ice rinks in Vladivostok in the Far East of Russia, 30-year-old Dmitry Afanasiev trains with the Soyuz team, the local hockey team Para.

Players removed the prosthetked legs and sit in specially designed sleds. They use their hockey sticks to move around the rink.

Dmitry hopes he will once become a Paralympic hockey champion.

This is not easy to do. Russian teams were banned from the last Paralympic Games for the war in Ukraine.

And like all his teammates, Dmitry was on the front line.

“My flew to me,” Dmitry recalls, who was mobilized to fight Ukraine. “I fell to the ground and felt my foot burning. I lowered down and everything was torn.

“My wife is a surgeon. So, I sent her a picture of my leg, and she replied, ‘They probably will be gone.” “Okay,” I said.

The Port -Gard Vladivostok is more than 4,000 miles from Ukraine and from the Russian capital. This is Asia. The border with North Korea is 80 miles from Vladivostok. China is only 35 miles.

However, the consequences of the long war in Europe are more than visible.

There are lines of fresh graves in the cemetery on the hill with a view of Vladivostok: Russian soldiers were killed in Ukraine. In addition to the Orthodox Christian crosses, military banners and Russian tricolls celebrate every plot.

In another section of the cemetery there is a memorial “Hero of a Special Military Operation”, the Kremlin’s official label continues to use for the Russian war with Ukraine. There are also the graves of the Russian military and the statue of the armed Russian soldier.

“The soldiers live forever,” the inscription said.

According to President Putin, Russian troops, who in February 2022 have shunned to the border with Ukraine. A full -scale invasion of Russia’s neighbor was widely seen as the Kremlin’s attempt to force Ukraine to return to Moscow’s orbit.

More than three and a half years later the military.

I am often asked on the air: what do the Russian people think about the war in Ukraine, about the confrontation with the West and about Putin’s president?

“What do the Russians think?” This is a difficult question that can be answered.

After all, Russia is so great and diverse. The largest country in the world covers two continents and 11 hours. Some parts of Russia, such as Kursk and Belgorad, Border Ukraine.

Other Russian regions, such as the Primorsky Krai, where I am now far from fighting. Vladivostok is its administrative center.

This is the farthest thing I have traveled to Russia since the war. This is an opportunity to evaluate the mood in a completely different part of the country.

“Of course, we are worried,” Svetlana tells me in Vladivostok Park when I ask her about Ukraine. “It has been going on for many years, and we want it to end as soon as possible. We hoped that the Alaska summit (Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin) would change something. This is not the case.

“People are people. No matter if British or American, Japanese or Ukrainian. I don’t know where all the hatred comes from.”

I talk to Ilya, who claims that the war in Ukraine has not fundamentally changed its life in Russia.

“You can still earn a living and get here,” Ilya says.

“The standard of life is not increasing, but it also does not fall. And yet we hope that relations with other countries will improve and that we will be reinforced into the global space.”

In the center of Vladivostok I stop listening to the band that runs on the pedestrian street. I’m not one. The great crowd gathered to enjoy the improvised rock concert.

Between the songs, I talk to a soloist, a young local musician who calls himself Johnny London.

“Do many people talk about what’s going on in Ukraine?” I ask.

“People of my age, we usually don’t discuss these things. Not very often. I would go so far to say we never talk about it.”

“Why?” I ask.

“We can’t do anything about it. It is on the borders. Hopefully, in a couple of years it will come back to normal.”

“And what is normal?”

“Not war, for sure. That would be good.”

When I finish talking to Johnny London, a pensioner called Victor is coming. He recognized me. Last year he saw me on TV at a press conference with Vladimir Putin.

“You asked Putin a question, isn’t it?” – says Victor. “You are from BBC”.

Victor is a big fan. Not with BBC, but Putin’s president. He criticizes my “provocative issue” to the Kremlin leader in the war in Ukraine, he defends the political system of Russia and strives for Baden’s administration during the 2016 US presidential election.

“With the help of ballots by mail, Biden practically stole the election to Trump,” Victor says.

“That’s what Trump says,” I note.

“Moreover.

“Putin says it doesn’t do this,” I suppose I suppose.

“True,” Victor admits. “But that’s what our people think.”

Victor also believes that the West loses power and influence.

“Look what’s going on,” Victor says. “This week in China, the leaders of India, China and Russia have come together, and with many other countries. But there was no Trump, Britain, Germany, and France. India and China are only three billion people.”

Vladimir Putin stops at Vladivostok on his return from China. If I get the opportunity to ask the president another question, Victor believes that it should be about “new world order”.

The city is preparing for the visit and participation of the Kremlin leader at the Eastern Economic Forum. In the side of the road leading to the venue, street artist Philip Dulmachenko used 1800 cans of aerosol paint to create the most unusual image.

The giant mural reflects Vladimir Putin in military fatigue, hugging the Siberian tiger.

“Cupid tiger has always been a symbol of wildlife,” Philip says. “And Vladimir Putin is a symbol of Russia.”

Philip tells me that when he was a teenager, he ran with the police on his street art. But Putin’s fresco was officially approved by regional bodies.

And to accompany the painting the artist painted a short sentence: the phrase that Philip says it is just about the sunrise in the Far East of Russian.

However, in conjunction with the images of the tiger and the president, who believes that he restores Russian power, the words seem to acquire a deeper meaning:

“This is where the dawn begins.”