Disappointed, but not shocked: An Aussie in Ukraine prepares for the worst

A young Australian woman has revealed the key reason she will stay in the war-torn country and won’t flee from the rising danger.

Pixie Shmigel sat in stunned silence as she watched Russian State TV and Vladimir Putin effectively declare the invasion was on.

“I wasn’t shocked, I was disappointed I guess,” the 27-year-old Sydney florist said from her home in Lviv in Ukraine’s west.

“They’ve been fighting a proxy war for eight years already and there have already been lots of lives lost so it was more disappointing that all diplomatic avenues have failed, he (Putin) was choosing this path.”

Ms Shmigel and her boyfriend Blake Badman moved to Ukraine six months ago to experience her heritage and understand what it means to be Ukrainian.

And to that extent, she has been successful, not only in understanding but in many ways adopting the strength and stoicism of her adopted country.

Neither she nor Blake expected war to unfold on their doorstep but are resolute in their conviction to now stay on for what many predict will be a brutal conflict likely to suck the whole of Europe in for the biggest crisis since World War II.

Pixie Shmigel and partner Blake Badman .

Pixie Shmigel was not surprised by the invasion.

“I feel a certain solidarity, a certain kind of strength that the Ukrainian people are showing that is starting to rub off on me,” she said.

“They are the ones that are doing the hard work, potentially could lose their livelihoods and potentially even their lives so it is the least I can do really, to give them support.”

That is also the attitude from the European Union as they yesterday pledged more weapons, troops and defence missile systems to protect the nation, that while not a NATO member, is an ally.

Globally the world is unsettled by events this week when Russian tanks and artillery trundled across the east Ukraine border in what Mr Putin said would be a peacekeeping mission.

The move was justified with a decree recognising two Ukrainian provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, where militia groups have been fighting a secession from Kyiv since 2014.

In the presidential decrees he not only recognised the two provinces as republics but added huge chunks of the rest of Ukraine to their/his designated territory.

That was on Tuesday and there was still time for diplomacy but by Wednesday he backed their recognition with the Russian arsenal, attracting the sanctions and ire from almost all the rest of the world, leaving Europe on the cusp of all out war.

Stefan Romaniw of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisation with former PM Tony Abbot.

Ironically from the other side of the world and the nation least directly touched by the crisis, it was down to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that summed it up branding Putin a thug and a bully multiple times in an address following the convening of Cabinet’s national security committee.

“I talk to my family, I talk to people in Ukraine everyday and they all want what everyone wants, a decent life for my kids, my grandkids growing up with access to decent education and health system, to be able to travel, they do not want any more than that,” Melbourne-based Ukrainian Stefan Romaniw said.

“Unfortunately Putin has already had us by the short and curlies and ultimately he is holding everyone in the world at bay with economies suffering, people’s prices are going up, like petrol ….”

A year ago when former actor comedian Volodymyr Zelensky became Ukraine’s president in a landslide it was on a platform to bring peace notably to the east of the country.

This was never going to happen with Putin and his ambition to recreate the glory of the former Soviet Union.

Ukraine-Australian Julia Semeniuk said it has been continuous stress, going back to the fall of Crimea to Russia in 2014 but she was grateful to have Australian support.

People stand around a damaged structure caused by a rocket in Kyiv.

“Ukraine is a friend to Australia and many other countries and we feel like we have support from other countries which brings us a good spirit, it’s small steps to right place to have that mental note we have support now with invasion from Russia,” she said.

Monash University Emeritus Professor of Ukrainian Studies Marko Pavlyshyn has studied Ukrainian politics and culture for 30 years and was awarded the Order of Merit by the Ukrainian president for his outstanding achievements in the field.

He said it has been a game of brinkmanship between Russia and the West was still playing out.

But for Putin he has seen an unexpected degree of unity on the part of the West so has been forced the Kremlin to a ‘plan b’ in recognising and moving troops into the puppet republics.

He says it has increased the stakes for the world with Putin now realising he is not going to get what he wanted from the Minsk peace protocols to formalise the puppet republics without force.

The invasion of Ukraine has seen Russian forces flood into the country from almost all directions.

“Putin is not getting any younger and he is dead committed to realising his maniacal vision of a restored Russian Empire and that extraordinary speech he delivered this week … it makes it completely clear his primary mindset is all about leaving this legacy of a restored great Russia, a power that everybody has to be immensely respectful of and afraid off,” he said.

“The realisation he was not going to get his way with Minsk may have triggered this step now and makes me afraid just sending troops into already occupied territories is not all he is going to do.”

He added: “They have put into location all the necessary prerequisites, the army is there, the men are their the equipment is there, the fleet is there and at a word of command this can all begin.”

Nadia Menlisky often wakes at night to watch the news from Ukraine and telephone her daughter Pixie.

The Russian onslaught began soon after Putin’s speech ended.

She said she was so proud of her daughter wanting to pursue her heritage but that did not change the worry for her eldest daughter.

“When she went six months ago I think I still had a sense of positivity that this is going to be a good experience, I didn’t think we had a sense this would ratchet up like it has,” she said yesterday from her Sydney home.

“Now I watch the news every night and wake up sick every morning, worry that I see it has started and now what’s happening on the east and proxy declarations its extremely scary.

“And you are more scared because it is modern warfare at worst or it could be a cyber attack, it could be her unable to get money out or airlines flying out of the country, it could be a missile attack … Ukrainians have lived with this since 2014, here in Australia, of course in Ukraine, everywhere. We still hope for the best for our family for all of us.”

Originally published as Disappointed, but not shocked: An Aussie in Ukraine prepares for the worst