I hate X until I meet X.
Haha, yes.
I have a Ukrainian friend here in NY, Vladislav, and he is about 195 centimeters tall and weighs about 120 kilograms.
Simultaneously, I have some non-Ukrainian friends who are professional "Ukraine haters".
When they meet Vlad, they suddenly begin to talk in a way I never get to hear from them, when it's just us. Suddenly, their approach to the conflict is very nuanced - and all they talk about is its infinite complexity. Hahaha!
Easy enough to hate each other on the internet, but when they come face to face Russians and Ukrainians are almost always the embodiment of courtesy itself.
Sure, there are videos of some deranged Russian Karen yelling slurs at Ukrainians in the Istanbul airport. Videos of Ukrainian drunks crashing bottles of wine over Russian drunks heads at some football match in Marseille. But it's not representative...
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Here in New York, many Russians I know, attend Ukrainian charity drives, go to the same church, and appoint each other as godparents to their kids.
War is war. Life is life.