About the situation in Ukraine

This is the second version of this page. I decided to rewrite it into a shorter text (and also update it a bit), but you can still check the old version of the page via Wayback Machine.

Disclaimer

I am a Russian resident so I have to be very careful with my words. You can't use certain words, links or facts. Keep this in mind. As a substitute for a specific three-letter-word I will use thing.

This page is also not available from Russia as an additional measure. Most Russian users of the site either use VPN or saw what I had to say about it in other media.

What I have to say

  • I was born in Russia and I also live there. I spend a significant part of my life in Ukraine, I was raised in Odessa, my family lives there. As you might imagine, I hate this hecking thing. I was against it long before, I am now, I will be in future.
  • Because of the actions of this government it was already hard for me to visit my family in Ukraine, and now I am afraid I won't ever be able to come there in my lifetime.
  • All this things considered, I don't consider myself neither Russian nor Ukrainian. I don't think it matters right now. I don't want people to have any prejudice about me.
  • Regarding my family: they were more or less fine. Though it's hard to know, it was over a months (at the time I'm writing this) since I heard from some of them, so it's hard to say for sure.
  • The propaganda states that 70-80% of people support the thing (using state-owned poll results). It's complete bullshit. Keep in mind, that in past 20 years there were mass protests every year, increasingly more massive was time goes on. And with that came reppressive measures. Any protest activity halted, people are either leaving the country, try to use informational field or stay silent for their safety. These polls have biased questions, biased results and also about 95% deny rate, meaning about 95% of people are afraid to answer the question regarding their support for the thing.
  • Real support is hard to estimate, the number is about 10-40% (that's one hell of a gap) and decreasing over time.

Update from October. Because of mobilisation, support of the *** based on phone polls (which still can't be trusted for many reasons, mostly because people are afraid to speak) decreased to 40-50%, which means that the real support decreased even further. And even using this data as a basis (levada and this) it shows a very low difference between those who want to continue the *** and those who think it should be stopped immidiately. All that while protests are heating up again, and constant sabotages across the country didn't even stop since January. People are leaving the country in huge waves (even after visa bans), there are even reports of over a million people left in two weeks wince 21st of September. Not everyone can afford to leave, sadly, and even then there aren't many choices most people have. All things considered, this is an insane number.

How can you help

  • Donate for Ukraine.
  • Spread the information. Let the world know.
  • One thing that the state and progapanda are using is hatred. The point of the "70-80% approval" and all the weird announcements are to marginalize Russians. Make it so that citizen have nowhere to go. And if you have nowhere to go, the only thing you have left is accepting that you live here and have to live with all the shit that's going on. For many people this is the reality they see, which is why they don't even try to do anything anymore.
  • If you know Russian: try to spread information here as well. Help people know what's happening and also show them that they are not alone.

I won't leave any links to donations (reasons above), but there are plenty (out there) you can find yourself. Just make sure to double check it: there are many scammers, using the thing to steal money, saying they are collecting "donations".

You can also report me about your donation for Ukraine, and it will be accounted as a supporter donation on my site (with the discord role and stuff).

What about spectral.gg

  • I don't think anybody needs me outside of this country, so I can't leave.
  • As long as I am inside, I can't get any donations from Patreon or Ko-Fi (PayPal is not operational). Crypto is an option now. But I should be fine as it is, I would advice you to donate for humanitarian mission in Ukraine instead. They need it way more.
  • My roadmap timings shifted significantly, and it's hard to do anything right now. I'm still trying to keep up though.
  • I paid for two years in advance and figured out a way to keep spectral.gg running. I will keep it updated and will continue to work on my stuff.
  • Though expanding will be problematic. I adjusted my roadmap accordingly.
  • As long as the thing goes, there won't be much activity regarding entertainment content from me.

Closing thoughts

Honestly, fuck all that.

Currently I'm looking for opportunities that would allow me to leave this country and continue working on the projects I believe in. Working from here, as well as helping others, is very complicated now.

To be completely honest, I am very pessimistic about it. But in case you would like to hire me as a developer, analyst (data specialist, panel analyst or team analyst) or dota consultant, I'm available for any offers.

I hope this all resolves soon and there will be peace. I hope everybody will stay safe.

I hope we will play Dota together rather soon.

Peace. To all of you.