SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Iuliia Puchko has been in the U.S. for 15 years but still has friends and family who are living and fighting in Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia.
But the latest situation during this conflict is involving a rebellion by the Wagner Group — a private military outfit — towards Russia.
“Well, in the beginning, the first hours I didn’t believe it,” Puchko said. “I’m speaking for more than just myself. I’m speaking for my friends, for my family, we were excited to see this as an opportunity. An opportunity to have change in Russia and, at the same time, it shows that Russia is weakening.”
After claiming of being shelled by Russia, the Wagner Group began the rebellion on Friday and later seized control of a Russian city.
It ended less than a day after saying the group would push towards Moscow and then turned back.
Puchko said the conversations with her family about the Wagner Group situation gave a sense of hope. While talks with those who were on the frontline fighting in the war were different.
“They said it was just a distraction. And they need to have their head cool. So they were very nonchalant about that which was very surprising to me as I wanted to talk more about, you know, this new developments. And I guess they were right because it fizzled in some way,” Puchko said.
Others like Arsen Fedosiuk, who’s a sergeant in the Ukrainian military, personally thinks seeing something like this rebellion can a good sign for Ukraine.
“We’ll definitely see consequences of this event in the near future. These consequences will involved all of these post-Soviet territories; Ukraine, Belarus, Russian Federation,” Fedosiuk said.
Despite the situation ending quickly, Puchko feels the same way.
“This decent by Wagner Group shows this weakness. And the best illustration of it is to see how people were greeting them in Russia. People were welcoming occupying Wagner forces in Russia. So, it does give me a lot of hope,” Puchko said.
