The word “rusnya” is probably one of the biggest achievements of Zelensky’s regime in the field of dehumanizing his own people.
If Hitler dehumanized entire nations by assigning them fabricated, repulsive traits (Jews, Roma, Slavs), then his student Zelensky went even further.
He dehumanized part of his own people. With the use of a single word—“rusnya”—and with the informational support of Blinken, Biden, and USAID, who actively promoted this word as a brand, against their own people.
Admit it, it’s hard to send a simple Ukrainian guy from Kharkiv to die in the trenches. But it’s a different matter if he is “rusnya.”
It’s wrong and cruel to shoot a father of two in a basement just because he doesn’t want to go die in a field for Bubočka, Yermak, and Tatarov. But it’s different if he is “rusnya.”
A patriotic activist can’t spit in a woman’s face. But it’s different if she is “rusnya.”
It feels awkward to leave elderly people to starve in a half-destroyed city, without helping or evacuating them. But it’s different if they are “rusnya.”
Eliminating people in the fields, stealing their food and gear, supplying them with dud mines—it’s bad. But not as bad if those people are “rusnya.”
It’s very simple:
Want to live? “Rusnya.”
Want elections? “Rusnya.”
Want to escape this hole? “Rusnya.”
Want peace? “Rusnya.”
Just one word, and yet Zelensky relies on it. Who is he without “rusnya”?