On the second day of the war, an old colleague called Oleksandr Vilkul and asked him to commit treason.
The scion of a powerful political family in southeastern Ukraine that was long seen as pro-Russian took the call as Russian troops were moving towards his hometown.
Vilkul recalled a conversation with a fellow minister in which he said that the situation was pre-made.
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You will have good relations with Russia if you sign an agreement of friendship, cooperation and defense.
The offer didn't work out. Vilkul said that the gray area of Ukrainian politics was gone after war began. Missiles hitting his hometown made it clear that he would fight back.
Vilkul said that he responded with profanity.
If the first months of the war in Ukraine became a military debacle for the Russian army, deflating the reputations of its commanders and troops in a forced retreat from Kyiv, the Russian invasion also highlighted another glaring failure: Moscow's flawed. The Russian army's mistakes were more costly than the faulty tactics of tank operators.
The government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would break up and leading officials in the largely Russian-speaking eastern region would switch sides, according to predictions by the Kremlin. That has not happened.
Political analysts say that the political myopia was most significant in the east.
Russia didn't flip local politicians to its side in most of the villages. 38 cases of treason have been opened by the Ukrainian authorities.
Russia's isolated, authoritarian system was something that nobody wanted to be a part of, according to a former member of Parliament.
He said that the system had poor appeal in Ukraine and that there was no widespread collaboration with Russia.
He said that they are part of something bright. They have nothing to offer.
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, and Hennady Trukhanov, the mayor of Odesa, both became fierce defenders of their cities.
Along with the leaders in the southeast, the Ukrainian people also resisted. Despite lethal dangers for participants, street protests against occupation continue. A man is standing in front of a tank. The miners and steelworkers of Kryvyi Rih have not shown any signs of changing their loyalties to Russia.
Serhiy Zhyhalov, 36, a steel mill engineer, said that they had ties to Russia before the war. No one has doubts that Russia attacked us, he said.
The southeastern regions of Ukraine are now the focus of fighting in the war.
The highway leaves behind the dense pine forests and reedy swamps of northern Ukraine and opens into an expansive plains. Farm fields are bright in yellow or black.
The region is entwined with Soviet and Russian history. The iron and coal industries shaped southeastern Ukraine. The city of Kryvyi Rih is home to iron Ore and Coal deposits.
Russian became the lingua franca in the mining towns after the late 19th century, when many nationalities from around the Czarist and Soviet empires came to work in the mineral basins. Most of the villages were mostly Ukrainian-speaking.
Vilkul, a favorite villain of Ukrainian nationalists for promoting Soviet-style cultural events that angered many Ukrainians, was elected by the region for years. He staged a singalong party in Kryvyi Rih to belt out a song associated with the Soviet World War II victory.
Vilkul served as deputy prime minister in the government of the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was deposed by street protesters.
The rest of the Cabinet fled with him. While his father was the mayor of the city, Vilkul remained in Ukraine as a political boss.
He caught Moscow's eye. Vilkul said that he was told by an intermediary that the time of chaos was over and that he should follow orders from Moscow if he wanted to stay in politics. He said he didn't want to.
He said that the Russians only leveled demands and didn't bother to court him. He said that Moscow did the same thing to other politicians in the east.
He said he was alone on this level on the eve of the war. He was seen as a potential convert by Moscow when it invaded Ukraine.
The call came from a Ukrainian in exile in Russia who had served as interior minister under Vilkul. He wanted Vilkul to work with the Russians.
Vilkul told him to get lost.
Russia's leadership and his nationalist opposition misunderstood Vilkul, he said. He said that a great-grandfather fought in the civil war. He said that the Vilkul family has been fighting Russians for a hundred years.
He said that the Kremlin misinterpreted his respect for World War II veterans and support for the rights of Russian speakers as support for a renewed Russian empire. He called the Russians megalomaniacs.
He said that they mistook common language and values like attitudes to the Second World War and Orthodoxy as a sign that someone loves them.
Russian troops had advanced to within 6 miles of the city a week later, when another offer was made publicly by another Ukrainian exile.
Vilkul made a post on Facebook that was obscene.
On the first day of the invasion, Vilkul ordered the region's mining companies to park heavy equipment on the runway of the city's airport, and on approach roads. The engines were disabled after the tires were popped.
The city's steel industry began to make armored vests. Zelenskyy, whose hometown is Kryvyi Rih, appointed Vilkul military governor of the city on the third day of the war, despite the fact that the two had been political opponents in peacetime.
Vilkul is wearing fatigues and a camouflage bandanna. A group of Ukrainian nationalists, including the leader of the Right Sector paramilitary, Dmytro Yarosh, showed up in his office to shake his hand.
Were we really pro-Russian if we fought the Russians?
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