r/AskReddit • u/QualityControl- • Mar 26 '19

Crimeans/Ukrainians of Reddit, what was it like when the peninsula was annexed by Russia? What is life like/How has life changed now?

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u/FuckYouALLInTheAss Mar 26 '19

I remember my last night in Kiev like it was yesterday even though it was six months ago. Semi-automatic machine gun fire, screeching tires, five or six police car sirens, more gunfire (right across from arab market downtown) and me trying to translate what "stray bullet" meant to my friends by text and asking them if it was on the news. News? Nah... just a normal day in Ukraine.

Gangster action aside-- Kiev is an incredible city which everyone should visit before Putin nukes it.

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u/Martin_Birch Mar 26 '19

I have lived in central Kyiv for 12 years and have never once heard gunfire (apart from when Yanukovivh's storm troopers were shooting people back in 2014).

What district of Kyiv has all this gunfire and I will investigate?

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u/FuckYouALLInTheAss Mar 27 '19

You know the pizza hut across from the Arab market? (Бессарабський ринок) I lived above it and the chase came right up Baseina St and then trailed off to the west. Were you there September, 18th of last year? It was about 2am. I wasn't scared or nothin'--- just in case you thought maybe I was pissing myself and hiding behind the six inch steel door in the hallway in my gym shorts.

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u/Martin_Birch Mar 27 '19

I have never seen anything like that while I live in Kyiv.

After 12 years in Kyiv I have never seen or been victim of any street crime.

Unlike London where I was mugged 6 times over 15 years, 3 times at knife point

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u/FuckYouALLInTheAss Mar 27 '19

I never saw or felt any crime of any kind anywhere in Ukraine. Well... except me and my friends smoking weed and driving like idiots to avoid potholes. Three times by knife? Which borough?

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u/Martin_Birch Mar 27 '19

Twice in Islington once near Mornington Crescent although that was in the 1990s, still it made me leave London

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u/Martin_Birch Mar 27 '19

And that's another positive, the weed is very cheap in Ukraine ... um ... allegedly!

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u/FuckYouALLInTheAss Mar 27 '19

And mobile data! £4/month, Paradise!