Here is a story that is both simple and painfully familiar. A resident of Mariupol, Ukrainian, a lawyer with the appropriate status lives in Italy. He recently renewed his Italian passport and driver’s licence. If everything went as it should with the passport, where the place of birth is Mariupol, Ukraine, but then everything went wrong with the certificate. The Italian bureaucracy from the Ministry of Transport got creative and wrote: Mariupol – RU. In other words, the official line is: “Mariupol is Russia”.
It is good that a combination of factors played a role here. First, a person is not an intimidated refugee, but already an almost full-fledged member of society in Italy and also a lawyer. Second, the OSINT team in Italy, our friends of Mariupol, constantly monitors the political component and helps us promote pro-Ukrainian and pro-Mariupol narratives.
Therefore, the matter went much further than the social network search and got to the parliament. Italian parliamentarians made a request to the Ministry of Transport of Italy with a logical question: “What the hell?”
Minister Matteo Salvini rolled his eyes and referred to an “error due to manual filling of the form”. Instantly topped the rating of the most ridiculous excuses of the summer of 2024. Such an answer did not satisfy the deputies, and right now, they are collecting data on similar “system accidents” throughout Italy. And this may be the very thing that finally kicks out the remnants of the pro-Putin government, because the Minister of Transport, Matteo Salvini, is very close and friendly to the Putin regime.
Such a small thing. But here, we can clearly see how the Russians are awake and continue to promote the narrative that the occupied territories are the territories of Russia through such small things as legalising the invasion. Unfortunately, even among our partners, there are still many politicians who do not mind feeding off the Kremlin’s bloody hand.
That is why it is so important that we do not forget the true friends we have. They helped us get closer to victory even when we were feeling calm. The only weapon that can effectively defeat evil is unity. And everything will be Ukraine!
By Petro Andryushchenko
*These opinions are solely those of the author. The Ukrainian Review takes no position and is not responsible for the author’s words.
Petro Andryushchenko was an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol. After the Russian Federation started war in Ukraine in February 2022, he became the de facto “voice” of Mariupol.
On his Telegram channel, “Andryushchenko Time“, he tells the truth about the horrors of the occupation, the deportation of people by the Russian occupants and the “filtration” camps in Donbas.
Stanislav Kinka adapted this text for The Ukrainian Review.
