My dear Russians – the Ukrainians are fighting Putin’s army for their freedom, and ours

‘All critical statements regarding Russia and its war will be considered treason and punished according to martial law.’ Police in Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square. Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images

I’m a Russian. Vladimir Putin is committing monstrous crimes in the name of my people, my country, and me. Putin is not Russia. Russia is hurt and ashamed. In the name of my Russia and my people I beg the Ukrainians’ forgiveness. Yet I realise that nothing being done there can be forgiven.

This war did not begin just now but in 2014, with Putin’s seizure of Crimea. The western world refused to understand the gravity of this and pretended nothing terrible was going on. All these years I’ve been trying in my statements and publications to explain to people just who Putin is. It hasn’t worked. And now Putin himself has explained it to everyone.