- I guess following the war between Ukraine and Russia must have brought back a lot of emotions for you… Did you mention that you studied abroad in Russia?
- It was actually in Kyiv. I was there in the late 1980s, so it was still the Soviet Union at the time… though the decline was quite visible by 1990.
- Ah, right… I see. So, do you still have friends in Ukraine?
- Some, yeah. And in Russia, too. It was popular at the time for Vietnamese people to study abroad in the Soviet Union, so I made lots of friends there.
- I bet you did. Are they now in Ukraine or Russia? And how are they doing?
- Most of them were in Ukraine, but thankfully they became refugees in other European countries when the war started. It was very different... there was just one Soviet Union then, which later separated into Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc., but they all shared one thing in common: the people. They were all very benevolent and kind back then, and they are still very benevolent and kind today.