Echo of the contemporary Ukrainian conflict in Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Abstract

This study explores the perceptions and life experiences of the contemporary Ukrainian conflict, developed by Ukrainian and Russian citizens living in St. Petersburg. Based on basic human needs theory and relative deprivations framework, social identity perspective, and chaos and control paradigms, the research focuses on the participants’ understandings of the different phases and stages of the ongoing crisis - its causes, actors, dynamics, and repercussions - starting from November 2013 and up to June 2016, thus, sketching out a collaged image of the Ukrainian conflict. It also draws attention to participants’ visions of the future and possibilities for conflict transformation. This qualitative study explores perspectives of seventeen regular people, for whom the conflict matters for personal reasons; and it uncovers a number of valuable narratives, represented in St. Petersburg community. This study contributes to the global field of research on the contemporary Ukrainian conflict and on Russian-Ukrainian relations.