An innocent field nurse shot through the neck. Yes, 21-year-old Olesya Zhukovskaya was certainly that. An ultranationalist anti-Russian Western Ukrainian who posted numerous links from Right Sector on her VKontakte (Russian Facebook) wall? Check.
She’s alive, too, despite having tweeted about her imminent death. She’s even been tweeting once or twice from her hospital bed.
Where does she fit in, in this proxy war between the East and West?
Is she a martyr? And if so, for whom?
Except that she’s alive even though everyone assumed she was not. So, I guess her martyrdom must be revoked. Is she still a hero?
What are we to make of Right Sector and their role in the Ukrainian uprising? They are anti-Russian but they are opposed to the European Union, too. Do they really think the Svoboda Party is too moderate? In what sense? Not anti-Jewish enough? Something else?
Olesya Zhukovskaya was tending to the wounded when a sniper shot her in the neck. I think we all can condemn that, still without knowing what to make of the conflict or the character of its participants.