The Mimicry of Victimhood: Why Portraying Ukrainians and russians as Equal Victims Is Deeply Problematic

“Escape” — An Exhibition at the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin

The exhibition portrays people who were forced to leave their homes after russia’s attack on Ukraine. It features both Ukrainians and russians. That may sound empathetic — but it is not value-neutral.

“It’s about Ukrainian war refugees and russian emigrants.
Both could no longer remain in their homeland.”
“We wanted to show their trauma with empathy and preserve their dignity.”

Why this framing is problematic

Portraying Ukrainians and russians as equally displaced creates a false moral equivalence between the real victims of war and people from the country that started the aggression. It replaces truth with comfort — and justice with aesthetics.

What Ukrainians flee from — and what russians flee from

Such framing distorts the power dynamics of this war. It suggests that all these people fled comparable dangers — but that is not true.

Ukrainians flee from invasion, occupation, mass killings, and the destruction of civilian life.
russians flee from conscription, sanctions, or the discomfort of living under their own regime.

“Empathy” without responsibility is avoidance

As one curator said: “It’s about showing trauma with empathy.”
But empathy that ignores responsibility is not empathy — it is denial.

When art treats the victims and citizens of the aggressor state as equals, it depoliticizes violence and turns injustice into an aesthetic experience.

“russia’s victimhood narrative is part of the crime.” — Timothy Snyder

Many russian “refugees” have never publicly condemned the war, keeping open the possibility of return — even to the regime itself. Some continue to reproduce imperial narratives about neighboring states. Portraying them as innocent victims obscures complicity, not resistance.
In doing so, russia’s role as aggressor is softened — and Ukraine’s calls for justice and accountability are undermined.

When “shared suffering” silences justice

Such projects blur Ukrainian suffering.
They turn a brutal invasion into a supposedly shared humanitarian tragedy.

“Everyone who flees suffers” sounds compassionate — but in this war, it reflects moral blindness. It erases responsibility, equates guilt, and blurs the line between victim and perpetrator.

Whose stories are centered?

russian voices remain in focus, Ukrainian ones pushed to the margins.
The old hierarchies persist — this is not decolonization.

Art is never neutral

Least of all in times of war.
The choice to present victims and perpetrators side by side is not a gesture of peace — it is an act of depoliticization.
It prioritizes comfort over justice, reconciliation over resistance, and silence over truth.

True empathy begins with truth

We call on cultural institutions and curators to:
— Prioritize Ukrainian voices and agency
— Name russian responsibility
— Avoid framing the war as a “shared tragedy”
— Expose the asymmetry — military, political, and moral

Because art holds power.
And power comes with responsibility.