In the 1980s, when Estonia and Ukraine were on the other side of the Iron Curtain, Volodymyr was "a boy" and part of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, the well-known Komsomol, which included young people from all the occupied countries because "that's how it had to be".

Due to the demands of the Komsomol, he ended up in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, which was also under Soviet occupation at the time. It was in this city that he stayed and in 1991 witnessed the regaining of independence, a consequence of the fall of the Soviet bloc.

He witnessed the process of Estonia's accession to the EU, always imagining the day when the same would happen to his country. Without forgetting it, he began to find compatriots who were also in that Baltic country and 25 years ago founded the Association of Ukrainian Organizations in Estonia, a collective dedicated to preserving Ukrainian culture, "even more so today when Russia is trying to destroy it".

His office, at the association's headquarters on the outskirts of Tallinn, is 'lined' with books that tell the history of Ukraine, its traditions, even its gastronomy, interspersed with the records of Ukrainian citizens in the country, which increased in 2014, with the invasion of Crimea by Russia, and later with the full-scale invasion of the country on February 24, 2022, also at the behest of Vladimir Putin.

The propaganda of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the now recognized trident symbol of the country's resistance, is everywhere, even in the children's drawings hanging on the walls and on the cover of his 'smartphone'. Next to one of the windows there is a small Orthodox altar.

"It is very important to preserve our history and renew it, to do historical justice to it with the events that really happened," he told Lusa.

With gray hair and smiling throughout the conversation, he does not hide the pain of seeing his country invaded: "The Soviet government and the communist regime, as well as Putin's, are trying to do the same thing, destroy Ukrainian culture".

This is a lesson that he makes a point of not forgetting, and that he considers ignored by most of the countries of the European Union, including some that were under occupation.

"All relations have become commercial," criticized Volodymyr Palamar.

But he sees hope in the younger generation, who ten years ago said they would fight for European integration and who, in his opinion, will not give up until they achieve it.

"This young generation grew up in an independent Ukraine, they know their history well," he said. However, he acknowledges that "without the support of European allies" it will be difficult to face Moscow's attempt at subjugation.

And he reiterated the request of another Volodymyr, Zelensky, President of his homeland: "You have to be able to protect the Ukrainian skies".

In Tallinn there is still snow everywhere and there are few people on the streets, but Ukrainian flags are everywhere: on balconies, in windows, in all public institutions, cafes, restaurants and even supermarkets.

There is no lack of support for Ukraine and repudiation of Moscow's actions. The Russian Embassy, temporarily closed since the 2022 invasion, is full of tributes to the Ukrainian population, civilian and military, who died; to Alexei Navalny, the Russian opponent who died a few weeks ago in a high-security Russian prison, and messages such as "Putin kills" and "Russia is a terrorist state".

Volodymyr Palamar hopes to one day be able to return to Ukraine and see the country free from war and its bonds, as a European state.

And on the way to the European elections, between June 6 and 9, he looks with hope to the day when he will also participate in the electoral act to "choose the MEPs" of his country.

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