Ukrainians shelter

Ukrainians shelter in soviet era metro / air raid shelter. Photo: AP

We, the NCW editorial squad, welcome back Halyna, who, as one of the earliest contributors to NCW, returns to share her thoughts and insights on electric current events in Ukraine.

By Halyna Mokrushyna

I meet pictures of my young man Ukrainians sleeping in subway stations in Kyiv and Kharkiv, with their kids, pets, blankets, warm apparel. These subway stations were congenital every bit flop shelters during Soviet times, to protect civilians in instance of war. They were built in the country in which Ukrainians and Russians were brotherly peoples, and the vast majority did not carve up friends and family unit by indigenous origin.

Now Ukrainians are running to these bomb shelters because Russian troops are advancing towards Kyiv, as I write this, and Russians are already in Kharkiv/Kharkov, and I see videos of local people greeting Russian soldiers equally liberators. I as well watch videos of a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainians. He is standing with his hands tied behind his dorsum and I hear a male person vocalization ordering him to say: 'Celebrity to Ukraine'. He refuses and says instead: "Celebrity to Russia".

In ane of his addresses to the Ukrainian nation, the former comedian turned president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to Vladimir Putin'due south words about the pro-Nazi power holders in Ukraine, said that at that place are no Nazis in Ukraine. Zelensky said that he himself is a grand son of a Soviet soldier who saved the world from Nazis. And he said this in Russian.

Yet information technology is nether his presidency that Ukraine became a monolingual country when, co-ordinate to the new constabulary on languages, the Russian language was banned from schools, universities, public spaces. The Russian language that is a female parent natural language for millions of Ukrainians. And it is under Zelensky's presidency that official ceremonies honoring the Nazi collaborator, nationalist leader Bandera were held throughout Ukraine.

Near Ukrainians voted for Zelensky in 2019 considering he promised to end the state of war against Donbass and bring piece to Ukraine. The only fashion to reach this was through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, signed in February 2015 betwixt Ukraine and the pause-away republics of Donetsk and Lugansk afterward difficult and tense negotiations between the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, President of France François Hollande, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Essentially, these agreements provided for an autonomous status of Donbass within Ukraine, with Donbass' right to keep Russian as the official language, to develop close economic ties with neighbouring Russian regions, to have their own judges and local forces of order. The Minsk agreements were signed past the OSCE] Administrator Heidi Tagliavini, second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, the Ambassador of the Russian federation to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, and the leaders of Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Zakharchenko and the leader of the Lugansk People'south Republic Igor Plotnitsky.

It was a compromise, and as any compromise, nobody was totally satisfied with information technology. But these agreements were a road map to end the civil war in Ukraine, where the fighting sides were supported by the West, on i side, and by Russia, on the other, to prevent the escalation of the conflict on the global level betwixt the collective West and Russia. All the same Ukraine did non keep its role of the understanding. Year after year, Russian federation has been waiting on Ukraine watching how Ukrainian army shelled Donetsk and Lugansk, killing thousands of civilians, watching how in Kyiv the postal service-Euromaidan regime was adopting laws glorifying Nazi collaborators, condemning the Soviet past and Soviet achievements, banning the Russian language.

Moscow has appealed many times to Paris and Berlin to put pressure on Kyiv. Zero only evasive promises and fake assurances came from the high offices in Europe and Washington.

And still the W ignited the flame in Ukraine by giving Ukrainians the same false promises to welcome them in the European Spousal relationship, to accept them in NATO, while knowing all too well that these promises volition never be kept. And information technology is the West who said zip when neo-Nazi paramilitary was driving the violence on Euromaidan, when multicultural bilingual Ukraine was burning in flames on Maidan, and when Kyiv sent troops in April 2014 to crush the Russian leap in Donetsk and Lugansk

And now Ukrainians are paying with claret and expiry for their naivety and the lack of agreement of the fundamental geopolitical forces that shape the world nosotros live in. They wanted a better life and European salaries. Who can blame them? Simply the road to that life leads through pluralism, tolerance, respect for police force and the opinions of others. And all these democratic values that the West proclaims so loudly and proudly were not embraced by all in Ukraine.

In that location is then much to say about the causes of this tragedy. Simply I will just add ane comparison for my Canadian friends: Ukraine is the neighbour of ane of the greatest political and military powers of the world, exactly equally Canada has an elephant neighbour down south. And Canada almost always follows in the footsteps of the The states when it comes to foreign policy and armed services actions away. The U.s.a. is also the biggest trade partner of Canada. Tin you imagine all the repercussions if these ties were suddenly cut?

Everybody contributed to the eruption of the war in Ukraine. It will probably cease by the victory of Russian troops. From what I have seen, they deploy all the efforts to spare civilians in Ukraine. Russians did not want this war. Simply the collective West, lead past Washington, cornered them. And they pushed back. For Russians, it is a defensive movement, their last stand before NATO bombs would fall on the Russian territory. When the war in Ukraine will be over, Russian federation volition take necessary steps to ensure that the new authorities of Ukraine will swear neutrality, only as it was earlier Euromaidan. And I hope that this time people who will come to power in Ukraine will realize how important it is to be inclusive, tolerant, and democratic.

This is simply a unproblematic outline of the factors that led to the tragedy we are witnessing now. I could go on virtually the W'south interventions in Libya, Syria, Iraq. But y'all get the picture. Correct now, European countries, one after some other, are sending weapons to Ukraine. They volition not send troops. And the American state of war hawks volition fight confronting Russia till the last Ukrainian. History has not taught them any lesson: Russians will fight till the end. Despite harsh economical sanctions, closure of air spaces, exclusion from sport events, despite whatsoever efforts to brand Russia a pariah country. They will fight considering no thing what we think, they consider Ukrainians their brothers.

And the awakening will come to Ukraine. Right now, I can merely pray that it comes with minimal casualties and suffering. I am a Ukrainian, and it hurts. I am half-Russian likewise, through my father. I have never lived in Russia, merely I grew up in the Soviet Union, reading bully Ukrainian and Russian literature, learning past heart Ukrainian and Russian poetry. I honey Russian people and Russian civilization. And I know for sure that one twenty-four hours, sooner than later on, when canons fall silent and the grit settles, Ukrainians and Russians will go good neighbours again. And peace volition reign on my native land. And Ukraine will become again a country where all are treated equally and respectfully, no matter the language, where the Soviet history is rehabilitated, where Ukrainians have decent salaries and prosper on their ain land and exercise hot have to leave to work on strawberry fields in Poland or on construction sites in Italia, Greece, Spain. To build such a prosperous country, Ukrainians need Russia's help, and practiced relations with the West. This is and then obvious to everyone with a common sense and sober thinking. Once the war is over, it will be up to Ukrainians to understand it and determine for themselves what country they want to build.

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About: Halyna Mokrushyna, Ph.D., is an independent researcher and announcer. Her research interests include the challenges of the post-Soviet transition in Ukraine; social and economic inequality in the post-Soviet context; historical and cultural divisions inside Ukraine; social memory and politics of retentiveness; relations between Russian federation and Canada and the broader context of the mail-cold war globe and relations between the East and the West. Her articles on these subjects were published on Counterpunch, Truthdig, and Truthout websites.

Editors' Annotation: While we don't necessarily share the views we publish on New Cold War, nosotros do attempt to provide readers with a range of views. This is because your right to brand your own mind up depends on your beingness fully informed.