Ukrainians shelter

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

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

By Halyna Mokrushyna

I see pictures of my fellow Ukrainians sleeping in subway stations in Kyiv and Kharkiv, with their kids, pets, blankets, warm clothes. These subway stations were built as bomb shelters during Soviet times, to protect civilians in case of war. They were congenital in the land in which Ukrainians and Russians were brotherly peoples, and the vast majority did not carve up friends and family by indigenous origin.

At present 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 meet videos of local people greeting Russian soldiers as liberators. I also sentry videos of a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainians. He is continuing with his easily tied behind his dorsum and I hear a male voice ordering him to say: 'Celebrity to Ukraine'. He refuses and says instead: "Glory to Russia".

In one of his addresses to the Ukrainian nation, the former comedian turned president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to Vladimir Putin's 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 it is under his presidency that Ukraine became a monolingual land when, according to the new constabulary on languages, the Russian language was banned from schools, universities, public spaces. The Russian language that is a mother tongue 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.

Most Ukrainians voted for Zelensky in 2019 considering he promised to cease the state of war against Donbass and bring piece to Ukraine. The just way to reach this was through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, signed in February 2015 betwixt Ukraine and the break-abroad republics of Donetsk and Lugansk after 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 condition of Donbass within Ukraine, with Donbass' correct to proceed Russian as the official linguistic communication, to develop shut economic ties with neighbouring Russian regions, to have their own judges and local forces of gild. 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 Democracy Alexander Zakharchenko and the leader of the Lugansk People'southward Republic Igor Plotnitsky.

It was a compromise, and equally any compromise, nobody was totally satisfied with it. Merely these agreements were a road map to end the ceremonious state of war in Ukraine, where the fighting sides were supported by the Westward, on one side, and by Russia, on the other, to forestall the escalation of the conflict on the global level between the collective Westward and Russia. Yet Ukraine did not go on its part of the agreement. Year after year, Russia has been waiting on Ukraine watching how Ukrainian army shelled Donetsk and Lugansk, killing thousands of civilians, watching how in Kyiv the mail service-Euromaidan government was adopting laws glorifying Nazi collaborators, condemning the Soviet past and Soviet achievements, banning the Russian linguistic communication.

Moscow has appealed many times to Paris and Berlin to put force per unit area on Kyiv. Zippo merely evasive promises and false assurances came from the loftier offices in Europe and Washington.

And yet the West ignited the flame in Ukraine by giving Ukrainians the same simulated promises to welcome them in the European Union, to accept them in NATO, while knowing all besides well that these promises volition never exist kept. And it is the West who said nada 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 vanquish the Russian leap in Donetsk and Lugansk

And at present Ukrainians are paying with blood and death for their naivety and the lack of agreement of the central geopolitical forces that shape the earth nosotros live in. They wanted a ameliorate life and European salaries. Who can blame them? Only the road to that life leads through pluralism, tolerance, respect for law 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.

There is so much to say near the causes of this tragedy. Only I will just add together one comparing for my Canadian friends: Ukraine is the neighbour of one of the greatest political and military powers of the world, exactly every bit Canada has an elephant neighbour down south. And Canada almost always follows in the footsteps of the US when information technology comes to strange policy and armed services actions away. The US is also the biggest merchandise partner of Canada. Can you lot imagine all the repercussions if these ties were suddenly cut?

Everybody contributed to the eruption of the war in Ukraine. It will probably stop 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. But the collective W, lead by Washington, cornered them. And they pushed back. For Russians, it is a defensive move, their terminal stand before NATO bombs would fall on the Russian territory. When the state of war in Ukraine will be over, Russia will take necessary steps to ensure that the new government of Ukraine volition swear neutrality, just as it was before Euromaidan. And I promise that this time people who will come up to power in Ukraine will realize how of import it is to be inclusive, tolerant, and democratic.

This is but a simple outline of the factors that led to the tragedy nosotros are witnessing now. I could get on about the West's interventions in Libya, Syria, Republic of iraq. Simply yous get the motion picture. Correct now, European countries, one after another, are sending weapons to Ukraine. They will not send troops. And the American war hawks will fight confronting Russia till the last Ukrainian. History has not taught them any lesson: Russians will fight till the end. Despite harsh economic sanctions, closure of air spaces, exclusion from sport events, despite whatever efforts to make Russia a pariah state. They will fight because no matter what we think, they consider Ukrainians their brothers.

And the enkindling will come to Ukraine. Right now, I tin but pray that information technology comes with minimal casualties and suffering. I am a Ukrainian, and it hurts. I am one-half-Russian as well, through my begetter. I accept never lived in Russia, but I grew up in the Soviet Union, reading great Ukrainian and Russian literature, learning past centre Ukrainian and Russian poesy. I love Russian people and Russian culture. And I know for certain that one twenty-four hour period, sooner than later, when canons autumn silent and the grit settles, Ukrainians and Russians volition become good neighbours again. And peace will reign on my native country. And Ukraine will get once again a country where all are treated every bit and respectfully, no matter the language, where the Soviet history is rehabilitated, where Ukrainians accept decent salaries and prosper on their own land and do hot have to exit to piece of work on strawberry fields in Poland or on construction sites in Italy, Greece, Kingdom of spain. To build such a prosperous country, Ukrainians need Russia's help, and practiced relations with the West. This is and so obvious to everyone with a mutual sense and sober thinking. One time the war is over, it will be up to Ukrainians to understand information technology and decide for themselves what country they want to build.

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Near: Halyna Mokrushyna, Ph.D., is an independent researcher and announcer. Her inquiry interests include the challenges of the post-Soviet transition in Ukraine; social and economic inequality in the post-Soviet context; historical and cultural divisions within Ukraine; social retentivity and politics of memory; relations betwixt Russia and Canada and the broader context of the post-cold state of war world and relations between the Due east and the West. Her articles on these subjects were published on Counterpunch, Truthdig, and Truthout websites.

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