Ukrainians shelter

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

We, the NCW editorial team, welcome back Halyna, who, as i 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 boyfriend 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 example of war. They were built in the country in which Ukrainians and Russians were brotherly peoples, and the vast bulk did not divide friends and family by ethnic 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 as liberators. I also watch videos of a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainians. He is continuing with his hands tied backside his back and I hear a male person vocalisation ordering him to say: 'Glory to Ukraine'. He refuses and says instead: "Glory to Russian federation".

In one of his addresses to the Ukrainian nation, the former comedian turned president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to Vladimir Putin'south words virtually the pro-Nazi power holders in Ukraine, said that there 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 law on languages, the Russian language was banned from schools, universities, public spaces. The Russian language that is a mother natural language for millions of Ukrainians. And it is under Zelensky'southward presidency that official ceremonies honoring the Nazi collaborator, nationalist leader Bandera were held throughout Ukraine.

Most Ukrainians voted for Zelensky in 2019 because he promised to end the state of war against Donbass and bring piece to Ukraine. The just manner to accomplish this was through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, signed in February 2015 betwixt Ukraine and the break-away republics of Donetsk and Lugansk after difficult and tense negotiations between the Chancellor of Deutschland 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 inside Ukraine, with Donbass' right to continue Russian as the official language, to develop shut economical ties with neighbouring Russian regions, to take their own judges and local forces of guild. The Minsk agreements were signed by the OSCE] Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, 2nd President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, the Ambassador of the Russia to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, and the leaders of Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Zakharchenko and the leader of the Lugansk People's Republic Igor Plotnitsky.

It was a compromise, and as any compromise, nobody was totally satisfied with it. Merely these agreements were a road map to end the civil war in Ukraine, where the fighting sides were supported by the West, on ane side, and by Russia, on the other, to forestall the escalation of the conflict on the global level between the collective West and Russia. Yet Ukraine did not proceed 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 post-Euromaidan government was adopting laws glorifying Nazi collaborators, condemning the Soviet by and Soviet achievements, banning the Russian language.

Moscow has appealed many times to Paris and Berlin to put pressure on Kyiv. Nothing merely evasive promises and imitation assurances came from the loftier offices in Europe and Washington.

And yet the West ignited the flame in Ukraine by giving Ukrainians the aforementioned simulated promises to welcome them in the European Spousal relationship, to take them in NATO, while knowing all too well that these promises will never exist kept. And it is the W 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 spring in Donetsk and Lugansk

And at present Ukrainians are paying with blood and death for their naivety and the lack of understanding of the primal geopolitical forces that shape the globe nosotros alive in. They wanted a meliorate life and European salaries. Who can blame them? Just the route to that life leads through pluralism, tolerance, respect for law and the opinions of others. And all these autonomous values that the W proclaims so loudly and proudly were not embraced by all in Ukraine.

There is so much to say most the causes of this tragedy. Merely I will but add together 1 comparison for my Canadian friends: Ukraine is the neighbour of one of the greatest political and war machine powers of the globe, exactly equally Canada has an elephant neighbor down south. And Canada almost always follows in the footsteps of the U.s. when it comes to foreign policy and military actions abroad. The US is also the biggest merchandise partner of Canada. Can you imagine all the repercussions if these ties were suddenly cut?

Everybody contributed to the eruption of the war in Ukraine. It will probably stop past the victory of Russian troops. From what I accept seen, they deploy all the efforts to spare civilians in Ukraine. Russians did not want this war. But the collective Westward, pb by Washington, cornered them. And they pushed back. For Russians, it is a defensive move, their last stand before NATO bombs would autumn on the Russian territory. When the war in Ukraine will exist over, Russia will take necessary steps to ensure that the new government of Ukraine volition swear neutrality, just every bit it was earlier Euromaidan. And I hope that this time people who volition come up to ability in Ukraine will realize how important it is to exist inclusive, tolerant, and democratic.

This is only a simple outline of the factors that led to the tragedy nosotros are witnessing now. I could go on about the West'south interventions in Libya, Syrian arab republic, Iraq. But you get the picture. Right now, European countries, ane subsequently another, are sending weapons to Ukraine. They will not send troops. And the American war hawks volition fight confronting Russia till the concluding Ukrainian. History has non taught them whatever lesson: Russians will fight till the stop. Despite harsh economical sanctions, closure of air spaces, exclusion from sport events, despite any efforts to make Russia a pariah state. They will fight considering no affair what we think, they consider Ukrainians their brothers.

And the awakening will come up to Ukraine. Right now, I can merely pray that it comes with minimal casualties and suffering. I am a Ukrainian, and information technology hurts. I am half-Russian as well, through my father. I have never lived in Russia, simply I grew up in the Soviet Union, reading swell Ukrainian and Russian literature, learning by middle Ukrainian and Russian poetry. I love Russian people and Russian culture. And I know for sure that one day, sooner than later, when canons fall silent and the dust settles, Ukrainians and Russians will get expert neighbours again. And peace will reign on my native country. And Ukraine will become again a country where all are treated equally and respectfully, no matter the linguistic communication, where the Soviet history is rehabilitated, where Ukrainians have decent salaries and prosper on their own state and do hot have to exit to work on strawberry fields in Poland or on construction sites in Italy, Greece, Spain. To build such a prosperous country, Ukrainians need Russia'due south help, and practiced relations with the West. This is so obvious to anybody with a mutual sense and sober thinking. Once the war is over, it volition be up to Ukrainians to understand information technology and decide for themselves what country they want to build.

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Most: Halyna Mokrushyna, Ph.D., is an contained researcher and journalist. Her research interests include the challenges of the post-Soviet transition in Ukraine; social and economical inequality in the postal service-Soviet context; historical and cultural divisions within Ukraine; social memory and politics of memory; relations between Russia and Canada and the broader context of the mail-cold war world and relations between the East and the Westward. Her articles on these subjects were published on Counterpunch, Truthdig, and Truthout websites.

Editors' Note: While nosotros don't necessarily share the views we publish on New Cold State of war, we practise attempt to provide readers with a range of views. This is because your right to brand your ain mind upwards depends on your existence fully informed.