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 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 instance of war. They were congenital in the country in which Ukrainians and Russians were brotherly peoples, and the vast majority did not divide friends and family past ethnic origin.

At present Ukrainians are running to these bomb shelters considering Russian troops are advancing towards Kyiv, every bit I write this, and Russians are already in Kharkiv/Kharkov, and I run into videos of local people greeting Russian soldiers as liberators. I as well watch videos of a Russian soldier captured past Ukrainians. He is standing with his hands tied behind his dorsum and I hear a male voice ordering him to say: 'Glory to Ukraine'. He refuses and says instead: "Glory to Russia".

In i of his addresses to the Ukrainian nation, the former comedian turned president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to Vladimir Putin's words virtually 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, co-ordinate to the new law on languages, the Russian language was banned from schools, universities, public spaces. The Russian linguistic communication that is a female parent tongue for millions of Ukrainians. And information technology is under Zelensky's presidency that official ceremonies honoring the Nazi collaborator, nationalist leader Bandera were held throughout Ukraine.

Nigh Ukrainians voted for Zelensky in 2019 because he promised to end the war confronting Donbass and bring piece to Ukraine. The only manner to achieve this was through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, signed in February 2015 betwixt Ukraine and the pause-abroad republics of Donetsk and Lugansk after difficult and tense negotiations between the Chancellor of Federal republic of germany Angela Merkel, President of French republic 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' right to keep Russian every bit the official linguistic communication, to develop close economical ties with neighbouring Russian regions, to have their own judges and local forces of guild. The Minsk agreements were signed by the OSCE] Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, 2d President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, and the leaders of Donetsk People's Commonwealth Alexander Zakharchenko and the leader of the Lugansk People'southward Republic Igor Plotnitsky.

It was a compromise, and as any compromise, nobody was totally satisfied with information technology. Only 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 forestall the escalation of the conflict on the global level between the collective Westward and Russia. Withal Ukraine did not keep its function of the agreement. 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 post-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 pressure level on Kyiv. Naught just evasive promises and false assurances came from the high 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 take them in NATO, while knowing all besides well that these promises will never be kept. And it is the W who said nothing 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 Apr 2014 to crush the Russian leap in Donetsk and Lugansk

And now Ukrainians are paying with blood and death for their naivety and the lack of agreement of the fundamental geopolitical forces that shape the globe nosotros alive in. They wanted a better life and European salaries. Who can blame them? But 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 and so loudly and proudly were not embraced by all in Ukraine.

There is so much to say about the causes of this tragedy. But I will just add i comparing for my Canadian friends: Ukraine is the neighbour of one of the greatest political and military powers of the world, exactly as Canada has an elephant neighbour down south. And Canada almost e'er follows in the footsteps of the US when it comes to foreign policy and military actions abroad. The The states is also the biggest trade partner of Canada. Can you imagine all the repercussions if these ties were suddenly cut?

Everybody contributed to the eruption of the state of war in Ukraine. It volition probably end past the victory of Russian troops. From what I accept seen, they deploy all the efforts to spare civilians in Ukraine. Russians did non desire this war. Just the collective W, pb by Washington, cornered them. And they pushed back. For Russians, information technology is a defensive movement, their last stand before NATO bombs would fall on the Russian territory. When the war in Ukraine will be over, Russia will accept necessary steps to ensure that the new government of Ukraine volition swear neutrality, just as it was earlier Euromaidan. And I promise that this fourth dimension people who will come to power in Ukraine will realize how important it is to be inclusive, tolerant, and democratic.

This is only a unproblematic outline of the factors that led to the tragedy we are witnessing now. I could go along virtually the West's interventions in Libya, Syria, Iraq. Only y'all get the movie. Right now, European countries, one after another, are sending weapons to Ukraine. They will not send troops. And the American war hawks will fight against Russia till the last Ukrainian. History has non taught them any lesson: Russians will fight till the end. Despite harsh economic sanctions, closure of air spaces, exclusion from sport events, despite any efforts to brand Russia a pariah land. They will fight because no matter what we call back, they consider Ukrainians their brothers.

And the awakening will come up to Ukraine. Correct now, I can but pray that it comes with minimal casualties and suffering. I am a Ukrainian, and information technology hurts. I am one-half-Russian equally well, through my father. I take never lived in Russian federation, but I grew up in the Soviet Union, reading slap-up Ukrainian and Russian literature, learning by heart Ukrainian and Russian poetry. I love Russian people and Russian culture. And I know for certain that i day, sooner than subsequently, when canons fall silent and the grit settles, Ukrainians and Russians will become practiced 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 own state and do hot have to leave to work on strawberry fields in Poland or on construction sites in Italia, Greece, Kingdom of spain. To build such a prosperous state, Ukrainians need Russian federation'southward help, and adept relations with the West. This is so obvious to everyone with a common sense and sober thinking. Once the state of war is over, it will be up to Ukrainians to understand it and make up one's mind for themselves what state they want to build.

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About: Halyna Mokrushyna, Ph.D., is an contained researcher and journalist. Her enquiry 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 memory and politics of memory; relations between Russia and Canada and the broader context of the mail service-cold war earth and relations between the 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, nosotros practice try 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.