Ukrainians shelter

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

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

Past Halyna Mokrushyna

I run across pictures of my beau 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 built in the country in which Ukrainians and Russians were brotherly peoples, and the vast bulk did not carve up friends and family unit past 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 equally liberators. I besides watch videos of a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainians. He is continuing with his hands tied behind his back and I hear a male person voice ordering him to say: 'Glory to Ukraine'. He refuses and says instead: "Glory to Russia".

In 1 of his addresses to the Ukrainian nation, the quondam comedian turned president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to Vladimir Putin's words about the pro-Nazi power holders in Ukraine, said that in that location are no Nazis in Ukraine. Zelensky said that he himself is a g son of a Soviet soldier who saved the world from Nazis. And he said this in Russian.

However information technology is under his presidency that Ukraine became a monolingual country 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 information technology is nether 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 war against Donbass and bring piece to Ukraine. The only way to achieve this was through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, signed in February 2015 between Ukraine and the intermission-away republics of Donetsk and Lugansk later difficult and tense negotiations betwixt the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, President of France François Hollande, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Substantially, these agreements provided for an autonomous status of Donbass within Ukraine, with Donbass' correct to keep Russian as the official language, to develop shut economic ties with neighbouring Russian regions, to have their own judges and local forces of order. The Minsk agreements were signed by the OSCE] Administrator Heidi Tagliavini, second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, the Ambassador of the Russia to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, and the leaders of Donetsk People's Democracy 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 route map to stop the civil state of war in Ukraine, where the fighting sides were supported past the West, on one side, and past Russian federation, on the other, to forestall the escalation of the disharmonize on the global level between the collective West and Russia. Still Ukraine did not keep its part of the agreement. Year afterwards year, Russia has been waiting on Ukraine watching how Ukrainian regular 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 language.

Moscow has appealed many times to Paris and Berlin to put pressure on Kyiv. Nothing but 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 same false promises to welcome them in the European Union, to take them in NATO, while knowing all also well that these promises volition never be kept. And it is the West 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 April 2014 to vanquish 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 world we live in. They wanted a improve life and European salaries. Who can blame them? Merely the road to that life leads through pluralism, tolerance, respect for law and the opinions of others. And all these autonomous values that the West proclaims so loudly and proudly were not embraced by all in Ukraine.

There is so much to say nearly the causes of this tragedy. But I will merely add one comparison for my Canadian friends: Ukraine is the neighbour of one of the greatest political and armed forces powers of the world, exactly as Canada has an elephant neighbour downwardly south. And Canada almost e'er follows in the footsteps of the US when it comes to strange policy and war machine actions abroad. The US is also the biggest merchandise partner of Canada. Can you imagine all the repercussions if these ties were of a sudden cut?

Everybody contributed to the eruption of the war in Ukraine. It volition 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 West, lead by Washington, cornered them. And they pushed dorsum. For Russians, it is a defensive move, their last stand earlier NATO bombs would fall on the Russian territory. When the war in Ukraine volition exist over, Russia will take necessary steps to ensure that the new government of Ukraine volition swear neutrality, only as it was before Euromaidan. And I hope that this time people who will come up 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 get on almost the West'south interventions in Libya, Syria, Republic of iraq. Merely you get the motion picture. Correct now, European countries, i subsequently another, are sending weapons to Ukraine. They volition non transport troops. And the American war hawks will fight against Russian federation till the terminal 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 whatsoever efforts to make Russia a pariah land. They will fight considering no matter what we recollect, they consider Ukrainians their brothers.

And the awakening will come up to Ukraine. Correct at present, I tin can only pray that information technology comes with minimal casualties and suffering. I am a Ukrainian, and it hurts. I am half-Russian likewise, through my begetter. I have never lived in Russia, but I grew up in the Soviet Wedlock, reading great Ukrainian and Russian literature, learning by centre Ukrainian and Russian poetry. I honey Russian people and Russian culture. And I know for certain that i 24-hour interval, sooner than later, when canons fall silent and the dust settles, Ukrainians and Russians will get good neighbours once more. And peace volition reign on my native country. And Ukraine volition become once again a country where all are treated equally and respectfully, no matter the linguistic communication, where the Soviet history is rehabilitated, where Ukrainians take decent salaries and prosper on their own land and do hot have to leave to work on strawberry fields in Poland or on construction sites in Italy, Hellenic republic, Spain. To build such a prosperous country, Ukrainians need Russia'southward help, and adept relations with the West. This is and so obvious to anybody with a common sense and sober thinking. Once the war is over, it volition exist upward to Ukrainians to empathize information technology and make up one's mind for themselves what country they want to build.

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Well-nigh: Halyna Mokrushyna, Ph.D., is an independent researcher and journalist. 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 within Ukraine; social memory and politics of memory; relations between Russia and Canada and the broader context of the post-cold war globe and relations between the East and the West. Her manufactures on these subjects were published on Counterpunch, Truthdig, and Truthout websites.

Editors' Note: While nosotros don't necessarily share the views nosotros publish on New Common cold State of war, nosotros practice try to provide readers with a range of views. This is because your correct to make your own mind upward depends on your being fully informed.