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 electric 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 dress. These subway stations were congenital equally bomb shelters during Soviet times, to protect civilians in case of state of war. They were built in the land in which Ukrainians and Russians were brotherly peoples, and the vast bulk did not divide friends and family 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 run into videos of local people greeting Russian soldiers every bit liberators. I also sentry videos of a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainians. He is standing with his hands tied backside his back and I hear a male vocalization ordering him to say: 'Celebrity to Ukraine'. He refuses and says instead: "Glory to Russian federation".

In ane of his addresses to the Ukrainian nation, the former comedian turned president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, responding to Vladimir Putin'south words about 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.

However it is nether his presidency that Ukraine became a monolingual country when, co-ordinate to the new law 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 end the war against Donbass and bring piece to Ukraine. The just way to attain this was through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, signed in Feb 2015 betwixt Ukraine and the interruption-away republics of Donetsk and Lugansk later hard and tense negotiations between the Chancellor 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' correct to proceed Russian as the official language, to develop shut economic ties with neighbouring Russian regions, to have their ain judges and local forces of guild. The Minsk agreements were signed by the OSCE] Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, 2nd President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, the Administrator 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'due south Republic Igor Plotnitsky.

Information technology was a compromise, and as any compromise, nobody was totally satisfied with it. But these agreements were a route map to finish the civil war in Ukraine, where the fighting sides were supported by the West, on i side, and past Russia, on the other, to forbid the escalation of the conflict on the global level between the collective West and Russian federation. Yet Ukraine did not keep 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 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 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 take them in NATO, while knowing all too well that these promises volition never be kept. And it is the Due west who said cypher 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 now Ukrainians are paying with claret and death for their naivety and the lack of understanding of the cardinal geopolitical forces that shape the earth nosotros live in. They wanted a ameliorate life and European salaries. Who can blame them? But 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 W proclaims and so loudly and proudly were not embraced by all in Ukraine.

In that location is and then much to say nearly the causes of this tragedy. Simply I will but add i comparison for my Canadian friends: Ukraine is the neighbor of 1 of the greatest political and military powers of the earth, exactly equally Canada has an elephant neighbor downward south. And Canada almost always follows in the footsteps of the US when information technology comes to foreign policy and military actions abroad. The Usa is also the biggest merchandise partner of Canada. Tin can yous imagine all the repercussions if these ties were suddenly cut?

Everybody contributed to the eruption of the war in Ukraine. It will probably end past the victory of Russian troops. From what I take seen, they deploy all the efforts to spare civilians in Ukraine. Russians did not want this state of war. Only the collective Due west, lead past Washington, cornered them. And they pushed back. For Russians, it is a defensive move, their last stand before NATO bombs would fall on the Russian territory. When the war in Ukraine will be over, Russian federation will take necessary steps to ensure that the new authorities of Ukraine will swear neutrality, just every bit it was before Euromaidan. And I hope that this time people who will come to ability in Ukraine will realize how important it is to be inclusive, tolerant, and democratic.

This is but a uncomplicated outline of the factors that led to the tragedy we are witnessing at present. I could get on about the West's interventions in Libya, Syria, Republic of iraq. Simply yous get the picture. Right now, European countries, ane after some other, are sending weapons to Ukraine. They will non send troops. And the American state of war hawks volition fight against Russia 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 volition fight because no matter what we think, they consider Ukrainians their brothers.

And the awakening will come to Ukraine. Right at present, I tin can simply pray that it comes with minimal casualties and suffering. I am a Ukrainian, and information technology hurts. I am half-Russian also, through my father. I accept never lived in Russia, merely I grew up in the Soviet Union, reading nifty Ukrainian and Russian literature, learning by centre Ukrainian and Russian poetry. I honey Russian people and Russian culture. And I know for certain that one day, sooner than later, when canons fall silent and the dust settles, Ukrainians and Russians will become expert neighbours again. And peace will 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 take decent salaries and prosper on their own land and practise hot have to leave to work on strawberry fields in Poland or on construction sites in Italy, Greece, Spain. To build such a prosperous country, Ukrainians need Russia's help, and skillful relations with the Due west. This is then obvious to everyone with a mutual sense and sober thinking. In one case the state of war is over, information technology volition exist up to Ukrainians to empathize it and determine for themselves what country they desire to build.

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Near: Halyna Mokrushyna, Ph.D., is an independent researcher and journalist. Her inquiry interests include the challenges of the post-Soviet transition in Ukraine; social and economic inequality in the postal service-Soviet context; historical and cultural divisions inside Ukraine; social retention and politics of memory; relations between Russian federation and Canada and the broader context of the post-common cold war world and relations betwixt the East and the Westward. Her articles on these subjects were published on Counterpunch, Truthdig, and Truthout websites.

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