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 earliest 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 wearing apparel. These subway stations were built every bit 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 unit 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 meet videos of local people greeting Russian soldiers as liberators. I as well watch videos of a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainians. He is continuing with his hands tied behind his back and I hear a male voice ordering him to say: 'Glory 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 well-nigh 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 country when, according to the new police on languages, the Russian linguistic communication was banned from schools, universities, public spaces. The Russian language that is a female parent 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.

About Ukrainians voted for Zelensky in 2019 because he promised to cease the war against Donbass and bring slice to Ukraine. The but way to reach this was through the implementation of the Minsk agreements, signed in February 2015 between Ukraine and the break-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 democratic status of Donbass inside Ukraine, with Donbass' correct to continue Russian as the official language, to develop shut economical ties with neighbouring Russian regions, to accept their own judges and local forces of club. The Minsk agreements were signed by the OSCE] Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, the Administrator of the Russian federation to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, and the leaders of Donetsk People'south Republic Alexander Zakharchenko and the leader of the Lugansk People's Republic Igor Plotnitsky.

It was a compromise, and equally 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 1 side, and past Russia, on the other, to prevent 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. Twelvemonth afterwards 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 force per unit area on Kyiv. Nothing but evasive promises and simulated assurances came from the high offices in Europe and Washington.

And yet the West ignited the flame in Ukraine past giving Ukrainians the same false promises to welcome them in the European Spousal relationship, to accept them in NATO, while knowing all as well well that these promises will 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 beat the Russian spring in Donetsk and Lugansk

And now Ukrainians are paying with blood and expiry for their naivety and the lack of understanding of the fundamental geopolitical forces that shape the earth we alive in. They wanted a meliorate life and European salaries. Who tin can blame them? Merely the route to that life leads through pluralism, tolerance, respect for police force and the opinions of others. And all these autonomous values that the West proclaims so loudly and proudly were non embraced by all in Ukraine.

There is so much to say about the causes of this tragedy. Merely I will just add together one comparison for my Canadian friends: Ukraine is the neighbour of one of the greatest political and armed services 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 it comes to strange policy and military actions abroad. The The states is also the biggest trade partner of Canada. Tin can you lot imagine all the repercussions if these ties were suddenly cutting?

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

This is but a uncomplicated outline of the factors that led to the tragedy we are witnessing at present. I could go on most the West's interventions in Libya, Syria, Iraq. But you get the picture. Right at present, European countries, one afterwards another, are sending weapons to Ukraine. They will non send troops. And the American state of war hawks will fight against Russia till the last Ukrainian. History has not taught them whatever 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 state. They volition fight because no matter what nosotros call back, they consider Ukrainians their brothers.

And the awakening will come to Ukraine. Correct now, I can only pray that it comes with minimal casualties and suffering. I am a Ukrainian, and it hurts. I am half-Russian equally well, through my begetter. I accept never lived in Russia, but I grew up in the Soviet Union, reading keen Ukrainian and Russian literature, learning by heart Ukrainian and Russian poesy. I love Russian people and Russian civilisation. And I know for certain that one day, sooner than later on, when canons autumn silent and the dust settles, Ukrainians and Russians will become good neighbours again. And peace will reign on my native country. And Ukraine volition go 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 practise hot take to go out to piece of work on strawberry fields in Poland or on construction sites in Italy, Greece, Spain. To build such a prosperous country, Ukrainians need Russia's assistance, and practiced relations with the West. This is and so obvious to anybody with a common sense and sober thinking. Once the war is over, it will be up to Ukrainians to empathize it and decide for themselves what land they want to build.

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About: Halyna Mokrushyna, Ph.D., is an independent researcher and journalist. Her research interests include the challenges of the postal service-Soviet transition in Ukraine; social and economical inequality in the post-Soviet context; historical and cultural divisions inside Ukraine; social memory and politics of retentivity; relations between Russia and Canada and the broader context of the post-cold state of war world and relations between the East and the West. Her manufactures 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 State of war, we do try to provide readers with a range of views. This is because your right to brand your own mind up depends on your being fully informed.