Ukrainians shelter

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

Nosotros, the NCW editorial team, welcome back Halyna, who, as 1 of the earliest contributors to NCW, returns to share her thoughts and insights on current events in Ukraine.

By Halyna Mokrushyna

I encounter pictures of my fellow Ukrainians sleeping in subway stations in Kyiv and Kharkiv, with their kids, pets, blankets, warm clothes. These subway stations were congenital as bomb shelters during Soviet times, to protect civilians in case of war. They were congenital in the country in which Ukrainians and Russians were brotherly peoples, and the vast majority did non divide friends and family past indigenous origin.

Now Ukrainians are running to these flop shelters considering 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 also picket videos of a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainians. He is continuing with his hands tied behind his back and I hear a male vox ordering him to say: 'Glory to Ukraine'. He refuses and says instead: "Celebrity 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's words near 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 globe from Nazis. And he said this in Russian.

Even so it 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 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.

Nigh Ukrainians voted for Zelensky in 2019 because he promised to end the state of 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 break-away republics of Donetsk and Lugansk later difficult and tense negotiations between 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' right to keep Russian as the official linguistic communication, to develop close economic ties with neighbouring Russian regions, to have their own judges and local forces of order. 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 Democracy Alexander Zakharchenko and the leader of the Lugansk People's Democracy Igor Plotnitsky.

Information technology was a compromise, and equally any compromise, nobody was totally satisfied with it. But these agreements were a road map to end the ceremonious war in Ukraine, where the fighting sides were supported by the West, on 1 side, and past Russia, on the other, to foreclose 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 afterwards twelvemonth, Russian federation has been waiting on Ukraine watching how Ukrainian ground forces 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 linguistic communication.

Moscow has appealed many times to Paris and Berlin to put pressure on Kyiv. Nil simply evasive promises and simulated assurances came from the loftier offices in Europe and Washington.

And nonetheless the West ignited the flame in Ukraine by giving Ukrainians the same false promises to welcome them in the European Spousal relationship, to accept them in NATO, while knowing all besides well that these promises will never be kept. And it is the West 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 beat out the Russian spring in Donetsk and Lugansk

And now Ukrainians are paying with claret and death for their naivety and the lack of agreement of the fundamental geopolitical forces that shape the world we alive in. They wanted a better 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 democratic values that the Westward proclaims so loudly and proudly were not embraced by all in Ukraine.

There is and so much to say about the causes of this tragedy. But I will simply add together one comparison for my Canadian friends: Ukraine is the neighbour of 1 of the greatest political and military powers of the world, exactly as Canada has an elephant neighbour downwards south. And Canada near always follows in the footsteps of the US when it comes to foreign policy and war machine actions away. The US is likewise the biggest trade 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. Information technology will 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 state of war. But the collective West, lead by Washington, cornered them. And they pushed back. For Russians, it is a defensive move, their last stand earlier NATO bombs would autumn on the Russian territory. When the war in Ukraine volition be over, Russia will take necessary steps to ensure that the new regime of Ukraine volition swear neutrality, simply as it was before Euromaidan. And I hope that this time people who will come up to power in Ukraine will realize how of import information technology is to be inclusive, tolerant, and democratic.

This is but a unproblematic outline of the factors that led to the tragedy we are witnessing now. I could keep well-nigh the West's interventions in Great socialist people's libyan arab jamahiriya, Syria, Iraq. But you get the flick. Right now, European countries, one after some other, are sending weapons to Ukraine. They volition not transport troops. And the American war hawks will fight confronting Russian federation till the last Ukrainian. History has not taught them any lesson: Russians volition fight till the end. Despite harsh economic sanctions, closure of air spaces, exclusion from sport events, despite any efforts to brand Russia a pariah state. They will fight because no matter what we think, they consider Ukrainians their brothers.

And the awakening will come to Ukraine. Correct at present, I can only pray that it comes with minimal casualties and suffering. I am a Ukrainian, and information technology hurts. I am one-half-Russian as well, through my father. I accept never lived in Russia, but I grew up in the Soviet Union, reading great Ukrainian and Russian literature, learning past middle Ukrainian and Russian verse. I love 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 skilful neighbours again. And peace will reign on my native land. And Ukraine will become once again a country where all are treated equally and respectfully, no affair the language, where the Soviet history is rehabilitated, where Ukrainians have decent salaries and prosper on their own state and practice 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 aid, and good relations with the West. This is so obvious to everyone with a common sense and sober thinking. Once the war is over, it volition exist up to Ukrainians to understand it and make up one's mind for themselves what land they want to build.

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About: 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 post-Soviet context; historical and cultural divisions within Ukraine; social memory and politics of retentivity; relations betwixt Russia and Canada and the broader context of the post-cold war earth and relations between the E and the Westward. Her articles on these subjects were published on Counterpunch, Truthdig, and Truthout websites.

Editors' Note: While we don't necessarily share the views nosotros publish on New Cold War, nosotros do attempt to provide readers with a range of views. This is considering your correct to brand your own listen upward depends on your being fully informed.