Submitted by Alex Atamanenko
I am not handling this war very well. Not a day goes by when I do not reflect on the needless suffering of the Ukrainian people during this brutal Russian invasion. As I write these lines, another apartment building has been struck increasing the number of civilian casualties.
In part it is difficult for me since my mother was born in Russia and my father in Ukraine. During my numerous visits I have been able to visit the village where my father was born, spend time in the countryside with relatives as well as in the cities of Odesa, Kyiv and Lviv where I have walked the streets that are currently being bombed.
Although Crimea was occupied and war was ravaging the Donbas during my last visit to Ukraine in 2018, one could see that the people were doing their very best to cope as life went on. However, memorials to the fallen and young soldiers leaving for the front served as constant reminders of the sacrifices being made in the defence of this fledgling democracy.
Although we are used to seeing conflicts in other parts of the world and feel for those suffering, this one for me is personal. I find it is much easier to identify with the suffering of people if you have roots in the country and have spent time there.
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As do many Canadians I try to inform myself through credible news sources and believe I have a good understanding of what is taking place on the ground. Then, of course, the question continues to linger — why? Why did Putin decide to launch a full scale invasion?
There are those who state that this is because of a US/NATO proxy war against Russia. According to them, we should disband NATO and cease providing Ukraine with weapons. Others call this a civil war and believe the only outcome can be through negotiations where Ukraine permanently gives up part of its sovereign territory to Russia.
In these discussions it often appears that the will of the Ukrainian people themselves is discounted, as if somehow Zelenskyy and his government are pawns of the west. However, let us not forget that he was elected with 70 per cent of the popular vote and that his party commands a majority in parliament.
The question of Russia and NATO is a complex one, and to be honest, prior to the 2014 invasion, I was starting to question the rationale for maintaining this military alliance. The fact is that in 1994, according to the Budapest memorandum, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons to Russia in return for a guarantee by Russia, the US and the UK that its sovereignty would be respected and borders not violated. As we can see, none of the signing super powers carried out their commitment. Russia invaded while the US and UK watched.
I am not a military strategist but I would think that if Russia really felt threatened by NATO, all it would have to do is to reposition a few missiles on the borders of NATO countries and then negotiate for a de-escalation on both sides. One, of course, wonders if Russia would have invaded Ukraine at all if it had been part of NATO.
Unfortunately, the reasons for this conflict are much deeper. Since Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, Russia has followed and influenced political developments there very closely. Putin put pressure on President Yanukovich in 2014 to retreat from signing the European Union Association Agreement which subsequently led to the Maidan people’s uprising and Russia’s invasion of the Donbas and Crimea.
Prior to this time Russia had been active in destabilising these and other regions of Ukraine by training terrorists and financing the separatist movement. This almost appears to be taken from the US playbook in Latin America where we have witnessed democratically elected governments destabilised or replaced by US trained paramilitaries and puppets.
In attempting to determine the real reason for this conflict one only has to look at Putin’s essay of July 2021 entitled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” Basically, he and many other Russians do not recognize Ukraine as a nation and are unwilling to accept that the majority of Ukrainians want to be part of Europe and not under Russian domination.
Others such as Dmitry Medvedev dismiss Ukrainians as non-entities. In April of 2022 one of Putin’s propagandists, Timofey Sergeytsev, published an article entitled “What Should Russia do with Ukraine?.” According to him, anyone fighting against Russia’s invasion is a Nazi and should be destroyed. The passive masses, the so-called accomplices of Nazis, are also guilty. He goes on to say that Nazism is often disguised as a desire for independence and to seek a western path of development.
I could go on and on listing more absurdities but it appears that a significant number of Russians do not respect the Ukrainians’ desire to chart their own course for the future, free of any interference. From what I have been able to ascertain, this is the main cause of the war.
This brings me to ask what can be done to end this senseless conflict. Are the Ukrainian people prepared to negotiate the end of the conflict knowing that part of their country will be lost? So far we have seen that those areas under Russian control have seen extreme brutality such as summary executions, rape, looting, mining of fields and roads, filtration camps to root out Ukrainian patriots and the forced deportation to Russia of Ukrainian citizens, many of them children. Would Zelenskyy be willing to undergo negotiations knowing that this fate awaits some citizens of his country?
Personally, at this point in time the only way I see for the Ukrainian nation to survive is to win this war. This, of course, means continuing support from the west with sophisticated military equipment to finally stop the missile and drone strikes that are terrorizing the population.
As someone who has been involved in the peace movement over the years this is not an easy statement for me to make. I do not see any other way out. If we stop providing assistance, Ukraine will cease to exist as a free and democratic nation.
It is interesting to note that this conflict has solidified the Ukrainian people. Russian and Ukrainian speakers are fighting side by side against the aggressor. Whereas, in 2013 roughly 80 per cent of Ukrainians looked favourably on Russia, now it is around two per cent.
In striving for his “Russian world” Putin has created enemies, forced NATO to beef up its forces and alienated much of the world community. What a total waste of human lives including the 100,000 or so Russian soldiers that have been killed or wounded in this conflict since the February invasion.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, I have found this war very difficult to comprehend. Is there a possible way that 2023 will see an end to this brutal conflict and at the same time guarantee that the Ukrainian people will be able to chart their own course in history? Only time will tell.
Alex Atamanenko is a long-time West Kootenay resident and former Member of Parliament. He has roots in both Russia and Ukraine.
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