Nationality is about how people nowadays think about the future.
The Minsk Agreement from 12 February 2014 was based entirely on the wrong basis and on hope from Ukraine for a peaceful future. The agreement was based on all foreign forces being out of Ukraine, and since Russia has and had denied that it had forces in Ukraine, the basis for peace was never present. The Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015 aimed to stop the acts of violence that arose in eastern Ukraine as a result of the aggression from Russia. The agreements came about under the leadership of the Organization for Co-operation and Security in Europe (OSCE).
Putin lied to the world and to his citizens. The lies to foreign countries were exposed, even though we in Norway pretended to accept the lies. We in "Support to the people of Ukraine" wrote an article in 2019 about "calling a spade a spade." This is because the perception, also in Norway, was that the war in eastern Ukraine was something that did not concern us. But the most modern Russian weapon systems and Russian tanks that were not sold abroad suddenly appeared in Ukraine. One of the most important weapon systems that came from Russia and were used by Russian soldiers in Ukraine was anti-aircraft batteries. These turned the war around in May and June 2014. Ukraine had to stop flying over Donbas and thus the Russians got the opportunity they had been waiting for. The Russian 53rd Air Defense Brigade with a Buk system was stationed south of the city of Snizhne in Donetsk. At the same time, Malaysia Airlines flight 17 flew over south-eastern Ukraine, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. The aircraft followed an approved route, at normal altitude, and was in regular contact with air traffic controllers - until an anti-aircraft missile destroyed it.
The Russian journalists who reported the truth about the Russian bombings put themselves in great danger. The Ukrainian soldiers were torn to shreds by fire from Russian Grad rocket launchers stationed in Russia. The Ukrainians did not hesitate to retaliate in the direction where the Russian soldiers, Russian volunteers, and their local allies had been hiding. - The bombing so far in Donetsk said the Russian colonel Igor Girkin, I am responsible for. (He is now one of those being investigated in connection with the downing of Airlines flight 17). The Russian journalist Natalja Telegina described the contrast between the TV adventure where heroic Russian soldiers defended the Russian-speaking civilian population: “But that reality exists only on the TV screen, not around us. All around us, there is only war, where both sides shoot and no one protects the civilian population.” This was also a fact, the Ukrainians defended their country against the Russian attacks, and Russia "defended the Russian-speaking" Ukrainians.
Even after the Minsk agreements and armistice were concluded, the Russian attacks continued. Detachments of the Russian military remained in Ukraine and trained the local population and participated in battles. Several Russian soldiers were killed and the names are known, including Ivan Kardopolov who was killed on 5 May 2015. A woman from his hometown stated: - I don't quite know, they say on TV that we are not at war, but the boys continue to come home dead.
Russian media was gagged and journalists killed and several Russian regime critics have been killed outside Russia, including in Great Britain. - Putin has made sure to close almost everything that exists of an independent, free press and has introduced strict internet censorship roughly in line with China, says Secretary-General Hege Newth to NRK in 2018. Relatives in Russia who thus received their son's home in coffins were required to silence and they would still have social security. Russia also won the information war in this phase.
Part of the cyber war from Russia did not make the big headlines in the West. Since late 2014, Russia has infiltrated the email network of the White House, the US State Department, and the Norwegian Parliament, to name a few. Even in this phase, the war in Ukraine was not taken seriously. Should Ukraine have become a member of NATO much earlier? The St.Petersburg branch of the Soldier's Mothers' Committee, which kept a list of all the Russians who died in the war, was declared a "foreign agent" by the Russian authorities. The manager, who was 73 years old and had diabetes, was arrested. Most journalists who reported on the Russian fallen were beaten up or arrested. Towards the end of 2014, journalists no longer covered the case - or rather, they could no longer write about the case. In the cases where Russian political leaders admitted that they were at war in eastern Ukraine, they explained that they were defending Russian-speaking residents. A census was carried out in 2001, which said that 17.3% were ethnically Russian, while in 2017 a census was also carried out and the result was 5.1%. Russia's invasion that began in 2014 made Ukrainians more united. Many of the citizens had then distanced themselves from the Russian attacks and this created greater unity in Ukraine.
We in "Support to the people of Ukraine" have written many letters and asked for a meeting with the Storting and government since 2017 to focus on the brutal war in Eastern Ukraine, without success and being taken seriously. We wrote in 2019 "Today, Putin is again trying to subjugate Ukraine".
The Russian propaganda that worked in 2014 is also being used in the brutal invasion on February 24 this year. Ukraine is a reactionary, gay, Nazi country that Russia needs to clean up. But on the contrary, this is a war between a terrified dictator clinging to power against a democracy. Ukraine gave up all nuclear weapons in 1994 in exchange for security guarantees from Russia. Putin has used and uses, that he will defend the Russian-speaking inhabitants of Ukraine. But the Ukrainian people have been bilingual, even President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was democratically elected in 2019 by 73% of the vote, spoke Russian and is Jewish. President Zelensky is from the city of Kryvyi Rih in eastern Ukraine. Those who voted for him hoped he would end the war. He was elected in a credible election in which the opponent was the incumbent President Poroshenko. Ukraine has worked hard in recent years for democracy and overcoming the corruption that was part of the legacy of the Soviet era.
Nationality is about how people nowadays think about the future. The dominant majority of Ukrainians consider themselves a national community with a common future. The idea that dictators from other countries can decide who is and isn't a nation is known in history as imperialism.
If we are to end this brutal war and stop the crimes against humanity, the democratic world must support democracy in Ukraine. Putin does not care about negotiations, but understands power. And power in this case is weapons and financial aid to Ukraine.
Some of those who can contribute to a peaceful solution to this devastating war are China and India, but they are partly silent "in the boat". Because they win this war anyway.
Source: Timothy Snyder
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