In some Western media and among some politicians, pundits, religious leaders, cultural figures and et al. there have been frequent calls to settle Russia’s war on Ukraine through some sort of “reconciliation” between Moscow and Kyiv — between the aggressor and the victim. Because, as their argument goes, this is merely “Putin’s war” rather than Russia’s war.
A historical truism about Russia: Russian leaders do not make Russia; Russia “makes” its leaders. Vladimir Putin did not “make” Russia, and the war on Ukraine is not just “Putin’s war”. Russia “made” Putin as its leader, and the war is Russia’s war on Ukraine fought by Russia’s current leader, Vladimir Putin, and his gang. This pattern of Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine has been the same for centuries — being it under Putin, Stalin, Lenin, or tsars Catherine II, Peter I, Alexei, etc.
To refute this truism, the Russian people should:
- Overthrow the current Kremlin gang of criminals, namely Vladimir Putin, Sergei Lavrov, the “patriarch” of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill and all their enablers right down the line and stop this unprovoked war against Ukraine;
- Withdraw its troops from Ukraine;
- Return Crimea and the Donbas region to Ukraine;
- Pay reparations to Ukrainian victims of this war — including the millions of displaced persons and refugees;
- Return to Ukraine all Ukrainians (adults and children) who have been kidnapped and/or forcefully removed from the occupied regions of Ukraine and taken to Russia, with the aim to depopulate Ukraine and “cancel” the Ukrainian people;
- Repatriate to Ukraine all of its cultural treasures, infrastructure and equipment, as well as personal belongings that have been LOOTED by Russian troops (and Kremlin-imposed “civilian administrators”) from museums, industrial enterprises, medical facilities, private homes, etc. in Ukraine’s regions directly victimized by the invader;
- Pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine’s devastated infrastructure and people’s lost property;
- Take Vladimir Putin and his gang of enablers to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity before an International Criminal Tribunal (analogous to the Nuremberg Tribunal after World War II, or the tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia);
- Enforce the condition that any new Russian government must officially apologize for Russia’s present and past aggressions against Ukraine.
Should such preconditions — at this stage of affairs, merely wishful thinking — come to pass in the future, then a process of meaningful reconciliation with a more civilized Russian government can begin between Ukraine and Russia.
Before that, however, Ukraine’s only option is to steadfastly, and with finality, prevail on the battlefield in this Russia’s war of aggression on the UKRAINIAN people.
May 16, 2023 Oleh Romanyshyn
