Ihor Zhdanov, Information Defence Project, The Open Policy Foundation

 

 

 

I am Vinnytsia.

I am Mariupol.

I am Chasiv Yar.

I am Ukraine.

You are Kremenchuk.

You are Odesa.

You are Popasna.

You are Ukraine.

We are all together - Ukraine.

 

It is very difficult to write analytical materials when rockets strike the city of your childhood. When dozens of civilians die… and the children go to the heavens.

On July 14th, three russian missiles flew into the center of Vinnytsia. 23 people were killed, including three children.

I am from Vinnytsia. In this war, for me, Vinnytsia became the last line of defence against the rushists.

The maternity hospital where I was born is 300 meters from the Officers' House. My kindergarten is 100 meters away, on the opposite side of the Victory Square. And my native school is 500 meters away. Ironically, in the distant peaceful year of 1989, I did my wedding hairstyle in the men's salon, Yuvileinyi, in the subsidized store.

My elderly parents, God bless them, are alive, although they were at the scene of the tragedy only an hour before the impact.

That's why I don't want analytics, but I want to say everything you think about these underdogs, bastards and chumps.

I don't want to listen to the respected author of the article, who is probably right: obscene vocabulary is inherent in the russian language, and there are no obscene words in the Ukrainian language, there never were and there cannot be.

I agree with him. Theoretically.

But not in our reality, in which, on the contrary, you want to openly say that you think about the racist nonsense, using a big boatman's death. Do you want me to tell you about the russian bitches and scumbags who systematically destroy Ukraine and its people? Everything destroyed to the last person, because, in their opinion, we do not have the right to exist.

What is this, if not fascism?

That's why I don't want to listen to Oleksii Arestovych, who urges against posting videos of the torture of rushist prisoners of the war. In contravention of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, it destroys the image of Ukraine among its partners.

I agree with him. Theoretically.

However, it is simply impossible to put this argument to our soldiers who had lost their loved ones in the rear, or comrades who have been murdered by the rushists. Absolutely - after Bucha, Borodianka, Mariupol, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv.

Practically impossible - after 144 days of torture.

War embitters people, dehumanizes them. And when you are asked about torture cases, ask the Americans, British, Germans and other Europeans about Oradur, Treblinka, Khatyn, Sonmi, Hamburg and Leipzig.

This is not an excuse, but the truth we live by now. Unfortunately.

I don't want to listen to German intellectuals who call the defence of Ukraine a further escalation of military operations. And that is why they categorically oppose giving us weapons. Instead, these pseudo-intellectuals tell us how to trade our own country.

Please, gentlemen, all Germany is yours - give to the bastard putin Saxony, Bavaria or the Rhine. Everything is in your hands.

We do not trade our own country. We do not need to cover the sky with the hands of our partners. Just give us weapons, and we will do everything, so that not a single fascist flies over Ukraine. We ourselves will protect our sky.

We have to win the war. The price may be high, but the price will be even greater if we lose the war. Then the price will be measured not by human life, but by the life and existence of an entire nation – Ukraine.

The question is very simple - either us or them. And it was not us, Ukrainians, but the rushists who put it that way.

Yes, you can make another decision: go abroad and forget about the existence of Ukraine, betray it in the end.

And you can go abroad and, at the same time, help your native country - with taxes, volunteer help, remote work and informational pressure on our partners. Staying here and fighting bravely at the front, killing the rushists, because the only good rushist is a dead rushist. After all, we did not invite them to Ukraine.

You can work hard in the rear, tightening the straps. We need a strong and powerful Army, and it is expensive. But remember: whoever does not want to feed his own army, will feed someone else's.

We need modern Ukrainian weapons, but not only the weapons of our partners: Neptunes, Stuhny, Alders and other weapons. We are able to make them. We have brains, but we need political will and, again, money, or rather taxpayers' money.

Therefore, we will not behave as beggars who turn to partners with an outstretched hand.

After Bucha, in April, I asked how many Ukrainians needed to be killed so that you hear us? But I will no longer ask this question. Our partners do not have a fully adequate answer to it. The world is pragmatic and cynical, it only hears what it wants to hear. And, as a rule, each nation hears its own citizens.

Our safety is in our hands. Because together we are Ukraine.

Not theoretically anymore. Practically.

I am Vinnytsia.

I am Mariupol.

I am Chasiv Yar.

I am Ukraine.

You are Kremenchuk.

You are Odesa.

You are Popasna.

You are Ukraine.

We are all together - Ukraine.

P.S. In order not to end this post on a somewhat pathetic note, I would like to "repent" to Victoria Spartz. Recently I have been to a restaurant. My friend came from the front, whose birthday was last week. We had a good time, the four of us drank three glasses of dry wine. The focus of the discussion is, of course, the war.

My comrade is really well-served, at the front since 2014. That's when we met, when together with him we formed the 34th TRO battalion. He was almost the first to receive the title of the Hero of Ukraine after the beginning of a large-scale war, in March of 2022.

I do not mention his last name because he asked me not to. But I have asked him: Have you been awarded a Hero of Ukraine star yet? His response is: Yes, I received it today in Mariyinka. We were all shocked. We have almost persuaded him to bring the star. Such are our modest heroes and restaurant meetings.

By the way, Mrs Spartz, I also had a shock in 2014, when I was in the Donbas quite often doing volunteer work. There is war in the East, and in peaceful Kyiv people sit in cafes, laugh and live their peaceful lives. In psychological terms, it is called cognitive dissonance, and I am telling you this as a PhD of political sciences.

The shock disappeared quickly, which I sincerely wish for you.