THE NATURE OF RUSSIA’S WAR ON UKRAINE IN BRIEF
3 min read
УКРАЇНСЬКА ВЕРСІЯ: КОРОТКО ПРО ПРИРОДУ ВІЙНИ РОСІЇ ПРОТИ УКРАЇНИ
The Russian Empire appeared on the world map at the end of 1721 as a result of the annexation of Rus’-Ukraine and the proclamation of Tsar Peter I of Moscow as emperor.
The Muscovite Empire took one of the ancient names of Rus’-Ukraine — Rusia, by which Rus-Ukraine was known in the world at the beginning of the second BCL millennium as one of the most powerful countries in Europe.
Having annexed the territory and appropriated the name Rus’-Ukraine, Muscovy raided the history of Rus’-Ukraine with its rich traditions in order to claim the thousand-year legacy of Rus’-Ukraine.
From the very beginning, the Muscovite Empire began to create a Russian historical myth, systematically, purposefully and systematically destroying everything Ukrainian — literature, language, ancestral and ethnic memory of Rus’-Ukrainians.
More than twenty-five times Moscow went to war against Rus’-Ukraine and more than once resorted to the genocide of Rus’-Ukrainians. The proclamation of the empire was preceded by the Battle of Poltava, during which thousands and thousands of Ukrainian Cossacks and civilians, including children, were killed.
By the end of the 1920s, the number of Ukrainians in ethnic lands reached more than 80 million, significantly exceeding the number of Russians (“Great Russians”). After 1932, a number of regions of Ukraine were transferred to the Russian Federation and their entire population (more than 20 million people) was rewritten by Russians and in the following decades was completely assimilated.
In the twentieth century, Moscow lost millions of Ukrainians on the fronts of the First and Second World Wars, and an equal amount of the civilian population of Ukraine was artificially starved to death in 1921, 1932–1933, and 1947. The number of Ukrainians in their ethnic lands in the USSR decreased by several tens of millions.
At the time of the collapse of the USSR (1991), the number of Ukrainians was 50 million. Ukraine left the USSR with the most powerful economy, which ranked eighth or ninth in the world. In the thirty years that have passed since then, Moscow has done everything to practically destroy Ukraine‘s economy and reduce the population by another ten and a half million.
The “Special Military Operation”, or rather, Moscow’s full-scale war against independent Ukraine, no matter what they say in the Kremlin, aims to completely destroy not only Ukrainian statehood, but also Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. This can be seen from the way the Russian army systematically and purposefully destroys the cities and villages of Ukraine, kills and squeezes Ukrainians out of their places of residence.
The destruction of independent Ukraine, the transformation of Ukrainian lands into a complete ruin, the genocide of the Ukrainian people are all measures aimed at preserving and establishing Russia as an empire.
In this regard, Russia’s war in Ukraine is truly existential for Moscow: victory will preserve the Russian Empire at any cost, while defeat will lead to its complete disintegration, which began in 1917 and continued in 1991.
For Ukraine, this war is also an existential one. The defeat of Ukraine in this war will be the irreversible loss of the subjectivity of Ukraine as an independent state and the complete destruction and fusion of the Ukrainian ethnic group.
Russia as the last empire and the breeding ground of world terrorism must fall, and Ukraine must win. Under other conditions, the Russian Empire will continue to exist and will be an even greater threat to the civilized world.
Prof. Dr. Volodymyr Ivanenko,
Ukrainian University,
Organizing Committee of the World Ukrainian Movement
October 21 — November 3, 2022
Let the World to Hear Us!
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