Holy hatred

“It is clear where it might lead Ukraine: They will be sitting in the cold without gas, without light. No pity with the Ukrainians!” said Boris Chernishov, propagandist on Russian TV.

“Not only electrical substations, thermal power stations, water supply lines, but also the gas infrastructure have been hit. These strikes will put an end to Zelensky’s Nazi regime. These retaliatory strikes are an expression of our hatred our holy hatred”. Roman Babayan, host of State TV.

Galia Ackerman, Russian-French writer, author of “The Black Book of Vladimir Putin - The KGB Agent who became Tsar” explains: “Putin’s hatred for Ukraine dates from old times because he never has succeeded anything there. He has suffered his first defeat in 2005, when his candidate was not elected and he suffered a second defeat in 2014 several months after the Maidan, when finally Yanukovic fled. In the confusion of the power vacuum, Vladimir Putin has profited to annex -- without a battle-- the Crimea peninsula. And it is at that moment that thanks to his massive support to the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas --he was able to occupy a part of the Donbas in 2014.”

From that time to today a war goes on that claimed about 13,000 lives. Then on February 24, 2022, Putin’s army invaded Ukraine from all directions. His army failed. But he cannot admit defeat. He threatens to use ever deadlier weapons to destroy Ukrainians’ lives and bases in a cynical way. The more he destroys, the more defiant, united and resilient the Ukrainians become. And the Western allies deliver food, winter clothes, stoves, and thousands of electricity generators.

When Viktor Yanukovic was elected president of Ukraine in 2010, he first travelled to Brussels to meet EU and NATO representatives. He declared Ukraine as a neutral country having friendly ties with the European Union as well as with Russia. That raised Putin’s hackles who wanted Ukraine as a vassal for Russia alone. From his second travel to Moscow, Yanukovic returned as a pro-Russian politician. He refused to sign the pending EU association agreement. This caused violent protests or the “Euromaidan” from 2013 to 2014.

Mychailo Winnicki of Kyiv University and author of “Ukraine’s Maidan – Russia’s War”, was an activist in the Euromaidan, the revolution that brought dignity. He relates: Some 200 student protesters were beaten by 1,250 riot police on Central Square. Then more than one million citizens of Kyiv with helmets and batons attacked the police in a civil war-like tumult. A total of 108 protesters and 18 police died. Each year on February 20 the Ukrainians commemorate the deaths of the ‘Hundred Heavenly Heroes’ by offering flowers. Winnicki defines dignity: “Every person has the right to stand up for himself, to make their own choices, to have freedom of expression, of gathering, of making their lives how and where they like, to make it without someone e.g. from Moscow telling them how they should live”.

On February 21, 2014 Yanukovic fled to Crimea and then chose to live in exile in Russia. Putin planned to reinstate him as his puppet president when he would have killed the democratically elected President Zelensky in his ‘special military operation’. He failed again. At age 70 Putin struggles to remain in power. All his political adversaries are in prison and thousands of protesting Russians are jailed as well. At least 300,000 newly conscripted soldiers will freeze to death in the drenches or die as cannon fodder. According to Ukraine’s counting up to November 21 some 85,000 Russians have died. Several hundred thousand young educated Russians left for Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and the western nations. Not all are welcome. Russia is the hardest sanctioned country in the world. The few countries that still trade with Russia fear to get sanctioned as well. A thousand foreign enterprises have closed shop. The economy goes down the river. Russia will be ostracized for many decades because of Putin’s hatred for his supposed brother people, the Ukrainians.

Erich Wannemacher

Lapu-Lapu City