Ukraine: To cease, or not to fire??

And now what? Let us face the past, the present and the future with honesty, with respect for all, with hope for the future. And learn.

Photo: Дмитрий Плотников Pravda.Ru by Нейросеть

Армия России

First things first, and as usual, thoughts for the families of the victims in the Ukraine conflict, be they Russians, Ukrainians, DPR Koreans, Polish, French, British, Americans, Danish, Germans or whoever else was involved in this sorry affair. Russian mothers, grandmothers, Ukrainian mothers, grandmothers. Owners of pets. Those whose homes were destroyed, be they Russians or Ukrainians, those whose jobs and livelihoods were taken away, be they Ukrainians or Russians.

Secondly, looking through social media and the MainStream Media, it is as shocking as it is depressing to read the media slant, the biased reporting and the one-sidedness that this conflict has engendered, where “Putin” is seen as some kind of madman who initially was “ill” and suddenly decided on a whim to invade Ukraine; on the other side, a squeaky clean sovereign nation savagely attacked by a monster without any blame at all. A pristine maiden raped and butchered by a sadistic ogre. 

No really. I…I…I saw it on the Net!

And on BBC. And Sky News so it must be true.

"Cowboy outfit" turned squeaky clean 

But…but a few years ago these same channels were showing Ukraine as some kind of cowboy outfit with corruption running rife, “politicians” syphoning off funds and aid and the donations paid by hard-working taxpayers of other countries, they were showing (chortle) fisticuffs in the Ukrainian Parliament and the whole country was portrayed as some kind of joke to end the news “shows”. As in, if you think our country is bad, take a look at these guys! (smirk)....however wrong this view was at the time.

The same channels were conducting reports on Ukrainian youths worshiping Hitler and strutting around in Hitler T-shirts, complete with swastikas, goose-stepping and calling Russians Sub-humans. “Do you support Hitler?” “Er….no” “Well it looks like Hitler on your T-shirt”. Remember?

Then came 2014 in which a CIA-style colour revolution, a Putsch, a coup d’état, removed the democratically elected President (Yanukovich) and replaced him with a band of Fascists, the Azov Battalion (a Fascist terrorist organization) was sent to destroy eastern Ukraine and commit fascist massacres, while NATO eyed up Russian bases in Crimea, at the same time as it was eyeing Russian bases in Syria. Aim: remove Russian naval presence from the Mediterranean and from the Black Sea in one fell swoop.

Fascism back in Europe: Censorship

Suddenly the marauding gangs of fascists committing massacres of Russian-speaking Ukrainians disappeared from the Net, the news that political parties were banned in Ukraine did not make the press, the attempted erasure of Russian culture in eastern Ukraine, the suppression of Russian language and culture and religion went unreported. The illegal Putsch in 2014 had changed more than the news, it had given birth to an ugly mindset, in which Fascism was arising openly in Ukraine and was given the nod by Western powers.

Simultaneously, the western stance morphed, with the European Union, supposedly a paragon of democracy, adopting a Fascist measure to practise censorship against Russian news channels (for instance Russia Today), and the information became one-sided. Gone were any truthful references to Ukraine’s Fascists and in came Russophobic hysteria.

Notice I say Ukraine’s Fascists, and not “people” because these are not one and the same thing. I have many Ukrainian friends from eastern Ukraine, Kiev and Western Ukraine, representing very different views of this conflict, yet all able to sit with me in my garden enjoying a barbecue and some inventive toasts with quality vodka. All of them lament the current situation and remember the good old days when they were brothers and sisters in the Soviet Union, when times were far better for all.

Mis- and Disinformation creates a mindset

It is not surprising therefore that people in general, again not all, are wholly and totally mis/disinformed about the conflict in Ukraine, have no idea how it started, completely ignore the facts and have constructed their opinion on a half-story which has been shaped by an endemically Russophobic media which never forgave Moscow for defeating the foreign mercenaries who supported the White Russians in the Civil War 100 years ago, who never forgave the USSR for implementing a political, social and economic system which offered free and excellent public services to all, and exported the model, depriving the owners of Capital of their profits, they never forgave the Red Army, Navy and Air Force for defeating Hitler, or at least never showed any gratitude: they claim to have won WWII themselves and make scant references to the 26 million Soviets who died defeating exactly what has raised its head in Ukraine, where the local hero Bandera, a paedophile child murderer, was collaborating with the Nazis.

They wholly ignore the Fascist massacres perpetrated by the Azov Battalion in Ukraine against Russophone Ukrainians, they ignore the Fascist anti-Russian policies of Kiev’s governments. Public opinion has been molded by Fascism and the West runs along with it, apparently.

Sure, behind closed doors, politicians make different noises but in public, it is not sexy to say Russia has at least had a point from day one.

Nobody will refute what I am saying because it is fact, not fiction, not invention and not propaganda. This does not mean to say I have been one standing back and enjoying the spectacle. I have not. Indeed, I have begin all my opinion-editorial pieces, including this one, calling for thoughts and prayers for the victims. All of the victims, and behind the scenes I have been launching peace and reconciliation initiatives starting with artists and musicians and pressing for a stop to the spread of hatred, trying to ensure that we do not now have generations of kids bred on mutual loathing.

And now…?

And now along comes a US President who is not using the Ukrainians as pawns in a conflict, who is not installing his own son as director of an energy company in Ukraine, and who has the guts to stand up to Zelenskiy and his clique telling them peace, or else. This does put the ball in Russia’s court but let us see. Accepting a peace deal is good Public Relations but is it good sense in military terms? Will Ukraine use a lull to regroup and rearm, and gain some breathing space only to create a false flag event later and restart the fighting? So maybe good PR is bad strategy and bad PR is good strategy.

It remains to be seen what Russia can do. Accept the peace deal with the caveat that any infringement by Ukraine will be met with a devastating blow? Citizens in the territories now called New Russia to have dual nationality and choose how they live? A Federal system in these territories? Ukraine, plus these territories, with a special status as pre-adhesion to the EU? (You do not shoot the guy you are selling your products to).

The Ukrainians have been used by foreigners

Whatever, a ceasefire is not a humiliation for anyone, peace is not capitulation. If Ukraine had implemented the Minsk Agreements, drawn up by President Putin, Russian speakers inside Ukraine would have kept their rights, the Azov Battalion and others would not have goose-spepped around massacring civilians and Ukraine would have remained intact. True, Kiev was used by foreign powers who now claim to be Ukraine’s friends in a proxy war with Russia. Ukrainians have been pawns.

Ukrainian men and women have fought bravely, everyone understands that nobody likes to be invaded. Not Iraq, not Libya, not Ukraine. So the bottom line is that it is the Ukrainians themselves who must engage in a peace and reconciliation process, as others elsewhere have done, and show the world that they can rise above what for them has been the sorry consequence of meddling, principally by Washington, as usual, with the EU taking up the cause wagging their tales obediently. And practising censorship.

Hopefully, the messages of hatred flying around the Internet will cease and everyone can work together towards a process of peace and reconciliation. Hopefully, this will end in a commercial agreement and a lasting peace which can again rekindle the fires of friendship. Hopefully, the same process can be copied and pasted a little to the south, in a Two-State solution in Palestine/Israel but for that…another story.

I most sincerely hope that the killing can end because too many families have lost their loved ones and I most whole-heartedly commiserate with the victims’ families and loved ones, whoever they are, wherever they are from.

Next time, NATO, listen to Russia. Next time, Kiev, take the deal. And next time, everyone, let us all come together, forget the hatred and remember that we are all supposed to be living together as brothers and sisters in this beautiful home, our Planet. It belongs to each and every one of us.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey can be reached at [email protected]