Peace? Thank God for that!

I have been waiting nearly four years to write this article. Hopefully my sighs of relief are not too early.

Photo: Generated by AI (DALL·E 3 by OpenAI) is licensed under Free for commercial use (OpenAI License)

прогноз развития человечества

The Ukraine conflict has revealed to us all the many abominable facets of the human psyche and the entire spectacle since Day One has been extremely painful to watch and almost unbearable to witness. Those of us who have been engaged with the Soviet Union since the Good Old Days, remember the times when hundreds of nations celebrated together as brothers and sisters, enjoying zero unemployment, zero homelessness, safety on the street, security of the State, free housing, free public utilities, free transportation, free education, free healthcare, opportunities at work in the home nation or to travel and work abroad, leisure time activities, free food, even free alcohol. We remember the mixed families, Armenian grandfather, Azeri grandmother, Ukrainian aunt, Uzbekh uncle, and so on, gathering around a table sharing their cultures and gastronomies and religions and stories with smiles.

The hand of the West

We remember also the constant intrusion by a jealous collective West which from the onset adopted a belligerent stance against the model and involved itself in the Russian Civil War (1918-1920), murdering millions of Russian citizens, we remember the invasion by the Fascists under Hitler and the seeds of sedition sown by these across the areas occupied by the Wehrmacht, including Ukraine.

Where there is war, there is sedition, there is collaboration, there is treachery and later on, historical revisionism. Where there is war and afterwards, a redrawing of frontiers, where the lines on the map change but the people remain, there are created the roots for potential disaster, because the stories from the war, involving grandfathers and fathers (and mothers) and sons and grandsons (and daughters), the events involving family property, involving pets, can become exaggerated or revisited and blown out of proportion. Then foreign agency can get involved, interest groups selected and supported, arms flow ($$) and we have the ingredients of a tragedy.

Apportioning blame objectively is not an easy task but apportioning it to one side is as puerile as it is shallow as it is ridiculous and very often, the media gets the wrong end of the stick, creates a demonology around one person and paints a picture based on fallacy, lies and propaganda. These things are complex, complicated and extremely interwoven with socio-economic and historical vectors.

Western media guilty of hate crimes

And here we see the first disgusting consequence of this current debacle, the western media, aided skilfully by one Ms. Ursula von der Leyen, who practised censorship, would you believe, while preaching democracy, to take away Moscow’s tools of communication. Let us take one case, that of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The fact that he has been democratically elected many times seems to have flown by the ears of western media outlets, who have reduced his name at best to “Putin”, and at worst, “Vlad” (conjuring up images of Dracula, or Vlad Tepes), or Mad Vlad, or Despot or other insulting and disparaging names.

This is an insult to Russia and to the millions of Russian people who vote for him, and why? Because he is seen as the point of equilibrium, like any other leader. These outlets made no attempt whatsoever to tell the whole truth behind this event, instead they told part of the story, in a one-sided, black and white approach, painting a picture of a black-hatted ogre and a hero in the white hat, they made no attempt to draw the time line from the beginning of the conflict, which goes way before February 2022 (this has been brewing for decades). The result is that all the media outlets, all the political leaders, following this line are guilty of hate crimes and in my opinion, are liable for prosecution.

I have purposefully refrained from writing about this conflict while it was going on, firstly because it has nothing to do with me, secondly because I made my opinion clear from the outset and that has not shifted one millimetre, and I am best when writing about humanitarian issues and calling for peace and reconciliation. I refuse to fan the flames of conflict because in conflicts, families and homes are torn apart. I am not going to take part in gloating over victory or fostering seething hatred for the opponent. I prefer to embrace, to laugh, to respect and to share my food and drink with all. I have too many Russian and Ukrainian friends to do anything else.

The terror of war

My own family felt the terror of war, two wars, the First and Second World Wars, and my position is out of allegiance to them more than anything else. My maternal grandfather fought in every major battle of the First World War, had his throat grazed by a bullet and was gassed, which ruined his lungs for the rest of his life until he died in 1966. My mother’s school was bombed in the Second World War, the family house was destroyed by a bomb the day after they left to move somewhere safer and she was brought up with the sound of doodlebugs and V2 explosions punctuating her childhood. That said, witnessing a dogfight between British aircraft and AA Artillery and a German bomber, she also thought of the poor German boys up there terrified and thinking of their mothers. My paternal grandfather was an officer in India, where there were similar incidents with the Japanese.

A war brings out the most primary and ugly side of humankind, exacerbated by a hostile media, standing at a cockfight braying obscenities, goading on one side to destroy the other, eyes blazing with hatred and bloodlust. That is war. That is the western media, that is NATO and the hawks within it (there are a few doves, happily).

It is ugly, it is obscene, it is violent, it walks with evil, it talks with the Devil. And yes, evil incidents occur and no do not only blame Russia, Russian boys and girls died too, Russian mothers have cried, Russian fathers wring their hands in desperation, Russian grandmothers have seen their entire families blown away. So here we must remember all the fallen and their families, Russian and Ukrainian alike and in my opinion it is the responsibility of the media to forge a climate of peace and reconciliation, something which I have tried behind the scenes from the beginning, which was accepted by many on the Russian side and none among the Ukrainians, namely initiatives between cultural groups to share exhibitions, meet together, hold workshops around the themes of painting, literature, music, gastronomy, et cetera.

Understandably, nobody enjoys being invaded, nobody enjoys losing family members during conflict and there are wounds, serious wounds, which will take time to heal. But we, the media, can make that difference and I for my part, shall. I have my doubts as to who else will follow me on this route, especially those in the western mainstream media but here’s hoping.

Thinking of future generations

What I want to see is future generations of Russians and Ukrainians not brought up on hatred but commemorating together as post-conflict citizens, as members of our human family, regarding each other as brothers and sisters, as indeed just a few years ago, Russians and Ukrainians referred to each other as such. And they still are, or can be. We have examples in the Balkans, after all.

The importance of the law

I have always defended the law and the need to follow it but the precept today is that the law is an exercise in manipulation and is the object of cynical and subjective interpretation. The law is also a contract, even a spoken contract. Applying it to this case, did NATO give guarantees to the USSR that NATO would not encroach eastwards if the Warsaw Pact dissolved and Germany unified? In which case why did it breach that contract by expanding eastwards? And why did it expand eastwards, to tickle Moscow’s fancy with a feather duster? Or to create a colour revolution and grab Siberia’s immense wealth? Does NATO think we were born yesterday, or what?

And following this line, if Iraq was legal as the perpetrators claimed because it posed a direct threat to the West, then what about Ukraine inside NATO, especially after the illegal Putsch in 2014 which ousted the democratically elected President, Yanukovich, aiming for what? For NATO to seize Russia’s military bases in Crimea, that’s what. So what was Moscow supposed to do, lower its pants, roll over and take it where the sun doesn’t shine?  

Why did Kiev support and even integrate Fascist battalions in its armed forces, which then massacred civilians in Eastern Ukraine? Why were political parties banned? Is that democracy? Why was Russian language banned? Is that democracy? Why was Russian culture banned? Is that democracy? Why was the Russian Orthodox Church banned? Is that democracy? Where is this referred to in western media reports? Is that journalism?

Couldn´t Kiev have embraced the Russian-speaking population instead of calling them “sub-human” and calling for the death of Russians and Jews, on the streets? Was that welcoming, or threatening behaviour? And why didn’t Kiev implement Minsk, which Moscow drew up, keeping Ukraine intact, and I repeat,  KEEPING UKRAINE INTACT, with the unique condition of Russophones enjoying their own culture and religion? Was that asking too much? If Zelenskiy had implemented Minsk, not a single bullet would have been fired.

When I say Kiev, I do not mean the average (wo) man in the street, the one who always bears the brunt of any type of problem anywhere, I mean the leaders of Ukraine, who could have avoided this before it began.

The tragedy and the answer to all these questions is that those leading Ukraine acted as traitors in allowing Washington to do the bidding and use Ukrainian boys and girls as pawns, as laboratory mice. I am absolutely sure that those calling for the death of Russian speakers were a minority, those strutting around in fascist uniforms, sporting swastikas and supporting Hitler and that paedophile child murderer, Bandera. They do not represent the Ukrainian people as a whole. Remember the media reports about Ukraine’s fascist underground, about the neo-Nazis, before this started (the story quickly disappeared, didn’t it?). I am absolutely sure that the vast majority of Ukrainians did not want this conflict, that they got along fine with Russian speakers, that they enjoyed cultural diversity, that they agreed that Russophones should enjoy cultural autonomy. That is all this was about, at this level.

Washington and Biden

Of course, on another level, and as usual, Washington had other ideas, and was again as usual followed by its troupe of yapping chihuahuas, the other members of the FUKUS Axis (France, UK, apart from US) and a Germany now flexing its muscles just a little bit more.

Imperialist policies

So yet again, we see the result of imperialist policies by a belligerent West, aching to sell weapons, spoiling for a fight and aiming to destroy stocks of outdated munitions, and sabre-rattling by NATO using the conflict to justify its existence (what is it, if not the cutting edge of the BARFFED Lobbies – Banking, Arms, Resources, Finance, Food, Energy, Drugs)?

This was not Russia against Ukraine, it was the West using Ukrainians against Russia and Ukrainian families were caught up in the middle. So let those responsible for starting this, by not implementing Minsk, which was a perfect peace initiative, hang their heads in shame. Let those who tried to egg on the Ukrainians instead of pushing for a solution be judged.

Conclusions

First and foremost, let us all stand together in respect for all the victims of this conflict, whoever they are, let us stand with Russian and Ukrainian families, let us together launch peace and reconciliation initiatives, let us not spread hatred, let us preach unity, let us preach respect and why not, love? Imagine Russian and Ukrainian kids playing together, sharing stories, and smiles.

And finally, lessons for the future. This came about because Washington, under Biden, had interests in Ukraine; Google up Buresma, Hunter Biden, Google up Shale gas, Google up rare earth metals, and transgenic cereals, all + Biden. This came about because international law is extremely weak. This is not the fault of the United Nations. “Useless”, they claim. No it is not useless. I work with UN Women as Official Media Partner, spreading their initiatives behind the scenes and they do a very good job, as does UNESCO, as does UNICEF, as does the WFP and others working with emergency aid and refugees and so on. What the UN does not have is clout when it comes to solving conflicts, mainly because certain countries, exactly when such a notion was forming at the beginning of the millennium, derided the UNO and invaded Iraq.

So what we need is a reformed UNO which represents Planet Earth 2025, not the post-war 1940s. We need an Arbitration Tribunal to settle conflicts before they start and which respects all the players without the arrogance displayed, as usual, by the West in a Russophobic, hostile, show of insolence towards Moscow.

NATO countries alone spend one point two thousand billion USD each and every year on weapons systems to murder families. No wonder they were involved hiding behind Ukrainians trying to pull a fast one on Russia. How about spending that money every year on education and development, instead of deployment of troops?

Once again, I dedicate this article to honouring the victims of this conflict, all of them, and to what I hope is a bright, peaceful future for Ukraine and Russia and all their citizens.

Timothy Bancroft-Hnchey can be reached at timothy.hinchey@gmail.com