Brothers in need

The upsetting events taking place in Ukraine at the fault of the neighboring state, which began long before the so-called "special operation," namely, by supporting the autocrat Yanukovych, who had lost his legitimacy during the Revolution of Dignity, the annexation of Crimea, and the creation of the so-called "people's republics". The so-called "people's republics" once again proved the invalidity of nationalist, pan-Slavic arguments that Russia, at least Putin's Russia, wished Ukraine well on the grounds that they share a "common history". Proponents of this theory have repeatedly told Ukrainians, "Why do you need Europe? The European Union doesn't need you. They are strangers; they only use you".

Behind the arguments about the brotherhood of the Russian and Ukrainian people there was a real great-power chauvinism, which was expressed in a total denial of the existence of the Ukrainian people as such and a denial to Ukrainians of the right to have their own state. In his speech about the recognition of the self-proclaimed "people's republics" occupying the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, the head of the Russian state, who stopped holding back his nationalist anti-Ukrainian views, presented his vision of Ukrainian history in its fullest, which essentially consisted of the following: Ukraine is an "illegitimate state," "created by Russians" and "militated against Russians," so Russians need to "correct the mistake they made" and "restore historical justice," apparently by depriving Ukraine of statehood, or, at the very least, of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

An hour-long address filled with genuine hatred for Ukraine and its people on behalf of the Russian president is all one needs to know about the value and sincerity of past statements by Russian propagandists who assured their viewers that Russia "sincerely wants to help the Ukrainian people," and only the mythical "banderites" are opposed to it.

While Russians approve of the so-called "special operation" by an absolute majority, the very Europe that is supposedly "foreign" to Ukraine has united as never before. The enormous bureaucratic machine of the European Union, which is designed so that even the most important decision is taken a week, if not a month, worked with such force, with such fervor that sanctions against the Russian Federation were adopted and entered into force already on the first day of the "special operation". The next package of sanctions was ready in the next few days. The solidarity of the EU actors reached its peak - even Hungary, led by the pro-Putin authoritarian Fidesz party, supported sanctions against Russia. All EU parties, including the pro-Russian ID and GUE/NGL, issued statements condemning Putin's Russia. The Ukrainian flag was displayed in the EU parliament, followed by all European parties, which put the flag on their social media pages. For the umpteenth time, the Union has recently approved billions of euros in gratuitous financial aid to Ukraine. Europe has gone so far as to abandon the profitable Nord Stream-2 and set a goal of getting rid of Russian natural resources altogether.

All this once again proves that the real, not self-appointed brothers are the European nations, who extended their helping hand to the Ukrainians in their hour of need. The EU has made it clear to the world that Ukrainians are full-fledged members of the European family of nations, even though they are not even formal candidates for accession to the Union at this time.

One day, the Russian people will be a member of the European family, too. Any nationalist idea will fail in today's globalizing world.

We are forced to call the military actions in Ukraine "special operation" because of the fear of criminal prosecution in Russia