Why Ukraine's negotiations with Russia are pointless and the Russians will have to bear responsibility for this war

Yuri Maznychenko 09 March 2022

In 13 days of the war, there have already been three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia. If you are still entertaining your hopes and expecting some fateful decisions from these meetings like a New Year's present under the tree, I regret to disappoint you. These negotiations are just a waste of fuel and time for our statesmen, who could have done something more useful to defend Ukraine within their areas of responsibility during this period of time.

I do not question the Ukrainian delegation's desire to reach agreements with Russia on the withdrawal of civilians from destroyed cities where chaos and humanitarian disaster reign. But what is there to negotiate with an aggressor who has been destroying the civilian infrastructure of our cities, bombing homes and killing innocent people without a declaration of war for 13 days, covering up his war crimes with the terms "denazification" and "demilitarization"?

The victim will never negotiate with the killer who comes to kill him or her. All he or she can do is fight back, find and strike at the attacker's sore points, seize the initiative, and finally emerge victorious from the battle. So any negotiations between Ukraine and Russia at the current stage make no sense, as Vladimir Putin's regime only makes empty promises of "green" corridors for Volnovakha, Mariupol, Bucha, Irpin and other cities that have been bombed, immediately opening fire on women and children leaving dark basements in the hope of finding safer spaces and forgetting these nightmares forever.

Russia does not back down one bit from its demands for Ukraine to recognize the DNR and LNR within the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and to disarm our country so that Ukrainians will never again dare to fight back in the future against the already eight years as a non-brotherly nation. There is no question of Russian troops withdrawing from Crimea, the DNR and LNR at all. If Russia does sign such an agreement, it will definitely not include Putin's name.

So what is Ukraine dealing with during the two weeks of Russia's military invasion? A series of attempts at peace or an uncompromising ultimatum from a rampaging aggressor?

More than 400 civilians and 40 children have been killed by the Russian occupiers since the start of the war. The number of wounded civilians is as high as 1,000. More than 200 Ukrainian schools, 34 hospitals and more than 1,500 residential buildings throughout the country have been destroyed - and this is only officially confirmed data. And, unfortunately, these figures are increasing by the minute.

The 12,000 killed Russian soldiers will never outweigh our losses because the enemies destroyed on Ukrainian soil came to it with weapons. Ukrainians who did not survive these terrible events were accidental victims of the geopolitical and propaganda psychosis prevailing in the neighbouring country. They should not have died, but now even the most apolitical Russians, who swear that they never supported the tyrant, will have to bear responsibility for this war.

It is too late to deny the consequences and say that "we are for peace" and "we weren't here." Once upon a time, Russians did not say "NO" when it was still possible to question the actions of the criminal government. For years, millions of people swallowed pain and humiliation, cultivating by their silence a horrific regime that these days has finally adopted the ambitions and methods of the German National Socialists in the 1930s and 1940s.

The war does not spare anyone and scatters loved ones across a vast geography. I correspond with friends and realize that only a few remained in Kyiv: some left for Western Ukraine, some went southern inland, where one does not hear the rumble of shells, and some crossed the border in search of peaceful skies and monitor events remotely. Those who have not left have stayed deliberately, either taking up arms or offering alternative support to the home front.

The siren suddenly picks me up from the phone; they are heard much less frequently in Kyiv. The previous night our aviation and air defence successfully dealt with enemy missiles. The capital looks even more deserted these days than it did on the long weekends of past peaceful days, and a foray into the store only reinforces the feeling that the city has already adapted to wartime life.

There are no long queues at the entrances, trying to buy everything needed for all occasions. There is no rush inside, neither at the product racks nor at the cash desks. The production and logistics were organized, so the bread, dairy products and fresh meat, which had been in short supply during the first week of the war, were more or less freely available.

What you cannot buy is alcohol and cigarettes, which usually take on a special value in war conditions. The shelves are stocked with alcohol, but since March 1 its sales have been banned. But stocks of cigarettes evaporated even earlier, and you have to try a bit to find them across the city. On cold days and frosty nights, cigarettes are in greatest demand among the defenders of the capital's roadblocks. This is a tip for those who haven't decided how to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine and territorial defence forces - tobacco products are always welcome there.

This time our package for the volunteer centre consisted of warm socks, disinfectant wet wipes, and several dozen packs of blue Bond. The beginning of spring is cold, and the contents are sure to be of use to the guys who provide security in the city and on its outskirts.

"Good evening, we are from Ukraine!" - is written on the barrel of a tank that rumbled past us. Back at the end of the summer, military vehicles covered with Ukrainian flags were a source of pride for thousands of Kyivers and millions of Ukrainians, who saw them lining during the Ukraine Independence Day parade. Crowds of smiling people then felt a stirring pride for the Army, which twenty years ago was an object of regret and ridicule, and now has become a force trusted by nearly 100 per cent of the country's population.

When this war is finally over, the Ukrainian soldier will surely become a role model for generations of Ukrainians to come. Like the Soviet cosmonaut or the post-Soviet businessman. It cannot be otherwise. And the story of the Ukrainian soldier Yevhen Isayev with the rescued girl from the combat zone, who never stopped repeating: "I love you, Ukrainian soldier!" should be immortalized in a memorial in place of the monument about the supposed friendship with the Russian people, which has already lost its relevance forever.

The Ukrainian people are unique because they are not afraid to fight for their chosen worldview and the right to freely build their future. They have lost their best sons and daughters for centuries in the struggle for independence. They have certainly accumulated enough arguments to crush the occupiers who dare to shed blood on Ukrainian lands again. They have not forgotten the Holodomor that the Soviets perpetrated in the 1930s, after which the myth of "brotherly" nations, still popular in the post-Soviet space, was created.

The Ukrainian people endured a great deal of adversity on the road to our country's 1991 independence. Tragic history has divided millions of our citizens and created a multinational state - where people speak different languages, have their own unique traditions in everyday life and respect the peculiarities of different cultures.

And these days, the national consciousness of the Ukrainian nation is still awakening, and with its unity with the army and unanimous resistance to Russian aggression, it is writing a new page in its history. These great times will definitely be described in school textbooks. All that remains is to fight for what we believe in and not to retreat from our convictions.

"Keep fighting - you are sure to win" - as bequeathed the great Kobzar Taras Shevchenko, whose birthday today marks the 208th anniversary. So we will be doing.