They are dying and dying and dying. They have been dying for almost four years now. The Ukrainian soldiers. They have been dying for the delusion of Ukraine being non-Russia – anti-Russia, and for the delusion of Ukraine becoming a NATO member, and for the delusion of Ukraine becoming a sovereign state. Now Washington has rolled out a twenty-eight-point peace plan for the conclusion of the conflict, and some of the points of this plan say it openly that Ukraine will not be a NATO member, that Ukraine’s independence or sovereignty will be guaranteed by the United States (is it then sovereignty?) and that Ukraine will stop persecuting the Russian language or that part of the Orthodox Church that obeyed Moscow. And – to top it all – Kiev will have to cede territory to Russia.
Hundreds of thousands of men have died for what? Hundreds of thousands of men have died to compel reality to fulfil Ukraine’s political wish list. Hundreds of thousands of men have died so that the EU commissioners could play their political games. Hundreds of thousands of men have died as if the outcome of a war against Russia could not have been envisaged!
Ukraine’s political class should have a troubled, uneasy conscience. Ukraine’s political class should feel constant pricks of conscience. But do they have a conscience? Are they empaths? Barely. People holding the reigns of power rarely are. Anywhere, not merely in Ukraine. That’s why they have managed to make it to the top in politics (or business). Do the members of Ukraine’s ruling class feel responsibility for what they have done? Can they look straight in the face of the relatives of the fallen soldiers?
A country’s leaders should behave towards their country’s citizens like caring and responsible parents towards their children. A caring and responsible president should act like – forgive the pathos – a nation’s father. What should the purpose of a caring and responsible leader be? Yes, right, it should be the material welfare and the psychological wellbeing of the citizens. A responsible leader pursues these two goals. A responsible leader does not pursue a wish list because reality does not honour wish lists. A responsible leader should not even look for justice or sovereign rights out there in the world. These are mental constructs which – again – reality does not respect.
Imagine a father driving with his family somewhere and encountering irresponsible drivers along the way. What does a responsible father do? How does he behave? It might be that he has the right of way, but the other driver does not want to yield this right to him. Will the caring a responsible father drive on anyway because he has the right of way? Will he put the lives of his wife and children at risk by stubbornly driving on only because he has the right of way and he wants to exercise this right? Will he accelerate putting his vehicle on a collision course even if the other vehicle, the one that does not want to yield way to him, is a juggernaut?
Is Russia not a juggernaut when compared to Ukraine? What did Ukraine’s ruling class expect? Ah, yes, they knew it right from the start that they would not prevail against the Russian juggernaut, but they counted on the aid from the European Union and especially the United States! If that was the case, then they should have remembered the classic Western movie under the title High Noon. The town’s marshal could not enlist the support of a single man. Yes, the marshal single-handedly routs the four members of Miller’s gang, but then it is a movie, and so in this respect the movie’s plot runs counter to reality. Ukraine’s ruling class should have known better. Ukraine’s ruling class should have also known that apart from the movie’s happy ending, the remaining plot depicts reality one to one: if you count on anybody’s help, then think again.
Ukraine’s ruling class will have been familiar with High Noon: the whole world is familiar with it. At least some of the members of Ukraine’s ruling class will also have been familiar with Aesop’s tales, some of which carry the same message: self-help is the best help. They should have recalled a tale of a bird who had a nest in a field of corn and who did not let herself be bothered by the alarmist stories of her nestlings when they would tell her what they had heard from the owner of the field. She remained calm so long as she herd from her nestlings that the owner of the field counted and the help of his relatives and neighbours in reaping the corn, thus putting her nest at danger. She only began to worry when she heard from her nestlings that the owner of the field decided to begin the harvest on his own. Only then did she know that now it was for real. The story, as old as the world, teaches you and me that you cannot – you should not – you must not rely on anybody’s help, especially if the help calls for huge sacrifices on the part of the helper. Shouldn’t Ukraine’s ruling classes have known it? Shouldn’t the ruling classes anywhere in the world know this age-old truth?
Four years ago Ukraine was larger by the four provinces, while eleven years ago it also controlled Crimea. Three and more years ago Ukraine’s population was much larger, especially its male population. Now all this – men and territory – is gone, gone irretrievably because Ukraine’s political class either wanted to prove a point taken straight from wishful thinking or refused to guard Ukraine’s interests trading them for the West’s interests. As a result, Ukraine let itself be used and abused and misused. The war is now in its final stages, territorial and human loss is unavoidable, while Ukraine’s sovereignty remains an unattainable dream: if Kiev does not need to obey Moscow, it certainly must obey Washington and Brussels. Was this outcome worth the hundreds of thousands dead or wounded, the territorial loss and the destruction of the country’s infrastructure?
Who in his right senses thought that Ukraine could become a NATO member without expecting Russia’s preventive and retaliatory reaction? Did nobody see what was coming? Obviously, Mexico militarily allied with China or Russia, hosting Chinese or Russian military bases – advisors – centres would be an abomination to the United States! Washington would intervene in Mexico in the same way as Moscow has in Ukraine. Really, was there no one in his right senses among the ranks of Ukraine’s political class to see how dangerous a game they were playing?
How sad! As we speak Ukrainians are dying and dying and dying by the thousands, and they have been dying for almost four years now in order to… finally and officially block Ukraine’s NATO membership for ever, and in order for Russia to gain some of Ukraine’s territory! What a calamity, what senselessness, what a disaster! And Ukraine’s fate will be decided by Washington and Moscow, not even by Brussels – Ukraine’s best friend – to say nothing of Kiev! Is that the sovereignty that Ukraine so desperately wanted to achieve?
One can make a safe guess that the closest family members of Ukraine’s ruling class have never ever exposed themselves to real warfare at the front. That explains why they did not care about common Ukrainians who have rotted and continue to rot in the trenches, bunkers and under the swarms of drones, for if the political class had had sons at the front, they would have long finished this senseless war; nay, they would not have allowed this war to break out, and they would have sent the Western warmongers packing.
