The cause of the war in Ukraine are plans to rebuild the empire by an aggressive power that Russia is. Russian leader Vladimir Putin himself, already in 2005, called the collapse of the USSR “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century” and repeatedly afterwards expressed his regret over the closure of this colonial-imperial entity. In the course of signing the acts of annexation of the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, he once again stated that the collapse of the USSR was a “national catastrophe” that allegedly “shredded and torn our national unity alive”. The British might have as well written this about the disintegration of their Empire.

Putin is trying to impose his imperial-colonial version of Russia’s history, which is supposedly “Holy Russia”, having a divine anointing to conquer neighbouring nations. In this context, he argued that Ukraine “is not just a neighbouring country for us […] it is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space”. There is as much truth in this as in the claim that the countries created after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire are not only neighbouring countries of Turkey, but are its inalienable part. Just as no Iraqi would agree with such an approach, Ukrainians reject Putin’s words. His thesis that Ukrainians supposedly are “small Russians” forming part of the great Russian nation is simply a slap in the face for Ukrainians.

Neither Ukraine nor any other countries have given Russia any reason to fear for its security. Since the beginning of its invasion, Russia has lied on the subject, using various resentments operating, among others, in the Middle East, including particularly Iraq, in regards to the West, NATO and the USA. It is worth recalling that since the end of World War II in 1945, Russia has not been attacked, although it has done so many times. Dominated by Russia, the USSR has occupied, among others, Poland in the years of 1945-1993, invaded Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, not to mention the invasion on Afghanistan and many other imperial-colonial aggressions.

Poland, like many other Central European countries, despite the enormous harm suffered from the hands of Russia, tried to maintain friendly relations with it based on mutual respect and equal treatment. However, Russia does not want to be a normal country, but an empire. The territory of Russia, its sovereignty and territorial integrity have never been threatened. This also applies to national liberation movements in the Russian colonies, i.e. areas conquered mainly in the 19th century, which culturally, ethnically and historically have nothing to do with Russia, e.g. Chechnya, Buryatia, Kalmykia, etc. Although the colonial status of these areas is a historical injustice, in order to build friendly relations with Russia, it was decided to consider it an internal matter of Russia.

However, this does not suffice for Russia. It believes that the sovereign states that were once part of its empire should be subordinate to it. This applies in particular to Ukraine, as well as Belarus, although also Poland and many other countries. From this perspective, it considers limiting its imperial sphere of influence through sovereign decisions of nations liberated from its yoke to be an “attack” on itself. No free nation can accept such an approach.

Guarantees of independence for Ukraine and pro-Russian separatism

The collapse of the USSR in 1991 was not the result of war or external pressure, but was agreed by the leaders of Soviet Russia, Belarus and Ukraine at a meeting in Białowieża in December 1991. In this way, Ukraine was reborn as an independent country. In the referendum held at that time, 90% of voters were in favour of independence, with a turnout of 84%. In the currently occupied by Russia regions of Ukraine, 84 percent in Luhansk Oblast, 77 percent in Donetsk Oblast, 90 percent in Kherson Oblast, and 54 percent in Crimea voted for independence. Russia unreservedly recognized not only Ukraine’s independence, but also its borders. Moreover, in December 1994, it signed the Budapest Memorandum, in which it declared itself as the guarantor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, in exchange for Ukraine’s resignation from its nuclear arsenal.

Pro-Russian separatism suddenly appeared in 2014, when Russia decided to punish Ukraine for striving for greater independence. It was not about a plan to admit Ukraine to NATO, as many NATO members opposed it, and therefore it was completely unrealistic. However, even if Ukraine was to join NATO, it would be a matter of its sovereign decision and the acceptance of other NATO members, and not some aggressive empire usurping the right to decide about others. The people of Iraq should understand this. In 2014, Ukrainians took to the streets to protest against the pro-Russian authorities, as they increasingly travelled to neighbouring Poland and saw the gap between how Poles lived and how they lived. Especially young Ukrainians wanted to develop and have the same perspectives as other Europeans and that is why they wanted Ukraine to start integrating with the European Union. Taking away this opportunity from them by the pro-Russian authorities was the final straw that broke the camel’s back, so they decided to protest and overthrew the then president. Ukrainians wanted to integrate with the economic structures (no one had thought about any Western weapons or NATO before the Russian aggression). Can they be blamed for this? Don’t young Iraqis want to have better lives too?

However, the aforementioned separatism was not associated with any national minority striving for independence, because there is not and has never been a Donetsk, Luhansk or Crimean nation (the only Crimean nation is the Tatars, who are in favour of Ukraine). From the very beginning, the goal of “separatism” has been to seize the lands of Ukraine and their annexation to Russia and imposing a pro-Russian regime on Ukraine. “Separatism” was organized by Russian security agents, mercenaries and soldiers sent to Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. They were called “the green men” because they operated in unmarked uniforms, which was contrary to international law. The activity of soldiers of a foreign country on the territory of the other is an invasion contrary to the United Nations Charter, and this is what the operation of “the green men” on the territory of Ukraine was. At that time, Ukraine was too weak to resist. The corrupt rule of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych led to the disintegration of the army and its infiltration by traitors. Yanukovych himself was overthrown in 2014 by a people revolution and fled from Ukraine to Russia, fearing criminal liability. Russia currently states he still is a legitimate president, although several elections have been held in Ukraine in the meantime.

Russian aggression

Russia therefore invaded Ukraine already in 2014 and has been at war ever since. Ukraine is struggling to restore its territorial integrity, guaranteed by Russia in 1993, and has no territorial pretensions to Russian territory. It also does not want to change the authorities in Russia and interfere in its internal affairs. Meanwhile, Russia is usurping such a right against Ukraine. By what right? By the only one known to Russia: the law of the fist.

On February 24, 2022 Russia has launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine. At the same time, in order to misinform the world’s public opinion, it termed its invasion a “special operation” and tried to convince the world that it was not at war with Ukraine. But this time they were in for an unpleasant surprise, as not only the Ukrainian army but also the entire nation resisted decisively.

Russian aggression from its very first day was very brutal. Residential buildings of no military significance were shelled, not to mention civilian infrastructure that provided residents with access to electricity, gas, and water. However, when Russia realized that the population of Ukraine was definitely hostile to aggression, then it deliberately carried out attacks in such a way that there were as many victims as possible. On one hand, it was supposed to be a punishment, and on the other, to intimidate Ukrainians into surrendering. Because it also did not work, Russia decided to commit the crime of genocide. For this purpose, massacres of civilians were conducted, including in Bucza, Hostomel and Irpin, where in March 2022 more than 400 people were brutally murdered. These were not accidental crimes, but were carried out on the basis of proscription letters drawn up by the Russian authorities.

These are not the only Russian crimes committed during the invasion of Ukraine. They intensified after Russia failed to implement its original military objectives, i.e. in particular lost the battle for Kiev. The seizure of the Ukrainian capital, coupled with the authorities’ flight or their murder, was supposed to allow Yanukovych to be brought to Kiev and installed there at the head of the pro-Russian regime, as an allegedly legal power. However, nothing came of it, and the Ukrainian authorities, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, remained in Kiev and headed the defence. Ukraine’s fight with Russia was uneven from the beginning, and despite this, the demoralized Russian army had to withdraw from a large part of the occupied territories. In November 2022, The Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated Kherson, one of the 4 occupied peripheral cities (equivalent to the capitals of the Muhafaz).

Russian troops are responsible not only for the brutal murders but also for the mass rape of women. In addition, Russian mercenaries, i.e. infamous “Wagners”, carried out public executions that were not inferior to Daesh in their brutality. What is the difference between smashing a tied man’s head with a hammer and cutting it off? What is the difference between the crimes in Bucha and Irpin and the massacres in Sinjar or Camp Speicher? Daesh tried to blow up a dam in Mosul, which was thwarted as a result of a special operation. In June 2023, the Russians blew up a dam in Nowa Kakhovka, causing the flooding of large areas and an ecological disaster. This was aimed at stopping the Ukrainian counteroffensive against Crimea. Ukraine had to take care of the evacuation of approx. 40,000 people from flooded areas and spilled waters blocked the further progress of the counteroffensive. The Russians also created a threat of detonation of a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia.

Another crime committed by the Russians in Ukraine was the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to the depths of Russia. Stolen from their parents to be raised there as fanatical Russian nationalists who hate their own homeland. This fate befell as many as 700,000 Ukrainian children, and it is for this reason that the International Criminal Court in The Hague is prosecuting the main perpetrators of this crime: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, who directly led this action. This is also reminiscent of Daesh methods applied to children deported from Sinjar. As it is clear, the great criminals, whether Russian or Daesh, think and act similarly.

When the Russians understood that they would not be able to occupy the whole of Ukraine, and the population of this country would never forgive Russia for both the attack itself and the crimes committed in the course of it, they decided to seize as much of the territory of this country as possible. So they quit the fiction that there were some separatist republics whose population supposedly sought self-determination and simply annexed the conquered areas. To legalize it, they held fictitious referendums. Their results were predetermined, and people were herded to them under the barrels of rifles.

Russian attempts to attribute their own actions to others

At the same time, Russia is constantly suggesting that Poland wants to occupy the western part of Ukraine. Moreover, Russia has repeatedly suggested Poland to conclude an agreement on the partition of Ukraine. As most of the territory of Ukraine belonged to Poland in the 17th and 18th centuries, and until 1939 it belonged to the 5 western oblasts of today’s Ukraine. However, Poland decisively rejected these proposals because, unlike Russia, it respects the territorial integrity of other countries. It is also particularly cynical for Russian propaganda to suggest that it is fighting “Banderites” in Ukraine. The word “Banderites” comes from Stepan Bandera, whose movement during World War II was responsible not only for fighting the USSR but also for attacks on Poles (genocide). But Poland solves its problems with its neighbors, especially those related to a painful history, by peaceful methods, and not conducting aggressive acts, murders and rapes.

Since the first days of the war, Ukrainian refugees, fleeing Russian bombs, murders and rapes, have been coming to Poland en masse. Poland opened its doors wide to them, with a significant part of the refugees being Russian-speaking. Russia claims that Ukraine persecuted Russian-speaking citizens, but they fled to Poland. In total, since February 2022, more than 15 million Ukrainians have crossed the Polish border, mostly women and children. Although most of them have returned to Ukraine, but there are still several million refugees from Ukraine in various European countries. The most part, because approx. 2 million, expect in Poland the end of the war. As a result of the war in Ukraine, initiated by the Russian attack, about 200,000-250,000 people, and hundreds of thousands are injured. Russian barbarism has also led to mass destruction, and the blockade of Ukrainian ports has caused food problems in many countries. The whole time, Russia deceives part of the world’s public opinion by claiming that it wants peace. The problem is that if it really strived for it, it would withdraw from the occupied territories of Ukraine. But it does not do that. Because Russia understands many words differently. For it, the word peace means the unconditional capitulation of Ukraine, which would entail surrendering to the imperial and colonial voracity of Russia.

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Public task financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland within the grant competition “Public Diplomacy 2023”

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the official positions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.