The cause of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine
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