“In dark times, bright people can be seen especially well”, these words of Remarque, a well-known author, about the First World War are often remembered. Currently, the Third World War is already underway, in which we are fighting for everyone.
Dozens of countries supply us with weapons, for which we are very grateful. But by doing so, they help not only us, but also protect themselves. After all, we are fighting not only for our independence, but for the entire free and democratic world. They spend only money, without which the war cannot be won either, but we lose the lives of the best of us.
It was we who had the burden of living side by side with the fiendish Führer and his no less crazy people. And then there is the question of which of them got infected from whom. But they have to bear joint responsibility.
And we, Ukrainians, are the people who shine in dark times, even when we have no light for hours.
In European and American capitals, they realized the need for security guarantees and resources for wars – to protect against those who do not recognize international law and the laws of diplomacy.
For eight years, since 2014, we have truly changed the world and its outlook. Let’s look, for example, at the tectonic movements that happened to German politics.
The Germans have changed their energy policy, laid down in the time of Brezhnev-Schmidt by the “gas-pipe” agreement, which was not hindered even by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Germany allocates many times more money for the development of the Bundeswehr. Until recently, Germany considered it irrelevant, but now, it seems, believes that the Moscow paranoiacs “can and will do it again.”
The United States is also changing. In 2014, they sent blankets, and then we agreed on the Javelin, in 2022 – we have already reached the Patriot deliveries. I hope that during the December summit in Washington, the Ukrainian side presented convincing arguments, and Santa Claus is already preparing F-16 aircraft, ATACMS missiles, and attack drones for us.
We believe in the Armed Forces, and our partners do. They used to say that Ukrainians fight like heroes, now they say that heroes fight like Ukrainians.
Changing the world, our country changed itself, starting from 2014. Bloody from losses and black from burns, year 2022 recognized the real us. Not farmers, but warriors. Not the “maloros”, but the Ukrainians. Not indifferent, but ardent.
In the year of the centenary of the USSR, Ukrainians finally broke with the Soviet-Russian past and became not just a cathedral, but a monolithic political nation.
There is no more east or west, south or north. A bold point is made in discussions about the importance of identity. It is like a thread on which beads of conclusions, realities and plans are strung.
Russia came to kill us because we are Ukrainians. Russia in the occupied territories either shot or forced teachers to collaborate, because they form meanings in the minds of the next generation.
Russia openly admits that a conscious Ukraine, or, as they say, “political Ukrainianism”, is a mortal threat to the wounded and bruised empire.
Our strength came as a surprise to them. Because since 2014, we have become different and changed the country. We created a new Ukrainian army and restored our defense capability, strengthened our linguistic identity, and won church independence.
Unfortunately, there were those who laughed “that Putin will attack” and lied that the war is because “Poroshenko is making money from it” and “we just need to stop shooting.” But the formula “Army. Language. Faith” became generally accepted.
As in that meme: “Why did you switch to Ukrainian? – We went to bed on 23 февраля (23.02. in russian) and woke up on 24 лютого (in ukrainian)” The trend of the year on Duolingo is a surge of foreign interest in Ukrainian. Almost one and a half million people began to learn it.
54% of Ukrainians, according to the recently released data of Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, believe that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which is actually an exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, should be completely banned. Another 24% are in favor of a somewhat “softer” approach, which “presupposes the establishment of state control and supervision.”
It is time to vote for the relevant draft law prepared by “European Solidarity” and not break the comedy with the examination of whether the UOC (MP) belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church or not. After all, almost 80% – four (!) out of five – of Ukrainians are in favor of the fact that the state should somehow intervene in the activities of the UOC (MP). By the way, in 2019, a criminal case was initiated against me for “interference” against Tomos. It still hasn’t been closed, but, as you can see, “history has vindicated me.”
In Kyiv and in the regions, in peaceful cities and on the front line, which I traveled all over with help for the military and more than once, l’m amazed at how mature our society has become. Amazing solidarity, when you want to hug everyone you meet, as if you were a family member, because he is also a Ukrainian. Strength of spirit and willpower. Irrepressible optimism, such faith in victory, which will surely be rewarded! That’s who we are.
I remember how on February 24, just a few hours after the beginning of the invasion, I met with Zelensky and offered to shake hands: “We are starting over. Our martial law team is not the opposition. We have something to defend together – this is Ukraine. We have something to unite around – it’s the Armed Forces. And we have a single enemy – it’s Putin, rashists, invaders and murderers.” Zelensky wholeheartedly agreed.
Unity in Ukraine is what prevented Putin from undermining us from the inside, which he was counting on. It was the internal unity that gave a powerful impetus to strengthening the solidarity of the entire democratic world, which multiplied the international coalition in support of Ukraine.
Unity in Ukraine itself encouraged everyone – from Washington to London, from Berlin to Paris – to strengthen the transatlantic ranks in opposition to the Russian invasion. Rammstein is the result of our unity.
Unity is an imperative for everyone, including me. Because it has been known since evangelical times that a kingdom divided within itself will fall. Therefore, 2023 should be a year of unity.
Start negotiations on joining the EU and NATO, win the war, start building a new Ukraine with a new economy – these are our main tasks for 2023, the strategy in one sentence.
Today, world capitals have already stopped talking about any other option for peace than Ukrainian victory. But away with rose-colored glasses! Banish thoughts that we will easily defeat Russia.
Exhausting, difficult battles ahead. We have won many battles, from Kyiv region to Kherson, but we have not yet won the war.
Already from the beginning of the year, Ukrainian diplomacy is obliged, must simply ensure a quantitative and qualitative jump in the armament of Ukraine.
We desperately need F-16 fighter jets. Not to attack Moscow, although it deserves that, but to shoot down Russian vultures.
The second position is ATACMS long-range missiles. In order for us to destroy Russian weapons depots and command posts hundreds of miles from the front.
The third is strike drones.
The fourth is to get all the promised Air Defense systems and create its unified system – our Ukrainian dome.
The fact that the government applied for membership in NATO is an absolutely correct step. This is a step towards the implementation of a direct provision of the Constitution. And this is fully in line with public demands: more than 80% of Ukrainians support joining NATO, while from 2010 to 2014 such support fluctuated between 15-20%.
But submitting an application is not enough – it must be implemented. At the Vilnius summit in 2023 – at least to achieve its political approval. This is an extremely difficult task, but it is possible.
If our country’s membership in NATO has always been a public red line for the Russian neo-imperial regime, membership in the EU was apparently not such an irritant. However, in terms of its historical meaning, it will have much more serious consequences.
A European, democratic, successful Ukraine is a global and existential challenge for Russia. Our success in the EU is the collapse of the Russian neo-imperial idea for a generations. And that is why we have no right to fail in 2023 and must start negotiations on joining the European Union.
In this matter, we were given a huge loan, which Ukrainians won with sweat and blood. Therefore, I strongly advise the authorities not to lead their partners around, so as to not be deceived. And simply follow the recommendations of our European allies to start such negotiations. By analogy: we fulfilled almost more than one and a half hundred points of the Visa Liberalization Plan and got visa-free. The approach is the same now.
Now in January, it is worth revising the mechanism for selecting candidates for the Constitutional Court with the strengthening of the role of international experts in determining the integrity of candidates, which fully justified itself in the formation of the High Anti-Corruption Court. We have developed the corresponding draft law, but we do not insist on authorship – heal it yourself and bring it to a vote.
Now in January, we demand to remove restrictions on the broadcasting of patriotic TV channels, to respond appropriately to anti-corruption investigations of journalists, and in the parliament to start taking an interest in someone else’s opinion besides our own. So that the Verkhovna rada, that got used to heated discussions, God forbid, does not degenerate over time into the Duma where “there is no place for discussions.”
A war with Russia is a war not only for territory, but also for values. For rights and freedoms, for democracy. This is our European civilizational choice.
It is already obvious that after the victory over Russia, one of the key challenges will be the challenge of authoritarianism – taking into account the pre-war practice of uncontrolled monomajority, multiplied by the experience of applying martial law. It’s not because someone is good or bad. There are objective laws of power. Lord Acton once wrote: “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Returning to democratic procedures will not be easy. But the war forever closed the option to return to “the way it was”.
We can write on a clean slate how it should be. Write and then do. We can now do all the things that our hands could not reach before, without looking back. Right now – to think deeply and plan in detail, after the victory – to implement immediately.
Let’s take industry and the typical, until recently, the largest fillers of the budget. It was metallurgy, giant plants. Their philosophy left to us from the USSR, they harmed the environment, did not meet the technological level of the 21st century, and consumed incredible amounts of power generation capacity.
Should we to restore them in the same form? Or should we look for other industries that will be the economic locomotives of the country after the victory?
What should be restored/built according to the latest technology, and what should be dismantled for scrap, because humanity has long since moved forward?
Crisis is not only a test, but also an opportunity. The fact that we have lost much of the industry of the 20th century gives us the opportunity to build industry from the middle of the 21st century. And this will be Ukraine’s competitive advantage.
The year 2022 showed that the world depends much more on our grain than on metal. The food shortage will only grow, agricultural land and water have already become an invaluable strategic resource.
Another example, the Ukrainian subsoil contains up to 10% of the world’s lithium reserves. The specificity of relations with China has already caused a global shortage of chips, so why not make the location of production sites in Ukraine more economically profitable than in the China?
Ukraine will build the most powerful army and military-industrial complex in Europe – because we are an outpost.
Modern national security relies on its own science, technology, and production. And “both for myself and for people.” Ukrainian engines in Turkish drones proved: we can, and the prospects are great.
The world felt the threat of authoritarian regimes and began to realize the error of disarmament, so it will build up its muscles. Ukraine can be not only a consumer in this process, but also a supplier.
A separate chance that the tragedy of 2022 opens up for us is the reconstruction of destroyed cities and towns. Our settlements mainly grew according to the inertia of rules and logic, which was laid down during the USSR. From there, heat lines that heat the grass in winter with energy losses; morally and physically outdated housing stock; industrial zones in the middle of residential areas; shortage of green spaces.
Destroyed settlements will not need to be restored, but created anew in a different, modern format. Did we lack the spirit and finances to do it in previous decades? 2022 pushes – start doing it now, uncompromisingly, at the highest bar of requirements. Maintaining decentralization.
As the experience of the post-war reconstruction of many states shows, they are able to rise very quickly not only from the ashes, but also to become new technological giants, leading states.
Today, more than ever, we have a chance to make a rapid historical breakthrough, a quantum leap to a completely different level of development. The highest price was paid for this chance… We have no right to waste it. Glory to Ukraine!