The last section. That is worth understanding about Putin's purpose and war of

Despite a number of Ukrainian military successes and more evidence that the Russian invasion has exhausted, calls for compromise peace are ongoing. Video of the Day of Self -Realists of Foreign Policy, who are on these calls, as a rule, do not take into account the fact that the land they so seek to give is in fact a home for millions of Ukrainians, which threatens a desperately crazy future in a long -term Russian occupation.

Such arguments reflect the fundamental inability to understand that the nucleus of modern Russian identity is imperialism that has not repented, and at the heart of the invasion of Ukraine underlie genocidal goals. Many in the realist camp are still convinced that the roots of the current conflict are in the expansion of NATO and the invasion of the West into the traditional sphere of influence of Russia.

Usually, they are treated as a rational geopolitical dispute today and insist that Putin's actions, no matter how cruel they may be, are a more or less inevitable response to the West's own provocative policy over decades after the collapse of the USSR. This friendly Narrative's friend has never withstood a serious check. In the end, even the most ardent Russian propagandists recognize that the whole idea of ​​NATO attack on Russia is pure fantasy.

Even if NATO really gave plans to Russia, why not use the Baltic countries that have the same geographical closeness as Ukraine and are members of the Alliance for almost two decades? The events of the last six months were even more confidence in Moscow's myths about NATO.

High -ranking Kremlin officials are now free to admit that the current Russian invasion will continue, even if Ukraine will completely exclude NATO membership and officially approve neutrality, as President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested. Meanwhile, Russia has almost humbly made a recent decision of neighboring Finland to join NATO.

This gentle response to the accelerated application of Finland for membership has turned into a derision earlier protests of the Kremlin about the inability to increase the presence of NATO near the borders of Russia. In fact, of course, Putin is well aware that NATO does not pose a threat to Russia's safety. He simply used the problem in his interests.

The Russian dictator used the stored event in the reasonableness of expanding the Alliance after 1991 in a convenient way to mask and legitimize its own historical mission to destroy independent Ukraine. Putin is the latter in a long number of Russian rulers who sought to eradicate Ukrainian identity and erase Ukraine from a map of Europe. This dark story provides an important context for anyone who wants to understand today's war.

In fact, the current invasion is the last link in the continuous chain of imperial oppression, which has more than three hundred years. For centuries, Russian regimes that have changed each other mercilessly suppressed Ukraine's aspirations for independence, conducting a wave behind a wave of Russification. Generations of Ukrainians were deprived of their past, forbidden to use their mother tongue.

The peak was reached in the early 1930s, when millions of people died of starvation through the Holodomor-a genocide, arranged by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to eradicate Ukrainian national identity in its deep rural areas. Although Ukraine has officially gained independence in 1991, Russia has not resigned to this division.

Instead, Moscow sought to hold independent Ukraine firmly in the Kremlin's orbit and considered Ukraine's attempts to begin a democratic European future as an existential threat to authoritarian Russia, which should be prevented at almost any cost. Throughout his reign, Vladimir Putin has dominated the need for either Ukraine or to crush it in foreign policy thinking.

His turn from early cooperation with the West to the Cold War Confrontation was a direct answer to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Ten years later, when millions of Ukrainians again took to the streets in defense of their European choice and democracy, Putin went further and ordered his military to intervene.

The seizure of Crimea in 2014 and the occupation of Eastern Ukraine prepared the soil for a full -scale invasion of this year and demonstrated Putin's willingness to go for significant sacrifices for the sake of "resolving the Ukrainian issue. " Although supporters of peace may not know about the true intentions of Russia, Ukrainians do not have such illusions. They are familiar with a deeply rooted culture in Russia to deny their country's right to exist.

They also noted that Russian rhetoric on Ukraine became more radical several months before the invasion. In July 2021, Putin himself published a frantic historic essay on 5,000 words, which many compared to the declaration of war of Ukrainian statehood. As Putin's obsession with the beginning of hostilities, the destruction of Ukraine became more and more obvious.

He proclaimed Ukraine an integral part of Russia's own history, culture and spiritual space, while condemning the current Ukrainian state as an illegitimate "anti -Russian", which can no longer put up. During the first six months of invasion, the genocidal intentions of Russia have become even more obvious.

Officials of the regime regularly call into question the further existence of Ukraine, and the debate about the desirability of genocide in Ukraine became the daily theme of Russian television controlled by the Kremlin. Meanwhile, the state media has been ascertained that Putin's "denacification" actually means "de -Ukrainianization" of Ukraine. These words, from which the blood in the veins, was more than confirmed by affairs.

The Russian army used massive artillery shelling to destroy whole Ukrainian cities and settlements together with their civilian population. It is believed that tens of thousands of people were killed in Mariupol, when Russian troops were methodically destroying the Ukrainian seaside city. In the regions under Russian occupation, Putin's troops systematically commit mass murders. In the liberated areas, groups of victims with tied hands and traces of torture were repeatedly identified.

Millions of civilians of Ukraine were forcibly deported to Russia, including thousands of children. Those who are left are tactics of terror, up to the abduction and capture of hostages. The Ukrainian language was removed from all aspects of public life, and parents who refuse to expose their children to Russian ideological processing warn that they are at risk of loss of care.

Given the openness of Russia's plans for the destruction of the Ukrainian nation, it is not surprising that the vast majority of Ukrainians strongly oppose any agreement with the Kremlin on the principle of "land in exchange for peace".

They recognize that the settlement by negotiations, according to which parts of Ukraine are under the control of Russia, doomed residents of these regions to genocide and will path to the next Russian invasion after Putin's shabby armed forces are overrown and re -arranged. Instead of working with this gloomy fate, there is a determination to continue the struggle until a decisive victory is ensured. Faced with the destruction of their nation, most Ukrainians believe that they have no choice.

In the media, war in Ukraine is often depicted as a struggle between Russia and the West, but such a geopolitical idea is misleading. What we are watching right now is in fact the last section in the longest struggle for Europe's independence. As early as 1731, the French thinker Voltaire wrote: "Ukraine has always sought freedom. " This epic journey may be in the final stage.

Due to the incredible courage and stability, demonstrated in the last six months, the Ukrainian people are now closer to true freedom than ever in their long and troubled history. It is vital that the democratic world now remains the only one around Ukraine, since the war is in the decisive period. There should be no more conversations or compromises. Partial genocide is not an option. Instead, the only way to achieve a strong peace is to help Ukraine win war.