Don’t condemn Ukraine to a future of tears
Shche Ne Vmerla Ukrayina; Ni Slava; Ni Volya — Ukraine has not died; not her glory; not her freedom.
These words of the Ukrainian national anthem serve as an eerie prologue to the situation that exists in my paternal grandparents’ former homeland. This nation that has suffered so much in the last 100 years — invasions, wars, civil strife, Stalin’s forced starvation of millions (known as the Holodomor, or genocide, in Ukrainian), only to finally emerge as an independent nation following the collapse of the Soviet Union, once again finds its very existence under threat from a corrupt regime bent on re-establishing Russian hegemony over its territory.
Ukraine’s current president is Viktor Yanukovych, who gained power in an election that neutral observers deemed less than fair and honest. In fact, in a previous presidential vote, Yanukovych was “elected” in an utterly fraudulent fashion that was later overturned in a general uprising by the Ukrainian people, who then elected Viktor Yushchenko. He led the so-called Orange Revolution that displaced Yanukovych.
Yuschenko, it should be noted, had to survive an attempt on his life during the election campaign when he was poisoned by dioxin. The result of the poisoning was to leave his face disfigured for life. To this day, no one knows for certain who slipped him the poison, but many believe it was either Russian agents or those working for Yanukovych.
With Yanukovych’s ascent to power has come a concerted attack on civil rights in Ukraine. Journalists have been beaten up, laws introduced to ban even peaceful demonstrations against the current regime, and the former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, was arrested and put into prison on trumped-up corruption charges. However, it appears her real crime, in Yanukovych’s eyes at least, was to nearly defeat him in the last presidential election.
All the while, the Ukrainian president has moved closer to Moscow. He has passed laws establishing Russian as one of the official languages in Ukraine. Russian TV signals flood across the airwaves in the heavily Russified areas of eastern Ukraine. He has turned away from joining the European Union in favour of a $15-billion pact with Moscow.
These deeds have proven too much for the majority of the Ukrainian people. Western Ukraine (where the ancestors of most Canadians of Ukrainian descent came from) is heavily nationalist and deeply wary of Russia. The rough geographical dividing line between fervent Ukrainian nationalism and proRussia sentiment is the ancient (and holy to Ukrainians) Dnieper River. Now, thousands continue to gather in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv to openly defy the anti-democratic law against demonstrations. Yanukovych’s police have so far killed three demonstrators and beaten many more. Demonstrations have broken out in other Ukrainian cities and regional governors have been literally thrown from their offices in the western part of the country.
Ukrainian ambassadors to Western European nations and Canada and the United States, have been called in to hear the expressed strong disapproval of the leaders of these democratic nations to the Ukrainian government’s conduct during the last several days.
In Canada, Parliament held an emergency debate on the Ukrainian situation and senior Ukrainian officials were banned from entering Canada. However, thus far, strong expressions of disapproval are all most western nations have offered. They need to take stronger action. They need to understand what is at stake; not just for freedom and democracy in Ukraine, but especially for Eastern European nations: a future free from the suffocating hug of the Russian bear.
It is no stretch to imagine an intervention by Russia in support of their near-puppet Yanukovych, should his future and power be imperilled by another democratic uprising similar to the Orange Revolution. Indeed, it is conceivable that only the proximity of the start of the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi has acted as a brake on Putin’s desire to establish a return to the Russian fold of one of the former constituent states of the Soviet Union. When the Games end, it could well be that we will see Russia’s real purpose in supporting Yanukovych.
Do the now free, democratic and prospering nations of Eastern Europe want to see Russian tanks on their borders again, as they once were? If not, then they must make it abundantly clear that they, together with NATO, will not accept any kind of Russian military intervention in Ukraine, like Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, or Georgia in 2008.
Ukraine has reached an absolute crucible in its history. It’s time to stand with those who choose democracy over oligarchy. Canada, with one million Canadians of Ukrainian descent, must take a leading role in this positioning. To do otherwise, is to condemn Ukraine to a future of tears. Many babas will weep; lamenting not only the loss of freedom in their country, but the loss of lives from an inevitable civil conflict should Russia step up its support for an illegitimate regime.