by VOLODYMYR YERMOLENKO
His drive to divide and partition the country is only making Ukrainians more united.
On February 24, Russia started a massive invasion of Ukraine. Despite the Kremlin claiming the Russian army has entered the country as a “liberatory” force, it has mercilessly targeted Ukrainian civilians.
It has bombed residential areas, schools, hospitals, commercial buildings across the country and has violated negotiated deals to open humanitarian corridors for evacuation. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service has said that at least 2,000 civilians have been killed so far.
The Russian army has also gone as far as attacking Ukrainian nuclear power sites in Chernobyl and Enerhodar, dangling the threat of a nuclear disaster in Europe’s face.
All of this the Kremlin is trying to justify with cynical propaganda, dehumanising and degrading Ukrainians. Its general narrative during the past years has been that Ukrainians are not a nation; that Ukrainian identity was invented by “Nazis” and therefore Russia needs to “denazify” the country.
During the first days of the war, Moscow may have been surprised to learn, however, that the majority of Ukrainians hate the idea of becoming Russians and hate Russian authoritarianism with Vladimir Putin at its helm.
Contrary to what the Russian president says and is constantly repeated by the Russian media, Ukrainians have a strong national identity and know who they are as a people. As Ukrainian sovereignty is in imminent danger, it is important to emphasise that Ukraine has had a distinct centuries-old history and the idea of Ukrainian statehood did not emerge with the creation of the Soviet Union.
Al Jazeera for more
(Thanks to Razi Azmi)