There is a war going on in Ukraine. This is a tragedy for Ukraine, this is a tragedy for the Russian people.
It is very difficult to write these lines. On February 24, Russian troops carried out rocket attacks on military facilities of the Ukrainian army in different cities of the country, brought in ground troops and are now fighting in the north, east and south of Ukraine. Half of Russians have relatives and friends in this country. For more than a thousand years, these peoples lived side by side, for about four hundred years - in one country.
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, all the republics decided to follow an independent path. It was a very difficult, painful path, because everything - families, the economy was so interconnected and intertwined that it was impossible to unravel it.
44 million inhabitants of Ukraine and 144 million in Russia. How many families have both Russian and Ukrainian roots? For the past thirty years, relations between the two kindred countries have been deteriorating, fueled by politicians, the media on both sides, inventing reasons, insulting each other.
For a long eight years there was a military conflict in the Donbass, during which time about 15 thousand people died here on both sides, including civilians, women and children. Many residents of Donbass were forced to leave their homes in order to save their lives, leaving for Russia or other countries, they are also in Australia.
Today we see a new, most tragic stage in the history of the two countries. Russia launched large-scale military operations on the territory of Ukraine. I and many of my friends did not believe in the possibility of such a development, despite the warnings of Western countries, because the Russian leadership assured that the Russian army had no plans to attack Ukraine. Unfortunately, this turned out to be untrue, or, if you like, a "military trick", we, unfortunately, now live in an age of outright lies.
The experience of recent decades shows that the military conflicts in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Syria did not solve any problems, did not benefit anyone, but led to massive suffering for the civilian population, millions of refugees who left their homes and created tension in countries far from the places of conflict .
Now, when Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are dying in battles, falling under shelling and ordinary people are dying, it is necessary to stop the war, find a peaceful way out of this tragedy, and sit down at the negotiating table. The whole world is waiting for this decision. There is no need to spread this hatred and war throughout the information world. The danger of a Third World War has never been as close as it is now.
Vladimir KOUZMIN
26 Feb 2022
