• Almost 90 years later, since the Holodomor, the Kremlin had not given up its desire to once again subjugate the Ukrainian people and grab their lands.
• Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is yet another step as part of a well-planned Russian armed aggression against Ukraine, which started with annexation of Crimea
Image: HANDOUT
Today, Ukraine commemorates the anniversary of the Russian unprovoked and unjustified full-scale invasion of the territory of an independent and sovereign Ukraine.
A year ago, on early morning of February 24, 2022, Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine with strikes from land, air and sea using cruise, ballistic missiles and reactive system volley fire against the capital city, Kyiv, and other cities in the country.
This invasion began after Russia President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address that he had approved a “special military operation”. The move came after Moscow earlier recognised rebel-held areas in Luhansk and Donetsk regions as “independent entities” and said they had asked for “its military assistance”.
According to Putin, this “special military operation” is aimed at the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, which allegedly is led by neo-Nazis, who persecute the ethnic Russian minority. But this is nothing more than a sick imagination of the Russian dictator.
For centuries, Moscow has pursued an anti-Ukrainian, brutal policy aimed at the eradication of Ukrainian culture, language and traditions, and the wipeout of the Ukrainian intelligentsia.Andrii Pravednyk
For a year, the Moscow regime is continuing its merciless, bloodthirsty terror by shelling Ukrainian cities, striking civilians and critical infrastructure, in particular energy one. This monstrous Russian war against Ukraine took lives of many thousands of Ukrainians, destroyed their homes, leaved children, women and elderly without electricity, water, heating, without the primary means of livelihood.
This policy of the Kremlin is the genocide of the Ukrainian people, the desire of the Russian leader to destroy Ukrainians as a nation, to deprive the country of the right to be an independent country.
Russia's desire to destroy Ukrainians as a nation has its roots deep in the historical past. For centuries, Moscow has pursued an anti-Ukrainian, brutal policy aimed at the eradication of Ukrainian culture, language and traditions, and the wipeout of the Ukrainian intelligentsia.
The tragic events of the Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932-33 are one of the evidences of Kremlin's policy aimed at exterminating the Ukrainian nation. During these two years, millions of innocent Ukrainians were deliberately starved to death by the Stalin’s regime. The Soviet Union’s barbaric seizure of Ukrainian land and crops was undertaken with the deliberate political goal of subjugating the Ukrainian people.
Almost 90 years later, the Kremlin had not given up its desire to once again subjugate the Ukrainian people and grab their lands. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is yet another step as part of a well-planned Russian armed aggression against Ukraine, which started on February 20, 2014 with the military operation of its armed forces on seizing a part of the Ukrainian territory — Crimean peninsula. This date is not even denied by the Russian Ministry of Defence, as it is indicated on the departmental medal “For the return of Crimea”.
Illegal occupation and attempted annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol was just the first Russian step aimed at undermining the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine.
The Kremlin has always been firmly convinced that Russia will never become a world leader without control over Ukraine. Meanwhile a democratic and prosperous Ukraine is a threat to the current authoritarian rule in Russia.
That is why the next step of the Russian aggression was an attempt to destabilize the situation in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine to form a quasi-state “Novorossiya”. Ukraine succeeded to disrupt the full implementation of this plan, but Russian regular troops and its proxies occupied certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
Defeated and not achieving his goal, Putin burrowed into his hole like a rat and began hatching a treacherous plan for revenge. Eight years later, Moscow began to implement its crazy plan to destroy Ukraine, under the guise of supposedly peaceful goals of protecting the so-called "Russian world".
As Russian leadership and the puppets of the Kremlin claimed, they expected to take Kyiv in three days. They hoped that some regions of Ukraine, which they considered allegedly pro-Russian, would meet Russian death squads with flowers and would definitely support Moscow’s intervention.
And this time, the Kremlin blitzkrieg suffocated, encountering the unexpected Ukrainian resistance. Ukrainians went to the streets of the cities, laying down under Russian tanks, creating "living chains", organising peaceful anti-Russian demonstrations to stop the Russian onslaught.
Unprecedented resilience of Ukrainians, including Russian-speaking ones, is a convincing proof that Kremlin's narratives about the alleged oppression of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine are nothing more than complete lies of Moscow.
Political and economic sanctions were imposed on Russia in response to its aggression against Ukraine.
Putin, who supposedly wants to establish peace in Ukraine and rejects any accusations of unleashing bloody terror on the Ukrainian people, proposes to Ukraine his so-called "peace agreement", which provides the recognition of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as Russian territory.
This is absolutely unacceptable for reasons understandable to most people, who love their country.
The peace should be fair, lasting and based on international law, in particular the principles of inviolability of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
Ukraine proposed a real mechanism – Ukraine's Peace Formula that was presented by President Volodymyr Zelensky on November 15, 2022, at the G-20 Summit.
It consists of 10 steps to put an end to russian aggression, restore peace, and strengthen respect for international law. These ten elements include nuclear safety, food security, energy security, release of all prisoners and deported persons, implementation of the UN Charter and restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, full withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities, restoration of justice, countering ecocide, preventing escalation, and ensuring that aggression does not repeat.
Andrii Pravednyk is the Ambassador of Ukraine to Kenya