What are Ukrainians Fighting For?

Oleksandr Skrypnyk, an investigative, historical journalist in Ukraine, recently came across a quotation that was thought to be lost in time whose significance transcends the past, present and future.

In a recent Facebook post, Skrypnyk, who articles regarding disclosures of Russian dirty tricks against Ukraine and Ukrainians appear in THE UKRAINIAN QUARTERLY, wrote about the discovery of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky’s 1844 prayer book. It was lost during World War Two, when the church in Kosteniv, in the Lviv region, was ransacked.

The prayer book contained his handwritten marginal citation, call it an observation, warning, declaration, explanation to his contemporary as well as future Ukrainians about what they are facing at the hands of their enemies.

The citation emphasizes the insurmountable importance of cultural values: “If we are not fighting for our cultural values during war, then what are we fighting for!”

Indeed, what have Ukrainians been fighting for, what have they been defending for centuries against all invaders – Russian and non-Russian. They’ve been fighting for their cultural values, which embody their bloodline, their heritage and legacy, that which makes them Ukrainians.

Metropolitan Sheptytsky understood that, Ukrainian patriots before the spiritual leader of Ukrainians and after him also understood that. Russian cutthroats understand that as well.

In a blog on July 24, 2023, titled “Life Imitating Art or Russian & Nazi Terrorists never Change,” I observed: “Since time immemorial and especially in the past 17 months (29 months now) muscovites/russians regardless of the flag atop the kremlin have endeavored not only to annihilate Ukrainians but also their creations that have attested to where they came from, where they are and where they hope to go.

“We witnessed entire families mercilessly killed by russian cutthroats in uniforms. We’ve also seen them destroy museums, churches, historical books and literature, and artworks. The other day we saw the ruins of a historic sobor in Odesa that was struck by a russian missile (the other day it was the historical Pryvoz marketplace in the Black Sea city). That Ukrainian house of worship was destroyed by stalin, later rebuilt and now destroyed by putin – leaders of the same murderous people.”

I noted then that even Hollywood also took note of this type of war crime, the eradication of a people during wartime: “Here’s how a comparable tragic situation was summarized by George Clooney’s character Lt. Frank Stokes in the 2014 movie The Monuments Men, a movie about a six-man Allied squad that was tasked to locate classical artworks stolen and hidden by the nazis: “You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they'll still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it’s as if they never existed. That’s what hitler wants and that’s exactly what we are fighting for.”

To be sure, that’s what putin wants – the total eradication and annihilation of everything Ukrainian. And that’s exactly what we’re fighting for – the preservation of our bloodline.