More Evidence Ukraine Moves Away from Moscow

Step by step, for the past three decades, Ukrainians from East to West and along the Black Sea, senior citizens and students, have been moving away from Moscow.

And this is apparent in all segments of life, including social, civic, spiritual, intellectual and national.

Russia, in its blind age-old desire to keep Ukrainians and consequently Ukraine confined in its prison of nations, not only wants the territory and people but also their hearts and souls. If the people didn’t submit voluntarily, Moscow would certainly apply physical and mental pressure on Ukrainians to succumb to its dogmas.

One of Russia’s most telling markers of the people’s compliance to its rule is the their opinion of the Ukrainian liberation movement of all ages and specifically the recent one waged by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, known by its legendary Ukrainian acronym – UPA. Ukrainian men and women in the ranks of this immortal army fought against Russia and Nazi Germany throughout World War II and later. Historical records confirm that they fought until the 1960s.

So long as Ukrainians refuted the existence and mission of the UPA, Moscow was content and safe in its misplaced belief of an assured future as the oppressor. If the people swayed from the Kremlin’s barbed wire of national imprisonment by honoring the legacy of the UPA, its hold over Ukrainians and its empire of evil would crumble.

After 30 years of independence and today’s seven-year war against Russia, Ukrainians have declared that they favor the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and Stepan Bandera and despise the USSR and Stalin. Ukrainians’ national pride emboldened by Moscow’s war and crimes against humanity have pushed them irreversibly farther from the Kremlin.

The Democratic Initiatives Foundation in Kyiv, in cooperation with the Razumkov Center, published on its website on May 7 the results of its national survey about Ukrainians’ views of history that paint a very non-Russian point of view.

According to the results, 46% of the respondents replied that they support the Kyiv government’s decision to recognize the soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army as legitimate fighters for Ukraine’s independence. Only 29% said they opposed the outcome, 9% said it didn’t matter and 16% didn’t reply. Significantly, half of the young respondents 18-29 said they support this decision. The largest number of advocates of this position came from Western and Central Ukraine.

This is a significant conclusion when taken in the context of the ongoing massive Russian propaganda against Ukrainian liberation fighters.

Asked about commemorating May 8 as Memorial Day and Peace and May 9 as victory over Nazism, 41% of the respondents said they favored observing both World War II events simultaneously – another infraction against Russian thinking.

In a move that certainly stung the Kremlin, Ukrainians cast doubt on the military prowess of the Soviet Union during the war with 46% of them saying they didn’t believe the USSR could have defeated Nazi Germany without the assistance of the United States and its allies.

Forty-eight percent of the survey participants said they are convinced that the war began as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement which sought to divide the world between the two allies Berlin and Moscow.

One-quarter of the respondents said Victory Day May 9 is first of all a victory of the anti-Hitler coalition of World War Two.

Another slap in the face against Moscow is Ukrainians’ scorn of Stalin, who is revered by Putin and many Russians. Sixty-two percent said the perpetrator of the famine murder of Ukrainians was a negative figure in Ukraine’s history.

As for their opinion of Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukraine’s armed resistance against Russian subjugation, 32% of the respondents said he was a positive influence on Ukraine’s history and the same total felt he was a negative impact. Interestingly, 36% of the President’s Servant of the People party said Bandera was a positive figure in Ukraine’s history.

Certainly, the road back to Russian subjugation is overgrown with weeds, thorns and fallen trees.

Reaching the Terminus a Quo, again

The free world certainly seems to be an assembly of very patient, likeminded countries, governments and leaders that favor freedom and democracy but prefer to talk, negotiate and pronounce even with international criminals.

While Russia continues waging its seven-year war against Ukraine and conducts a wide range of dirty tricks around the world, the free world stands should-to-shoulder in condemning Moscow and threatening greater recriminations against its governing junta.

However, Vladimir Putin and his cronies remain unfazed, displaying a “What me?” attitude. Where would the world be if Adolf Hitler couldn’t care less about Winston Churchill’s verbal reprisals?

Regional organizations continue to support Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as a return of Crimea to Ukraine.

On April 27 the European Parliament adopted a resolution, which condemned Russia’s military escalation on Ukraine’s border and warned “Should military build-up lead to an invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the EU must make clear the consequences for such a violation of international law and norms would be severe. Such a scenario must result in an immediate halt to EU imports of oil and gas from Russia, the exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT payment system and the freezing of assets and cancellation of visas for Europe of all oligarchs tied to the Russian authorities.”

The resolution was approved by 569 votes in favor, 67 against with 46 abstentions.

The European legislature, consisting of 705 legislators from 27 member-states, declared that Russia “poses not only an external threat to European security, but is also waging an internal war on its own people in the form of the systematic oppression of the opposition and arrests on the streets.”
It said that if the Russian army would be used to invade Ukraine, “imports of oil and gas from Russia to the EU [should] be immediately stopped’ and Russia should be “excluded from the SWIFT payment system” of international bank transfers.
It also said “assets in the EU of oligarchs close to the Russian authorities and their families” need to be frozen and their EU visas canceled if those Russian forces invade Ukraine.

The European Parliament expressed that it “Supports Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders; reiterates its strong support for the EU’s policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol; welcomes all of the restrictive measures taken by the EU as a consequence of the illegal annexation; calls for the immediate release of all illegally detained and imprisoned Ukrainian citizens in the Crimean peninsula and in Russia, and deplores the continued human rights violations perpetrated in Crimea and the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, as well as the large-scale conferral of Russian nationality (passportization) among citizens in those areas; underlines that Russian officials whose actions or inaction have enabled or resulted in war crimes in Ukraine will have to face international criminal justice.”

It seems as if Moscow is in violation of all of the parliament’s strictures and warnings.

On a closer scale, Ukraine and four former captive nations of Russian subjugation met in Warsaw on May 3 to commemorate the 230th anniversary of the adoption of the May Third Constitution and dedicated themselves to reinforcing their democratic mutually beneficial relations.

The event was attended by President of Poland Andrzej Duda, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Estonia Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Latvia Egils Levits and President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda. It is particularly significant that Moscow was not included in this forward-looking remembrance.

The presidents said: “We express the conviction that the prosperity of our common heritage and common home, rooted in the European civilization, demands that, just like home, also Europe be built on the basis of fundamental values and principles. These are with no doubt: freedom, sovereignty, territorial integrity, democracy, the rule of law, equality and solidarity…We believe that to all of us the solidarity of nations, especially under current threats to our common security, is one of the cornerstones of peace, stability, development, prosperity and resilience.”

Separately, in bilateral talks, President Duda said Poland is ready to fully support Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. For Ukraine, Poland and the region, this is a declaration of singular importance. It means uniting the futures of the former captive nations into a united bloc for their mutual benefit and security, which is a goal that I have advocated on numerous occasions.

“Our bilateral meeting ended today with the signing of a joint declaration on the European prospect for Ukraine, i.e. belonging to the EU. In this issue, Poland has always supported Ukraine,” Andrzej Duda said at a joint briefing on the results of bilateral talks.

“It is also very important for us because this will be the first important summit with the participation of our friends and partners related to the deoccupation of the Ukrainian Crimea,” said Ukraine’s Zelenskyy. Furthermore, Zelenskyy said, Duda once again emphasized his support for the European and European integration aspirations of the Ukrainian state.

“This is a very important signal. I am grateful that Poland, led by President Duda, always protects our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and does not recognize the occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula,” Zelenskyy said. “Because we really understand one another very well.”

Indeed, Kyiv, Warsaw, Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn understand each other very well having individually and collectively experienced Russian subjugation and the joy of liberation.

As the free world looks on the region in the wake of Moscow’s withdrawal from Ukraine’s border, political and military observers, including an honest Russian one, believe the threat has not dissipated. Russia can return to Ukraine’s frontier at any time.

The threat of a major Russian military operation against Ukraine and the West more broadly has not disappeared, Pavel Felgengauer, a Russian military analyst known for his publications about Russia’s political and military leadership, opined, according to EuroMaidan Press.

Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about worldwide threats, on Thursday, April 29, the Russian military is an “existential threat” not only to the region and world but also to the United States. The ocean is not a defense perimeter.

Berrier said Russia’s military is being used to maintain influence over states “along its periphery, compete with US global primacy and compel adversaries who challenge Russia’s vital national interests.” He also said “Moscow continues to invest in its strategic nuclear forces, in new capabilities to enhance its strategic deterrent, and that places the US homeland at risk.”

Again we’re at the terminus a quo. Russia continues to do what it has been doing for centuries. Ukraine and the former captive nations along with European countries closest to Russia’s border are hoping for the best while preparing for the worst. While the free world is watching, talking and threatening.

Fighting for Ukraine’s Sovereignty in the Kitchen

A few days ago, when British-French fashion magazine Marie Claire announced it was transitioning from the Russian to the Ukrainian language, I tweeted “Victory is achieved one letter, one word at a time.”

Now that concept of moving as far away from Russia as possible, as President Viktor Poroshenko had said, can be expanded to include recipes, ingredients and dishes.

The battle for Ukraine’s national identity and sovereignty has moved into the kitchen. And there’s something hopeful in the adage that the best way to a man’s (or women’s) heart is through the stomach. Consider this not only decommunization but also derussification.

Euromaidan Press asked culinary experts and chefs about this and they opined favorably about promoting Ukrainian dishes and downplaying traditional Russian or Soviet ones that have made their way onto Ukrainians’ stoves and dining rooms.

Their observations about why it is important to decommunize are heartwarming. I’ve included a URL to the article, but I wanted to highlight some of their salient comments.

Smachnoho!

• This is the most distinctive feature of Ukrainian cuisine. Ukrainian dishes are known for their variety, aroma, and specific taste.

• Some dishes are centuries old, such as Ukrainian borshch.

• But, unless we remove the Soviet Union from our tables, we’ll never be able to re-discover our authentic Ukrainian cuisine.

• What decommunization means is that authentic Ukrainian cuisine, which was erased from our collective memory 100 years ago, can now develop in a favorable environment.

• At this stage, if we don’t decommunize Ukrainian cuisine at the national level, we’ll never break the vicious circle of Soviet heritage that surrounds us.

• This is the main significance of decommunization. Let’s develop and promote real Ukrainian cuisine in a favorable environment.

• Decommunization is an important process, but we shouldn’t place Ukrainian Heroes and the dismantling of Soviet monuments on the same level as overall rejection of olivier or shuba salads.

• Ukraine is a post-colonial state, and Ukrainian cuisine is in the process of being re-discovered. Ukrainian cuisine doesn’t need to be ‘decommunized’, but it does need to be carefully studied and developed.

• I think it’s time to get rid of such names, because it encloses Ukrainian consumers in a common informational and aesthetic space with Russia.

• As the Soviet Union was taken over by the Russian Federation, everything now is Russian cuisine, including Georgian kebabs, Uzbek pilaf and Ukrainian borshch.

• I’d rather talk about Ukraine’s gastronomy in the past, find forgotten treasures and rethink how our gastronomic culture developed through the ages.

• I see the ​​decommunization of Ukrainian cuisine as a return to genuine techniques and recipes.

• Decommunizing Ukrainian cuisine is a good idea!

• I’d rather talk about Ukraine’s gastronomy in the past, find forgotten treasures and rethink how our gastronomic culture developed through the ages.

• My goal for the future is to show Ukraine to the world through our food and tastes.

For the complete article, visit:

http://euromaidanpress.com/2021/04/28/reviving-ukrainian-cuisine-its-all-about-decommunization-identity-rethinking-ukraines-past-say-culinary-experts/