80th Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation

The following statement was issued by the Ukrainian World Congress on the occasion of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. In addition to the primary victims, Jews, the camp was also the site of the incarceration and mass murder of Ukrainians, anti-Nazi fighters and liberation leaders, and members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).

On January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) and global Ukrainian communities honor the memory of the 6 million Jewish victims executed and tortured by the Nazis, including nearly 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews.

We pray for all the innocent lives taken by the murderous totalitarian Nazi regime, which cultivated hatred, racism, and xenophobia. We also pay tribute to those who risked their lives to save innocent victims doomed to death.

Eighty years ago today, soldiers from the Soviet Red Army’s 1st Ukrainian Front, primarily composed of Ukrainians, liberated Auschwitz – a Nazi concentration and extermination camp in occupied Poland where more than a million people were murdered as part of the Nazis’ “final solution” to the “Jewish question.” On January 27, 1945, soldiers of the 100th Lviv Rifle Division’s battalion led by Anatoly Shapiro, a Ukrainian of Jewish origin from Poltava, were the first to open the gates of the main camp.

As commemoration events occur worldwide, Ukraine approaches the third anniversary of the Russian Federation’s full-scale brutal and genocidal invasion. The brave Ukrainian people continue their fight for freedom and sovereignty against the deadly Russian terrorist state.

Just like the Nazis, Putin’s authoritarian regime hides its imperialistic ambitions and dreams of “global domination” behind disinformation, lies, and criminal propaganda. With appalling cynicism, the Russians have been distorting and manipulating the memory of the Holocaust and the Second World War to justify their rapacious invasion of Ukraine.

The hatred that Russian occupiers have brought to Ukrainian soil after almost 80 years since the victory over Nazism in Europe has shocked the world. The massacres in Bucha, Izyum, and Mariupol, multiple sadistic atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces throughout Ukraine’s occupied territories, and the deliberate bombing of residential buildings, hospitals, and even memorial sites like the Babyn Yar National Memorial in Kyiv and the Drobytsky Yar Memorial in Kharkiv, must not go unanswered. The perpetrators must be held accountable.

While honoring the victims of the Holocaust, we call on all peace-loving nations to unite their efforts to help the Ukrainian people stop the Russian evil and defend the free world from descending into authoritarian darkness once again.

Just like Nazism, Putinism must be stopped.

Can President Trump trump Putin and save Ukraine?
President Donald J. Trump, the 47th President of the United States, is settling into his duties and projects at the Oval Office while the world is wondering how he will fulfill his pledge to end Russia’s “ridiculous” war against Ukraine in a couple of days.
None of the signals emanating from the White House or the State Department bode well for Ukraine. They reveal a profound lack of understanding or knowledge about Ukraine’s historical situation and point of view. Or, worse, an arrogant disregard for Ukraine’s interests. Finally, Trump et al have placed the victim, Ukraine, and the perpetrator, Russia, on the same plane.
Since assuming office, the Trump Administration has coined a name for its policy goal toward Ukraine: sustainable peace. According to the new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the goal is that the war with Russia won’t begin again in a few years. 
“We are going to engage in making it (the war) end in a way that is sustainable, meaning we don’t just want the conflict to end and then restart in two, three, or four years down the road,” Rubio said on the CBS Mornings program.
“We want to bring stability. It is a stalemate. It’s a war that was started by Russia, but it is now a stalemate, a protracted bloody conflict,” Rubio elaborated, adding that the war has been “incredibly destructive” for both Ukraine and Russia. Parity. Imagine claiming equality for England and Nazi Germany.
Rubio nevertheless said that Ukraine “is paying the biggest price of all to its energy infrastructure, to the people, the lives that are lost, to the millions of Ukrainians that have had to leave their countries and are living overseas.”
When asked about the expired 24-hour deadline for ending the war, Rubio reportedly evaded commenting on any possible timeframe and merely said that ending the war would be the “priority” and “policy of the United States.”
“It needs to end” — Rubio’s hopeful but naïve position on Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The secretary of state presumably is reading mainstream American newspapers rather than translations of Ukrainian news articles that give a different impression of the war. 
In any case, the current Administration unfortunately is unaware of the duration of this war, and it behooves them to learn about it. It has lasted far longer than three years. It’s lasted for centuries, and it was caused almost always by the same aggressor – Russia. Trump and his Cabinet – and all Republicans on the Hill and their johnny come lately supplicants – must absorb that concept.
As for negotiating an end to the war, in the words of the Israeli prime minister, the late Gold Meier, how do you negotiate with someone that wants you dead. You want to live, and the brutal enemy wants you dead. Where’s the midpoint?
The New York Times reported on Monday that Trump commented on the war in Ukraine, saying Putin is “destroying Russia [by wagging the war] ... he’s not doing so well... that’s no way to run a country.” News media quoted Trump saying he would do a very big favor to Russia and Putin by getting them to bring an end to “this ridiculous war” which he claimed was “destroying” Russia. That’s too much sympathy for the aggressor.
Trump said last week that he would likely impose sanctions on Russia if its Putin, refuses to negotiate about ending the war in Ukraine. Those restrictions could possibly have succeeded if they’ve never been tried but the United States and the international community has been applying sanctions against Moscow, its international businesses and businessmen since before this war started. The United States has already sanctioned Russia heavily for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last week urged the US to continue supplying arms to Kyiv and said Europe would pay the bill. Speaking at an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the NATO chief stressed that it was vital Russia did not win as it could result in Putin “high fiving” the leaders of North Korea and China.
“We really have to step up and not scale back our support for Ukraine,” he added. “The frontline is moving in the wrong direction.”
Rutte also warned that a Russian victory over Ukraine would undermine the dissuasive force of the world’s biggest military alliance and that its credibility could cost trillions to restore.
“If Ukraine loses then to restore the deterrence of the rest of NATO again, it will be a much, much higher price than what we are contemplating at this moment in terms of ramping up our spending and ramping up our industrial production,” Rutte said. “It will not be billions extra; it will be trillions extra,” he said, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum and former prime minister of Ukraine (2014-16), in an article in the Atlantic Council, offered that “the war will only end when Ukrainian security is assured. To achieve this, Ukraine needs ironclad security guarantees that will keep the country safe from further Russian aggression until it is able to join NATO. A Trump Plan modeled on the post-World War II Marshall Plan and funded by confiscated Russian sovereign assets can fuel Ukraine’s postwar recovery.
“I am convinced that a just and sustainable peace can be achieved through negotiations. These talks should take place in a four-way format involving Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, and Russia. In 2014, I was one of the initiators of this format, which was established in Geneva. The alternative, with Ukraine alone against Russia, would mean the capitulation of the United States and the entire Western world.
“While adherents of realpolitik call for concessions, in reality the future of international security depends on a steadfast defense of the rules-based order against Russia’s onslaught. The West has the requisite strength and resources to do this. All that is needed is strong leadership from the United States.”
If the world indeed hopes for a negotiated end to the latest war against Ukraine that Russia started, it will have to force Moscow to concede on its knees to such a conclusion just like Nazi Germany. Ukraine is not the problem; it never was but Russia is and has always been the problem. Putin will have to be hit hard to force him to the negotiating table and Ukraine and its allies have that ability. The United States and the free world should continue supplying Ukraine with the appropriate long-range and short-range weapons, tanks and other armaments. They also should continue investing in the big and small businesses of Ukraine to raise the gross the domestic product and give the people a fighting chance to rebuild their country and give it a sustainable economy. They should also provide humanitarian aid for the people.
The onus of returning peace, security and stability to the region must be glued onto Russia and every Russian and not Ukraine. As for saving Ukraine now and in the future, Trump must comprehend, acknowledge and support Ukraine’s 1,000-year history.
By the way, Russia launched more than 1,250 bombs, 750 drones at Ukraine during Trump’s first week in office. The war goes on.