The Danger of History Repeating Itself – Free Ukraine is Vital for Humanity

More and more nowadays there are abundant examples of history repeating itself to the detriment of maltreated nations. Someone, sometime, somewhere did not heed the pleas of the downtrodden, the stateless, the captive nations that it is incumbent upon leaders of the free world, which emerged victorious from a global conflagration, to defend their interests as independent states or else their opponents or even the vanquished will arise again to wage barbaric, imperialistic wars.

That was the premise of launching The Torn Curtain 1991 a decade ago. By 1991 the captive nations of Russian subjugation had declared their independence and it seemed as if the world would be a better place. However, peace and security were not to be had. Moscow, undaunted, immediately resumed its aggressive nature and trolled for new and old victims. Even though Kyiv was liberated, Ukraine would not enjoy independence because Russia, itself, was not defeated and worst of all continued to enjoy at least the passive favor of many countries and institutions.

After the Second World War, representatives of the national liberation movements that sadly fell on the wrong side of the new demarcating line – the Iron Curtain, warned the free world leaders in Washington and London about the dangers of Moscow’s ongoing belligerence. Nazi German capitulation and peace in Europe would not keep Russia from restarting its conquests and replacing Berlin’s subjugation with its own. Since then, throughout the Cold War and today – the post-Soviet era, the free world was cautioned that Moscow would unleash its army against freedom-living peoples in Eastern Europe. The newly independent countries’ experience-based advice was belittled to say the least. And then February 24, 2022, dawned on Ukraine and the staggered world.

Among the many scholars who advised the free world about what it should do to keep Moscow at least in check was Prof. Alexander Granovsky (1887-1976) of the University of Minnesota. In his article in the February 1945 edition of The Ukrainian Quarterly, Granovsky wrote that the free world should consciously support the post-war development of the stateless nations that would keep future Nazi Germanys from raising their heads while subduing Russia’s aggressive appetite. Furthermore, he stated, a free Ukraine is vital to preserving lasting peace. Indeed, it took just 77 years for war to return to Eastern Europe; for Russia to re-ignite its war against Ukraine.

The Ukrainian nation, even before the war, had already voiced its desire to establish an independent state and live free of foreign intervention and occupation. Granovsky wrote: “It should not be forgotten that at the very beginning of the present war, at the time of the partition of Poland, according to the honeymoon pact between Hitler and Stalin, in the first few days of September 1939, the Ukrainian people again, as on many occasions before, expressed their will to freedom.”

Granovsky reminded his readers that “the acquisition of large stretches of contiguous territory, belonging to neighboring peoples, that usually cause serious disputes and political boundary troubles, with all of the attendant measures of denationalization on one side, and the breeding of resentment and opposition on the other, which often produce underground and irredentist movements and open revolts. Certainly, these abnormal phenomena only tend to disturb peace and the fragile economic and political stability of the areas involved.”

Russia and Ukraine share a long contiguous border, which Moscow has tried many times to cross with the aim of seizing the government and establishing its rule over the Ukrainian nation.

Since before the start of the war, Granovsky wrote, the “freedom-loving Ukrainians were not in the habit of bowing to aggressors and, when Hitler let his puppet Hungarian army march against Carpatho-Ukraine, the Hungarians and Hitler met with bitter armed resistance from the entire Ukrainian population of that most backward province of all the Ukrainian lands.” Note the point the writer made in referring to Hungarians as allies of Hitler. Consequently, Ukrainians before all other European nations engaged the Nazi war machine through its surrogate in battle for independence.

And then when a full-scale war erupted across Europe, “Ukrainian sympathies were on the wide of the Allies, in spite of misleading and willfully false propaganda widely circulated to the contrary. This is the reason why many prominent Ukrainian leaders in the nationalist movement were either slain by the German Gestapo and their agents, or have died in concentration camps. Scores of prominent Ukrainian nationalist leaders are now incarcerated as political offenders by the Nazis.”

While the enemies were brutal and large by comparison, Granovsky pointed out, “It has been revealed that the peoples of the Baltic States, as well as the population of Western Ukraine, recently incorporated into the Soviet Empire, made definite declarations that they would fight to the death against both German and Russian aggression and rule, rather than to submit themselves to their domination.”

For its defiance, retaliation against the Ukrainian population was swift and bloody. Many nationally conscious Ukrainian leaders were either shot or placed in concentration camps while the Ukrainian masses were herded into forced labor camps by both German and Russian aggressors of Ukrainian territory. “It is a known fact that the Government of Soviet Russia arrested thousands of Ukrainian intellectuals and leaders and exiled them into Kazakhstan and other Asiatic areas, driving out from Ukraine all constructive and creative elements. The German Nazi forces purged occupied Ukraine of all possible resistance elements, and also removed to the Reich army many thousands of able bodied Ukrainian population for forced labor. All of these measures were definitely aimed at the complete annihilation of the Ukrainian people to present them from attaining their national aspirations of human and national freedom,” Granovsky wrote.

The end of the war found Ukrainians to be inside Russia’s prison of nations. Granovsky urged the free world to regard Ukraine’s aspiration to state formation on a level equal with other nations. “Once the principles of freedom of the Ukrainian nation will be put into effect on an equitable basis, comparable to the freedom of all other national states, this conflict about the fictitious demand on Ukrainian territory under various pretexts will be a clear case of aggression, no matter how we define the term,” he wrote.

The crux of the problem in 1945, Granovsky wrote, is the issue of the rebirth of Ukraine as an independent nation. “On this territory the Ukrainians constitute the majority, though ruled at present by a small minority of invaders. The Ukrainians, according to historic, ethnic, statistical and others facts, are the rightful claimants to this territory of theirs, where they have been residing from time immemorial,” he wrote.

With the free and evil worlds deciding the future of mankind, Russia was busy subjugating those nearest its border. However, Granovsky warned, “Soviet Russia must certainly realize that the boundaries that she is now establishing by aggression in Eastern Europe during the present hostilities can never be permanent.”
Granovsky cautioned that if the Ukrainian people, who have countless times demonstrated their desire for independence, should be denied their freedoms, “It will doubtless provide demoralizing influences on relations among nations. There will certainly be resurgent waves of resentment leading to major disturbances and political revolts. Above all, it will create permanent injustice for freedom loving people and will breed distrust and suspicion against the greater powers, and America in particular, in whose commitments the oppressed and disfranchised peoples have found the courage to nurture sublime faith…The Ukrainians have helped to destroy the German menace. They gave all they could. They have given millions of lives. They have given the best of their efforts. They have suffered great pain, anxiety and devastation for the common cause.”

In view of what Russia is perpetrating in Ukraine today, it is simple to comprehend his conclusion about its historical domination of Ukraine: “In many ways her colonial rule of Ukraine in Europe surpasses all the indignities committed upon colonial peoples in the darkest corners of the world.”

Granovsky asked a salient question in 1945: “Is it really possible that after the wanton destruction of property beyond estimation, the loss of millions of lives and the unbelievable human suffering which this war has brought about, that now either Great Britain or the United States, or any other nation can accede to these original demands of Soviet Russia with the idea either to appease her or to condone the acts of her aggression? If so, it is certain that people will not endure.” Can any government accept Russia again? Can the United Nations regard Russia as a worthy member of the global community of nations?

What’s to be done, rhetorically asked Granovsky? A global regime of justice, he replied: “America with the aid of some of her Allies and liberty-seeking peoples can inaugurate a regime of justice. America can ‘…perform a service of historic importance which men and women and children will honor throughout all time.’

“Among these problems free Ukraine is vital to lasting peace.”

Too bad nobody listened then and too few are listening today.

“The lesson from these events must bear fruit in the future. Unless Ukraine is free at the end of this war, new bloodshed is inevitable,” he deduced.

Poland’s President in Ukraine’s Parliament: ‘Thank You for Rescuing Europe from Russia’

In another first by Poland, the President of Ukraine’s neighbor to the West became the first head of state to address the war-torn Ukrainian nation from the halls of its Verkhovna Rada and express all Europeans’ gratitude for rescuing the continent from Russian barbarity and imperialism.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, speaking today from the Ukrainian parliament during a surprise visit to Kyiv, paid tribute to the Ukrainian nation for remaining strong and defiant in the face of Russia’s invasion that began on February 24.

“Despite the great destruction, despite the terrible crimes, the great suffering that the Ukrainian nation experiences every day, the Russian invaders did not break you, they did not manage to do it and I believe deeply that they will never succeed,” Duda said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the speech by the Polish president a “historic moment.”

Poland and Ukraine’s “strong” relations had been “built through blood, through Russian aggression,” Zelenskyy said.

“No one can shake our unity,” Duda told the Ukrainian lawmakers, pointing out that your people are not refugees in Poland, but our guests.

Duda last visited Kyiv on April 13 for talks with Zelenskyy as part of a delegation with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

While he was addressing the parliament today, Russian missiles were reported heading into the Kyiv region airspace. Ukrainian defense forces apparently destroyed at least one of them, though one appears to have hit a target in the Zhytomyr region, to the west of Kyiv.

Duda’s speech in Kyiv was a second major first for his nation after being the first country to recognize Ukrainian independence in December 1991. Both countries have been developing strong multi-lateral relations, fully cognizant of the admonition that if one of them loses its independence then Russia will destroy the remaining country’s freedom.

The two countries’ symbol of multi-lateral military cooperation is the Lublin Triangle, which also included Lithuania. I have written that it resembles an updated Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. This coalition should be expanded and formalized by all former captive nations of Russian subjugation.

With an eye to defense and security, the three countries created this special brigade that would defend their independence and interests from any belligerent action by Russia meant to reestablish its domination of Ukraine, the Baltic States, and the remainder of Eastern Europe. Three x-captive nations transformed their worthy idea into practice by mobilizing the “Hetman Konstantyn Ostrohskiy” Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that this is not as farfetched a notion as some may have claimed.

In his speech in the Verkhovna Rada, which was greeted with standing ovations, Duda urged Ukraine not to give in to the “demands” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Worrying voices have appeared, saying that Ukraine should give in to Putin’s demands,” Duda said. “Only Ukraine has the right to decide about its future... nothing about you without you,” echoing the words of former President Viktor Poroshenko.

Duda added that surrendering any Ukrainian territory would be a blow to the entire West and repeated Poland’s firm support for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union. The Polish president said that the international community must demand that Russia completely withdraw from Ukrainian territory.

“I will not rest until Ukraine becomes a member of the European Union,” Duda said.

Duda’s personal and national demonstration of support for embattled Ukraine must be replicated by all freedom-loving countries’ leaders. For example, what if all of them visited Kyiv at the same time and spoke from the Verkhovna Rada, expressing their admiration for Ukrainians’ determination in the face of Russian murders and demanding Moscow’s unconditional surrender and withdrawal from Ukraine.

He who has Naught … Steals and Kills

Russians have been denigrating Ukraine, the nation, its language, religion and culture for as long as they’ve been trying to subjugate Ukrainians. They have incessantly believed and insisted that Ukrainians, though cynically regarding by them as a fraternal people, are inferior to Russians.

Even in movies, notably Soviet ones, actors, who may have been portraying Ukrainians, spoke in the Russian language about Ukrainian folklore and songs, implying that the culture is quaint like embroideries, dance and pysanky, but in reality they are meaningless, not of the same level as the great Russian culture and should be avoided by self-respecting Russians and captive peoples. It’s not even worth speaking about that culture in Ukrainian.

Actually, the Russian culture is shallow. Except for a couple of cities, Russia has no national, or so-called folk depth that tells the story of its people, whence they came from because they are not nearly as old as the Ukrainian nation. When Kyiv was a viable domain, with European relationships, beautiful churches and commerce, Moscow was a bog of frog choruses.

Across the vast landmass of Russia, its people are known for drunkenness, theft and deceit. The few cultural figures and composers together with the Russian Orthodox Church, which is a poor excuse for a religion because it advocates the murder of Ukrainians, do not compensate for the dark abyss created by the absence of a national culture. Russian culture revolves around the moronic nesting dolls — matryoshka — Grandfather Frost and the Snowflake as well as a wide range of stolen, plagiarized and bastardized artifacts, observances and compositions.

Russia has throughout history consistently destroyed Ukrainian culture. Today we see the “hochkulture” level of Russian culture as its invaders wreak havoc in Ukraine, raping and killing children. In 80 days they destroyed many historical museums and books. Russian invaders have committed more than 200 crimes against Ukrainian culture in today’s war.

An example from history of Russia’s brutality against Ukraine and Ukrainians is the slaughter of 15,000 residents and the sacking of the town of Baturyn in the early 18th century. In the early 1700s, it was common knowledge that tsarist capital of Saint Petersburg was built on the bones of Ukrainian Kozaks.  Then there is the infamous EMS Ukaze of 1876, a decree of Russian Emperor Alexander II that banned the use of the Ukrainian language in print. The edict also forbade the import of Ukrainian publications and the staging of plays or lectures in Ukrainian. In the 1920s and 1930s, Moscow executed thousands of Ukrainian intellectuals and literati in what became known as the infamous sanguinary “Executed Renaissance.” Moscow’s famine of 1932-33 claimed the lives of 7 million Ukrainian men, women and children. At the end of World War II, Russia outlawed the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, arresting or executing hierarchs and clergy, and forbidding the faithful from attending liturgies in their faith.

These are only a few examples of the consequences of Russia’s jealous, blind hatred of all things Ukrainian. Moscow’s perennial goal has been to destroy all memory of Ukrainian culture and language, which is a violation of United Nations resolutions about protecting culture. Ukrainian officials and witnesses have said today’s widespread, indiscriminate destruction of Ukrainian cities, residential and commercial centers, infrastructure and civilians can only mean that their mission is to annihilate Ukraine, Ukrainians and any awareness of them.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian culture is filled with a wide range of centuries-old beautiful, timeless classical folk culture as well as what is commonly referred to as world-class culture, all of which have been usurped by Moscow. To be sure, the well-rounded depth and breadth of the Ukrainian national culture, something that is lacking in Russia, has saved the Ukrainian nation in the past and will save the Ukrainian nation tomorrow.

Mama, Why … Why Me, Plead

Little Ukrainian Girls and Boys

I am updating this blog of April 18, 2022, from a little boy’s point of view. Before you read it, take note of the illustration. Its lines scribbled, scrawled, stretching every which way, indecipherable. Drawn by someone who is reliving a horrific experience.

Perhaps illegible to the reader but not to the little boy in war-torn Ukraine. Don’t turn away from this blog. Don’t cringe. That won’t make the horror the little boy faced go away.

I found his story on Twitter. It was posted by Lesia Vasylenko. She wrote: “This is how an 11-year-old boy sees the world after having been raped by Russia soldier in front of his mother. I find it hard to read reports like this, even harder to tweet about them, and absolutely impossible to remain silent. The world must know the truth.”

For this to stop, the pain and disgust that hopefully you are feeling will strangle you to the point of at least writing to someone, your newspaper or elected official, demanding that the United States do everything in its power to help Ukraine end this war, punish Russia and bring a modicum of peace to the countless little boys and girls who were sodomized by Russian soldiers and their mothers.

The fear of their daughters being raped by Russian soldiers is so real, so pervasive that mothers in Ukraine are cutting their little girls’ braids, pigtails and ponytails so they look like little boys, hoping to save them from being raped by Russian invaders. I won’t conclude the thought that are probably thinking.

The following is my original post.

It hurts. It sounds ridiculous to say that. It hurts me, the reader, the writer. But imagine how much it hurts the little girl who has no idea of what and why the Russian soldiers did to her. It hurts the unfortunate little ones who survived the rape and weren’t killed only to be raped again. Perhaps the luckier ones were killed and discarded with or without their mothers in a common grave.

Nonetheless, it hurts the reader and eye witness alike. A deep, gnawing, angry hurt that suppresses tears.

It hurts us, who are far away from this brutality, because many refused to believe that Russia will invade Ukraine. The hurt returned after the invasion when we saw the images of the invaders’ cruelty committed against Ukrainian civilians but especially their littlest daughters.

How can one human being commit such crimes against another human being, against a defenseless child?

No one has a logical, comforting answer but the violence did happen and the girl who survived turned to her mother and asked “Mama, why? Why me? What did I do?”

Stories of Russian savagery exist in every town that Russian soldiers occupied and not only in the accounts of eye witnesses. Many Russian invaders created selfies of themselves and their comrades raping and sodomizing Ukrainian children. The stories hurt.

I found these stories on a Ukrainian-language website called “To be a Mother” – https://tobemom.site/?fbclid=IwAR2XRb8eykw73XKaJOpQIcPIDRC2Tyv_e1Lq9dhzj5YBZhaBbihLQ_uolio

These few accounts are not for the weak of heart.

• Mom, why did those “uncles” punish me? Didn’t I behave well?” – this question was asked by 6-year-old girl, who was raped by two Russian soldiers in front of her mother in Irpin.

Irpin:

• A 9-year-old girl was raped by 11 (at least 11 sperm samples were found) soldiers, then they cut the letter “Z” on her chest and ripped her stomach open. Her parents were killed in front of her.

• Mother, father, 3 daughters 5, 8, 17 years old. Russians occupied in their home. The father was shot dead the same day. They raped the children in front of the mother, she was raped too. Girls aged 5 and 8 died from rape and injuries. The 17-year-old daughter and mother survived, but they are in critical condition in a hospital.

• Mother, father, 11-year-old daughter and their dog. The father was shot. The dog was cut apart for 4 hours in front of the child and mother. During the first week, the mother was raped in front of her child.

Bucha:

• Mother, father, 9-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. Kadyrovites entered their private house. The father’s hands were tied, he was brought to his knees and shot in front of his wife and children. The next day, the boy’s genitals were cut off, he bled to death. The mother and daughter were raped for two weeks.

• Mother, father, grandparents and 2-year-old girl. All were found dead in their home. Father with their hands tied and shot. The child suffered a cut throat, the mother with torn genitals and slaughtered.

• 14 year-old girl was raped by 5 Russian occupiers. She’s pregnant now.

• 11 year-old boy was raped in front of his mother. She was tied to a chair to watch.

Yes, it hurts. The accounts are unimaginable, grotesque, almost fantastic, imaginary, incredible. How can this happen in the 21^st century, in Europe? How can this continue happening without global cries of outrage?

Yes, it hurts. And the Russians will continue creating hurt until the hurt forces the free world to get involved and stop the Russians from raping and killing children.

If you have a daughter or son, hug her and him in memory of the little Ukrainian girls and boys who will never again feel their mothers’ warm embraces and in tribute to the Ukrainian mothers who will never again hug their little girls and boys.

For Attacking the United Nations and other Crimes, Russia should be Expelled

When you boil it down to its basics, Vladimir Putin, president-fuhrer of Russia, attacked the United Nations.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres had invited himself to visit Putin in the naïve hope that he could convince the Russian despot to cease his war with Ukraine. Guterres described his conversations with Putin as “very useful.”

The UN leader boasted: “First of all … it was possible to tell President Putin the same things I say in New York or I’ll be able to say here in Kyiv, which means that the Russian invasion is against the charter of the United Nations, is a violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and that this war must end as quickly as possible.”

He felt he had to travel 4,667 miles to tell Putin something that he, President Zelenskyy, President Biden and other rational national leaders have been saying for 65 days.

After bidding Putin “do svidaniya,” Guterres departed for Kyiv for a publicly announced meeting with the Ukrainian President. Among other results, Kyiv wanted the UN to help create a green corridor for innocent citizens to leave besieged Mariupol. Zelenskyy again described Russia’s actions in his country as genocide, a term that is being heard more often as it pertains to the Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-22.

Putin apparently not wanting to share the limelight with his foe decided to express his disapproval and disregard for the office of the UN Secretary-General by launching two rocket strikes at the Ukrainian capital. The two blasts hit the central Shevchenko district of Kyiv, with three people taken to hospital with injuries. With the presence of the UN leader in the Ukrainian capital, any missile attack against Kyiv and Ukraine is at the same time an assault against the United Nations.

Guterres also visited several sites where Ukraine accuses Russia of committing war crimes. In the town of Borodyanka, north-west of Kyiv, Guterres spoke to reporters in front of buildings that had been destroyed by strikes and shelling. He said the site made him imagine what it would be like for his own family, calling the war in Ukraine an “absurdity in the 21st Century.” Absurdity? Is that all that responsible diplomat could say? Illogical, silly, ridiculous?

Guterres made a passionate plea to save thousands of people in Ukraine’s southern city of Mariupol, which has been virtually destroyed by weeks of heavy Russian bombardment. The heroic defenders have pledged to fight to the last patriot. “Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis,” he said. “Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance, many are elderly and in need of medical care, or have limited mobility. They need an escape route out of the apocalypse.”

Crisis within a crisis! Apocalypse! Guterres is creating more buzz words.

However, surprisingly, the UN Secretary-General made sense when he criticized the UN Security Council for not doing enough to save Ukraine. The quick answer is that all actions are blocked by permanent member Russia, the invader, aggressor, occupier, killer, rapist and evil empire.

Guterres said the council had failed to prevent or end the war in Ukraine. This was “a source of great disappointment, frustration and anger,” he said. “Let me be very clear: [it] failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war.”

Undoubtedly, due to this slap in the face, the United Nations is facing the biggest crisis of its entire history after UN Security Council permanent member Russia deliberately and shamelessly launched airstrikes at Kyiv while the UN Secretary General was visiting the city.

The UN can take a step in the direction of recovering its integrity and punishing the offender by moving to expel Russia from the international body and all of its agencies and programs, none of which can tolerate being tarnished by its association with a global criminal like Russia.

The United Nations is a befuddling hall of contradictions and doublespeak. The Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-22 showed that one of the international body’s founding members – Russia – a conspicuous aggressor and invader, transgressor of international law and order in contradiction to the UN Charter, is regularly seen seated around the table of the five permanent members of the Security Council that possess the power to stop discussions about potentially beneficial resolutions dead in their tracks while the council itself does not offer security to anyone, for example another founding member Ukraine. The UN Secretary-General said as much.

Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya in his usually acerbic remarks about Russian aggression against Ukraine challenged the Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, who was holding the rotating presidency of the Security Council, to stop the war against Ukraine which had just begun. When the Russian said he couldn’t, the Ukrainian official replied, pointing to a cell phone:

 “Call Putin, call (Russian Foreign Minister Sergey) Lavrov to stop aggression,” Kyslytsya implored in his speech fully in English. And at the end of his address, he warned all Russians: “There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, Ambassador.”

Kyslytsya said Nebenzia should surrender the Security Council presidency over to a “legitimate member.”

In that exchange two months ago and since then, Kyslytsya not only ridiculed Nebenzia for his country’s war against Ukraine, but also accused Moscow of lies and deceit. He has been known for caustically asking his fellow delegates a school yard riddle about the telltale signs that someone is lying. Russians, he said, move their lips. As for Russian deception, Kyslytsya said Moscow pledges are worth as much as the hole of a New York pretzel.

The Ukrainian official also reminded the UN administrative structure and member-states when the Russian Federation was accepted as a member-state after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He asked to be shown “where the General Assembly welcomes the Russian Federation to this organization. It would be a miracle if the Secretary was able to produce such decisions. There is nothing in the Charter of the United Nations about … As a sneaky way to get into the organization.”

Yes, you read that correctly, the Russian Federation, as a new state with a new name, never applied for UN membership, was never accepted, and was never welcomed. It was never accepted to serve as a permanent member of the UN Security Council – the Soviet Union held that seat.

As a global outlaw, much like Germany, the successor of Nazi Germany, Russia would have had to wait at least 28 years before it would be accepted into the United Nations. Germany became a member on September 18, 1973.

In an article titled “Modern-day Piracy: How Russia Seized the USSR’s Seat in the UN” in the September 2019 edition of The Ukrainian Quarterly, former Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko questioned how Russia became a legitimate member of the United Nations.  Everyone overlooked that in the wake of the collapse of the USSR, membership of this state in the United Nations was to automatically cease and the Russian Federation was to undergo the process of joining the UN in the same way as any hopeful member-state. Moscow didn’t abide by this.

“Referring to these allegations, a number of delegations, in particular Ukraine, have repeatedly drawn the attention of the UN Secretariat and other member-states to the unlawfulness of Russian Federation’s membership in the Organization,” Yelchenko pointed out.

“Russia does not use its seat as a permanent member to maintain international peace and security, as envisaged in the UN Charter, but rather as political cover for its international armed conflicts, particularly in Georgia and Ukraine. Therefore, it is not necessary to speak of the fulfillment of the obligations of the Russian Federation under the UN Charter.”

And today, it is waging a brutal war against UN founding member Ukraine, where Russia is destroying cities, forests and waterways, indiscriminately killing innocent civilians and raping children.

And yesterday Moscow shot two missiles at the UN Secretary-General.

Indeed, not the best traits of a UN member-state or permanent member of the Security.

Russia should be given an eviction notice by the UN and unceremoniously thrown out on to First Avenue.

Cliffside Park Adopts pro-Ukraine Resolution; Even Small Towns’ Efforts are Meaningful

The Ukrainian flag was added to the Stars &
Stripes at the start of the war in February.

Large states and small metropolises across America are joining the tidal wave of official denunciations of Russia’s bloody, genocidal invasion of Ukraine that is being headed by Vladimir Putin.

Earlier this month, the borough of Cliffside Park, NJ, in Bergen County, became one of the latest to condemn Moscow and Putin.

The resolution, 2022-62, touches upon and condemns all of the vital issues and nuances of the Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-22. It states:

Whereas, on February 24, 2022, after months of troop and tank buildups, Russia began shelling and rocket attacks on several major cities in Ukraine, including its capital Kyiv; and

Whereas, these Russian troops have met with strong and courageous opposition from the Ukrainian military and citizen resistance; and

Whereas, Russian President Vladimir Putin has long sought to control Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union and more currently after many countries in Eastern and Center Europe, once part of the Soviet bloc, proceeded toward democratic governments and joined alliances with western European nations, and

Whereas, Ukraine has been at war with Russian since 2014, when Putin invaded the Crimea region of Ukraine after its pro-Russian president was ousted; several other regions in Ukraine are controlled by separatist forces backed by Putin who have waged protracted fighting against the Ukrainian military; Putin refuses to acknowledge Ukrainian as a sovereign nation; and

Whereas, over the last few weeks, the US and its Western European allies have announced strong measures that undoubtedly will cause Moscow to suffer economically even as it struggles to tame Ukraine militarily: from new weapons transfers to anticorruption punishments to powerful sanctions on Russian banks to the shutting of the European Union’s airspace to Russian flights; and

Whereas, this Government Body stands with President Zelenskyy who has stated “I am pleased even more allies have come forward with defensive and humanitarian aid. We must stand with the Ukrainian people as they defend their country and democracies”; and

Whereas, this resolution constitutes an emergency measure for the immediate preservation of public peace, property, health or safety; and

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Cliffside Park that this Governing Body strongly condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine, denounces Vladimir Putin’s years-long aggression against this sovereign country, supporting Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, and encourages the US and its partners to continue the exceptionally strong sanctions against Russia.

The resolution was signed by Mayor Thomas Calabrese, Sercan Zoklu, Borough clerk, and council members D. Martinotti, K. Corcoran, P. Colao, S. Nikaj, J. Chmielewski, and E. Rojas.

If such a small municipality like Cliffside Park can demonstrate a deep understanding of the issues pertaining to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and adopt an appropriate resolution condemning Moscow’s aggression, then there is no excuse for any borough, city or state in the country not to do the same.

Mariupol won’t be Kruty

(After I posted this blog this morning, news was reported about the discovery of mass graves with at least 20,000 bodies of Ukrainian men, women and children outside Mariupol. The huge grave was dug March 23-26, 2022. Eternal damnation on Russia, Russians and Putin.)

Kruty – a country railway station some about 80 miles northeast of Kyiv. It entered the storied, heroic pages of Ukrainian history because the Battle of Kruty took place there on January 29, 1918, a week after the government of Ukraine proclaimed the Fourth Universal, the nation’s proclamation of independence.

Russian Gen. Mikhail Artemyevich Muravyov was dispatched to put down this treasonous national act by Ukrainians. With the Ukrainian army fighting on the frontlines, the task of defending the capital and the country’s nascent independence was taken up by recruits and cadets. A collection of 300 dedicated Ukrainian patriots who stood their ground and fought to the last man. It seems as if fighting to the last ounce of blood is part of the Ukrainians’ genetic makeup – remember of cyborgs at the Donetsk airport.

Yuriy Butusov, the editor-in-chief of Censor.NET, in his Facebook page cited a message written last night by a friend in Mariupol who serves in the Azov Regiment.

Citing the lore of that famous Ukrainian town, Butusov’s friend wrote: “Thanks to them, Mariupol will never be a Russian victory. It will never be a victim and a place of Russian power, it is not Kruty. It will always be a city of Ukrainian victory and a symbol of Ukrainian invincible strength.”

Apparently he was not rejecting victory at all costs, even the cost of the defenders’ lives, he was rejecting the concept of defeat, conquest by the Russian invaders. Mariupol is another Ukrainian word in the centuries-long string of wars and battles that reaffirm Ukrainians’ aspiration to live freely, independently, sovereignly, democratically as far away from Russia as possible.

“The defenders of Mariupol have long since crossed the line of endurance and sacrifice – they have created new ones, and this is incredible in the 21st century,” Butusov wrote.

The port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov was home to 400,000 people before Russia’s invasion. It has been under siege by Russian troops and under constant shelling for more than 50 days. The city has been reduced to rubble, amid questionable claims by Russia that it now has near complete control. Thousands of civilians are believed to have died and tens of thousands remain trapped in the city.

Mariupol surely symbolizes the spirit and perseverance of the Ukrainian soldiers as 200 or so of them are holed up in the bunkers of the Azov Steel mill. It should be noted that they’re not only defending their positions and the city, which are key along the road to Crimea, but they also safeguarding some 1,000 civilians and children hunkering down with them, avoiding Russian bombs.

President Zelenskyy, among others, has reiterated the soldiers’ pledge not to surrender.

“They (the Russians) say they are ready to let all the military go if they surrender. But they are not going to surrender. They don't want to do so and this is why it is a complicated and tragic situation because the military don't want to surrender. And without it, Russians are not ready to let them go,” Zelenskyy said. “When you can make an agreement with Russians to let them go, unarmed, but after, what they will do is shoot them dead. That is why no one trusts Russia now.”

Indeed, the Russians on numerous occasions have backed away from their pledges, resulting in Ukrainian bloodshed. Allowing the civilians to use a so-called green corridor for safe passage is as dangerous as swimming with sharks.

Zelenskyy added that Ukraine wanted to take away the wounded from Mariupol but Russian forces would not let them.

“We wanted to take away the wounded. We talked about it being a humanitarian mission. Give us the wounded back,” he said. “We even made plans for Turkey to be a mediator and get the wounded, civilians and the military. They don’t let them out because we understand Russia just wants to shoot them dead.”

Butusov’s friend continued: “I understand. We all understand everything and are ready for anything. In any case, we will not give up.”

For the free world, not giving up is an understandable concept. You stick to your guns. You don’t surrender like the Texans didn’t at the Alamo. However, knowing in advance that your fate is virtually doomed without a miracle is a frightening prediction.

“57 days of continuous fighting, air strikes and artillery shelling. Surrounded. In the basement, without water, without light, heat, without food. The enemy is 10 times bigger, the enemy has an absolute advantage in technology and ammunition, and he demolishes any shelter, any position. The nearest Ukrainian front is 100 km away (62 miles), across the steppes, and you can’t get out of here, you can’t take out the wounded. And they do not seek pity from the enemy. Every day, they skillfully find every opportunity to kill and destroy the occupiers, and inflict terrible losses on them.

“These people have long since crossed the line of endurance and sacrifice – they have created new ones, and this is incredible in the 21st century.”

Indeed, they have written new passages, lyrics, songs and anecdotes about their bravery, the heroism of Ukrainian soldiers. Enough with the epithets about the Azov battalion being a far right unit. That’s merely Russian propaganda to disparage Ukraine’s ongoing fight for freedom against Russia. The Azov unit’s soldiers are like all Ukrainians – defending the country, the nation and the little girl from Russian rapists.

“They showed what combat capability is. And it is worth mentioning that Azov is the only Ukrainian military unit that fully operates according to NATO standards in combat management and training, they operate under the US Combat Charter and MDMP (military decision-making process) combat management standards. Azov is the only military unit where the appeals and customs of Ukrainian nationalism of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army that fought Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and other communist armies in World War Two) model operate, and not the old Soviet-style translated procedures. By order of the Ukrainian command, they are fighting and dying in absolutely unfavorable conditions, faithful to the oath to the Ukrainian people.

“Thanks to them, Mariupol will never be a Russian victory. It will never be a victim and a place of Russian power, it is not Kruty. It will always be a city of Ukrainian victory and a symbol of Ukrainian invincible strength.

“Russia has many weapons, but Ukraine has something that Russians are not capable of – to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their people, to fight for honor, to fight when there is no strength, and only the will allows you to fight no matter what. Mariupol – this word now weighs a lot, explains a lot.

Because its defenders created a new modern epic. Because they create the history of our world. Because they are Ukrainians.”

The fall of Mariupol, the site of a merciless seven-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Moscow’s biggest victory of the war. But don’t count on it.

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