I sit in my car in Kyiv and watch people try to live their lives. I see dozens of them walking through the streets of the European capital under the spring sun.
But there is nothing normal in these scenes. Many people are dressed in military uniforms, the streets are filled with checkpoints, there are checkpoints everywhere. Because Kyiv is being bombed, my fellow citizens are dying – and I am armed with a gun.
I am a lawyer and former prime minister who served under President Volodymyr Zelensky, but carrying a gun is not unusual these days. My duty, like all Ukrainian men, is to defend my country as part of the territorial defense forces when Ukraine is attacked by Russia.
Ready for battle: Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Honcharuk (right) joined the territorial defense forces
Our people are not afraid. No panic, only firm resolve as the country comes together to repel the horrific attack unleashed by President Vladimir Putin. All Ukrainians know that we must fight for our freedom, our future and our nation.
Putin wants to destroy Ukraine. He wants to wipe my country off the face of the earth, plunging us into his repressive regime as part of his despotic Russian empire and banishing our independence to the history books.
However, Ukraine has never attacked anyone, we have never invaded any neighbor, and we have never committed atrocities that could merit a military response. We are peaceful people.
But our “crime” in the eyes of this Russian dictator was that we desired democracy, cherished freedom and embraced European liberal values. Now he wants to crush our country, destroy our culture, kill our elites, dismantle our institutions and impose his brutal ideology.
He justifies his attack with talk of “denazification” even though our president is Jewish and we don’t have extremists with strange views in our government. As in all countries, among us, of course, there are people with strange views, but they do not have influence in our society.
While serving under President Zelenskiy, I’m not surprised he has performed so well during these dark times (pictured together in 2019)
For Putin, the issue of “denazification” is no different than when another dictator named Adolf Hitler raised the “Jewish question” – it is used to provide a pretext to persecute innocent people and commit the most barbaric acts to exterminate them.
I was born in a small town in central Ukraine near Vinnytsia, a city that was hit by a rocket attack earlier this month that killed civilians and soldiers alike.
Then I spent a wonderful childhood in the northern town of Gorodnya. It is close to the border, so it was quickly overrun by a massive Russian war machine that invaded Ukraine.
This is a Russian speaking area. However, don’t fall for the propaganda that speaking the same language as Putin means you should desire his rule from Moscow. Such is the spirit of defiance in Gorodnya that people march under our flag to show their loyalty — and sadly, as The Mail reported on Sunday, one local businessman killed himself instead of running the city as a Russian puppet.
For the last 20 years I have been living in Kyiv. I have seen it flourish after Ukraine threw off the shackles of communist rule in Russia and, despite difficult internal problems, moved towards the beauty of democracy and freedom.
But now people are dying in Kyiv from a disgusting hail of bombs and rockets falling from the sky.
This war began eight years ago when Putin stole Crimea and invaded the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.
I served in a position under President Zelensky, and I’m not surprised that he performed so well during these dark times. I knew that he was a brave and courageous man, so I never expected him to shirk his duty or run away from difficulties.
He showed the real leadership of Ukraine. If only his courage, determination and unwavering desire to fight for freedom matched the presidents and prime ministers of the entire West.
This war began eight years ago when Putin stole Crimea and invaded the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. This was the first annexation of sovereign territory in Europe since the defeat of Hitler. However, the reaction of the West was weak.
That is why Putin felt the courage to go much further by attempting a blitzkrieg across Ukraine.
He looked to the West and saw that it was possible to invade other countries. He told himself that Western values were empty and that he could get away with mass murder. Ukrainians are fighting heroically. Our military response has been perfect, despite the billions Putin has spent on powerful weapons that are killing our soldiers and civilians, devastating our homes and destroying our cities.
But even when this modern-day Hitler commits such cruel crimes, the West looks at him with fear. He introduced some economic sanctions. But this is not enough. We need military support to protect our nation, support our troops, and protect the democratic values that people are dying for in cities like Kharkiv and Kyiv.
In the besieged port city of Mariupol, more than 80 percent of houses have been destroyed, with innocent families hiding in basements and bodies lying in the streets. How can this happen in 21st century Europe?
Incidentally, it is a predominantly Russian-speaking city that is home to the very people Putin claims he is fighting to protect. And again we see the hypocrisy and emptiness of his self-serving ideology.
Putin looks to the West and smells fear as he seeks to redraw borders and destroy one of Europe’s largest nations. He can tolerate the economic pain as long as it lasts. He understands only one thing: Power.
Here is my request. First, to impose complete economic and trade isolation on Russia, and not just freeze the assets of corrupt oligarchs and stop selling burgers. The aggressor must be completely isolated economically.
Secondly, we urgently need protection from the sky with a no-fly zone. I’m not in the military, so others can debate the best tactic – whether to use your plane or give us a lot more – but it’s critical to saving thousands of lives.
Third, give Putin an ultimatum that he has a maximum of 48 hours to stop his troops killing people and end the carnage. If not, then NATO must respond with its own forces to drive the Russian invaders from our land.
Or will you let him destroy Finland next, arguing that the risk of intervening against a nuclear-armed tyrant is too great? Then Lithuania? Maybe even Poland? It’s the Russian approach to slicing salami that was highlighted in your excellent 1980s political satire Yes, Prime Minister, when Jim Hacker was asked about the essence of nuclear deterrence.
Western leaders may continue to run from the bully for fear of his weapons. But whether we like it or not, we are in the third world war. This is the struggle of our age between democracy and dictatorship, and we are fighting valiantly on the front lines.
Western leaders should not be afraid, because Putin, like any dictator, feeds on fear. The extermination of thousands of Ukrainians is unacceptable. And the longer you hold back your forces, the more fierce the struggle they will have in the future.
- Oleksiy Honcharuk was the Prime Minister of Ukraine from August 2019 to March 2020.