Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, more than 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Ukraine’s Friend of the Week: Jon Huntsman
Given the obvious admiration U.S. President Donald Trump has for Russia’s sinister dictator, Vladimir Putin, (and, for that matter, the psychopathic North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un), many Ukrainians were nervous when Trump entered the White House just over two years ago.
But while Trump has since granted Putin a summit (and two to Kim), and has unnerved NATO countries by undermining the alliance with his refusal to fully endorse the Article 5 mutual defense provision that underpins the defense of the West, Ukrainians have enjoyed strong support from the present U.S. administration.
Most importantly, under Trump the United States has sent Javelin anti-tank weapons to Ukraine – a potent deterrent to further Russian aggression. Had former U.S. President Barack Obama sent such help in the early stages of Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, the course of the subsequent war may have been quite different.
And the primary fear of many Ukrainians – that under Trump sanctions against Russia might be eased or even lifted – has also proved unfounded so far.
Still, there remain worries that the U.S. stance on Ukraine, and that of other Western countries, might soften, so it was good to hear U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman strongly reiterate the position of the United States on support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity during an interview he gave to RFE/RL’s Russian Service on April 13.
“We do care deeply about the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which has been badly violated,” Huntsman said. “(Russia’s) annexation of Crimea (in 2014) and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine… – it has not been resolved. Nothing has been done in terms of positive steps toward recreating the contours of a whole and free Ukraine….”
“It is time to get to the negotiating table and find some solutions, which has not been the case for the last many years,” he added.
He also reaffirmed U.S. political support for sanctions against Russia: “This issue, in the United States Senate, has united almost 100 percent of Republicans and Democrats,” he said.
However, questioned about the weakness of the current sanction regime against Russia, which has not caused the Kremlin to budge on the issue of its occupation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, Huntsman was less reassuring:
“I wouldn’t call (the sanctions) half-measures, I think they’re very very serious as sanctions go,” Huntsman said, adding, “I think it’s too early to tell if sanctions ultimately (will) achieve their objective – sanctions are not a short-term tool.”
Ever since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine in the Donbas, and before, when it invaded and started to occupy Ukraine’s Crimea, we at this newspaper and others have argues for tough, well-targeted sanctions to be aimed at the Kremlin elite – travel bans, seizures of bank accounts and real estate, and other measures that will send a sharp message to Russia’s oligarch class that they will literally pay dearly for their continued support of Putin’s aggression against Ukraine.
So while Huntsman’s words were quite welcome, we’d like to hear some tougher talk from him as well.
In the meantime he is Ukraine’s Friend of the Week and a winner of the Order of Yaroslav the Wise for continuing to stand by Ukraine, and repeating the message the Kremlin that even after five years of war, Ukraine still has some powerful and steadfast friends.
Ukraine’s Foe of the Week: Igor Girkin
It is already five years since Igor Girkin, believed by authorities in the West to be a Russian military intelligence officer, and his band of 52 special operations soldiers seized control of the Donetsk Oblast town of Slaviansk, on April 12, 2014.
While in control of the town, until it was recaptured by Ukraine on July 5, 2014, Girkin reportedly imposed Stalin-era laws and ordered the kidnapping, torture and execution of Ukrainians. After he and his men fled the city for Donetsk, documents bearing Girkin’s name and his nom-de-guerre signature “Strelkov” were found by former Kyiv Post journalist Christopher Miller in the Russian commander’s abandoned headquarters.
According to one document, Girkin acted as a judge and ordered the death by firing squad of a 31-year-old Sloviansk resident, Alexei Pichko, who had been accused of looting.
After Sloviansk was recaptured by Ukrainian forces, a mass grave containing the bodies of 14 people was discovered. In total, more than 100 local residents are known to have been killed and over 2,000 houses destroyed in Sloviansk while it was under Girkin’s control.
The Russian commander is suspected of being involved in other war crimes during his deployment by the Kremlin to Ukraine (he was withdrawn in August 2014), including the horrific shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, 2014, which resulted in the deaths of 298 passengers and crew. In comments to the press, Girkin has implied, though not said directly, that Russia is responsible for the shooting down of the airliner.
Yet Girkin is unapologetic about his activities in Ukraine, and has lambasted the residents of the Donbas, and Crimea, where he took part in the Russian invasion, for not supporting his cause of Russian imperialism.
“I certainly consider myself a monarchist. Above all, I’m a patriot of the empire, though naturally I consider myself a patriot of the Russian people,” Girkin told Russian television’s Gazeta TV in January 2015.
Girkin’s ultranationalist, monarchist stance has put him at odds with the gangster-capitalist Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, whom Girkin has said he despises. However, Girkin shows equal antipathy for the West. He regards himself, and Russia, as being at war with the West, and sees international law simply in terms of might making right.
“I am not at all bothered by international law, because it’s a tool in the hands of winners,” Girkin said in an interview given in January 2016 to Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda, which is affiliated with a leading pro-Kremlin Russian tabloid. “If we are defeated, well then, the norms of these laws will be applied to me.”
Girkin is still at liberty in Russia, and he will only be apprehended and brought to The Hague to face justice if the present regime in the Kremlin falls and democracy is restored in Russia.
Let us hope that happens soon, and as Girkin puts it, the norms of international law can be applied to him, in full force.
Meanwhile, he is Ukraine’s Foe of the Week and a winner of the Order of Lenin in memory of his short but murderous deployment to Ukraine.
