Ukraine also needs to get some focus, and one of most disastrously neglected areas requiring focus is communication. Both internal and external.
Readers of this newspaper will be acutely aware of the fact that there is a war in Ukraine, and equally acutely aware that this war is being fought at the behest of Vladimir Putin, by Russian citizens, with Russian weapons and a never-ending supply of Russian ammunition.
But are readers of newspapers in Europe or North America aware of this? Are consumers of TV news in Europe or North America aware of this?
They are not: They know there is a war, but the reporters themselves are so under-informed about events in Ukraine that they sometimes use, and when corrected incomprehensibly defend the use of, the term “civil war” to describe events in Ukraine. Ukraine’s authorities bear responsibility for this, because they have not communicated to a wider audience that which I and others know to be a fact.
There is abundant evidence available to Ukraine to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, and before any court, the extent of Russia’s direct military activity in Ukraine. Maybe the Ukrainian authorities simply do not know of this body of evidence — but if they do not, that in itself is indefensible. But the Ukrainian authorities need to know that making a claim is NOT the same as proving a claim. So, to assist:
There is an excellent organization called Bellingcat. Their investigative work has famously uncovered undeniable proof of the identity of the (Russian Military) BUK rocket launcher that killed 298 people on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 just over two years ago.
That same organization has also proven, beyond reasonable doubt, that in the build up to the August invasion of Ukraine by the Russian armed forces, Ukrainian forces stationed close to the border were shelled with GRAD missiles from Russian territory. In the course of their work on Ukraine, Bellingcat has tried to establish contact with Ukraine’s Ministry of Information Policy on more than one occasion, but shockingly they never once received a reply.
Another investigation uncovering evidence of cross border shelling was carried out by the International Partnership for Human Rights (with other partners) and is here.
Next, there is a Twitter account right now doing very important investigative work that deserves attention. @GlasnostGone was a tireless campaigner for the release of Nadia Savchenko, now Nadia is free, this account has focused energy on analyzing satellite imagery from the Ukrainian border regions and is, right now, publishing photos as well as video montages showing:
• Russian military camps close to the border, on both sides of the border, including many set up in Russia in advance of the conflict;
• Convoys of military equipment crossing that border, and, most damningly
• Images showing Russia’s convoys of white lorries, which masquerade as “humanitarian aid” deliveries, sitting in or next to those same Russian military camps.
In addition to IPHR, GlasnostGone, and Bellingcat, the account Putin@war (@dajeyPetros) has also been busy geolocating columns of Russian military vehicles retreating back to Russia after the massacre at Ilovaivsk, there is the excellent “Selfie Soldiers” report produced by Vice News tracking serving Russian soldiers back to their homes in Russia and there is the Atlantic Council “Hiding in Plain Sight” and a report called Putin. War. which Boris Nemtsov helped to compile just before he was murdered.
If the Ukrainian Ministry of Information is not collating the contents of these reports into a dossier to present to an international body, we have to ask, what the hell are they doing? They’re certainly not (for example) investing time on communicating internally – in an objective and fact-based manner – on topics of important national dialogue like the reasonable need for energy tariffs to increase, the fact that low tariffs had subsidized the wealthy and big businesses, and the fact that subsidies are available to those individuals (pensioners and so on) who need them most in order to meet these increased energy costs.
Seek action
According to the terms of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, in the case that there is a threat to the independence, sovereignty, or internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, then Ukraine should seek “Immediate United Nations Security Council action” – something that Ukraine has thus far failed to do effectively. Now, armed with the overwhelming body of evidence that has been collected on this topic through painstaking (voluntary!) investigative work, Ukraine can and should call an emergency session of the UNSC and present this information. The fact of Russia’s breach of commitments in the Budapest Memorandum must be brought to the UNSC.
There have been many UNSC meetings on Ukraine, of course, but none have been as hard hitting as they could be, leaving room for Russia’s UNSC representative Vitaliy Churkin to smirk as he presents his “counter arguments” and pretends that they have the same validity as Ukraine’s claims against his country. Ukraine has not delivered the knockout blow, if they do, at one the highest stages in the world, the minority voices and self-interests calling for sanctions relief will be silenced, and the case for increased costs against Russia will be decisively made. Maybe, just maybe, that will finally be enough to persuade Vladimir Putin to end his disgraceful war in and against Ukraine. The evidence to make this argument to the world community is not circumstantial, it is incontrovertible.
Ukraine has three great challenges right now, stabilizing the country (which includes continuing to close the spaces in which corrupt parasites operate), defeating Russia (by being smart!) and regaining control over currently occupied parts of Ukraine (Admittedly, Crimea will take a little longer.)
The way to win back the east, without bloodshed, is by demonstrating how obviously more attractive free Ukraine is. No, Ukraine is not perfect, but it is most certainly reforming, as the “Ukraine Reform Monitor” series of reports by the Carnegie Endowment (in Moscow, ironically) demonstrate.
But what has the Information Ministry done to communicate these successes, both to the people in free Ukraine and to Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied areas? When people complain that there have been no reforms or only one reform, the cause is obviously that the Information Ministry has simply not done its job.
The way to defeat Russia’s plans for the slow dismemberment and eventual destruction of Ukraine is to demonstrate how very obviously Ukraine continues to evolve, post-revolution, that all is not chaotic, and by continuing to build better, independent, transparent anti-corruption bodies.
At the same time as doing that, which will win more international friends and support, Ukraine needs to pull out the big guns to end the war, not big guns in a military sense, big guns in a communication sense.
It’s about the communication, stupid. Communicate the realities of the war to win international support and get Russia to stand down. Communicate the changes in the two post-Maidan years to make the people in the east realize that it is better for them to be part of free and democratic Ukraine, and communicate to the world what Ukraine is, and why Ukraine deserves support. Nothing, at the present time, is more important.
