See part 1 here: What has changed in Ukraine, post-Yanukovych
See part 2 here: EuroMaidan Revolutin, myth and reality
With that as a basis, we can correct misconceptions, we can discuss misunderstandings, and we can make the best of our collective futures. An honest appraisal of the present and what has brought us here is the basis for forward planning and this was the intention behind parts one and two of this three-part series.Why was it necessary to look at what has really changed post-Viktor Yanukovych? Because the citizens of Ukraine need to understand that things really have changed and continue to change at a fundamental level, because a) this makes them an agent for change too, and b) they deserve this.
Why was it necessary to look at the realities of EuroMaidan?
Simply because many people inside and outside Ukraine do not understand what it was.
Without doubt there are many in eastern Ukraine and Crimea who did not and do not understand it. It’s quite simple, it was about corruption, now find a person in eastern Ukraine, where their lives were and are plagued by corruption, who doesn’t think that standing up against corruption was a bad thing. Really, it is that simple. So, how do we move forward? We’re in a mess, what’s the way out?
There are several key elements.
More reforms, better communication, democratic practices, and international solidarity.
Reforms
A lot has been done. More is needed. But reform should not just be something that is left to government, it is something that needs to happen in all walks of life. The country’s industry, for example, needs to be reformed.
The government and parliament can legislate for safer working practices in factories, but it is the factory owners and factory employees who need to ensure that this legislation is implemented and it is also those owners and employees who will benefit from these changes.
The coal mines require reforming, the safety of miners in this country could be greatly enhanced by investment in existing technologies to clean the air in mines of toxic and flammable gases, the technology is there, investment into the coal mines is needed, this will have to come from private investors.
The job of the government and parliament is to create the framework for a fairer model of society, which is what they have been doing. After that it is down to everyone else to play their respective parts.These reforms are required because that is how society must develop, there is no alternative and there is not an ulterior motive to this process.
But, imagine for a minute you are a Crimean, a Ukrainian citizen for the last 23 years and now change has been forced on you. Maybe you agreed to the change, most likely you did not if we are honest and look at what happened there logically and objectively. But if you’re a Crimean citizen looking north to the rest of Ukraine, where you have family and friends, and they report to you that things are improving, the atmosphere in Kyiv is one of cautious optimism, the exchange rate hasn’t drastically changed for months, the job situation is getting better.
Many internally displaced people are settling well and have adapted to their new lives. If you are Crimean, what are you going to feel about the repressive atmosphere at home since Russia moved to seize strategic bases on the pretense of doing something for you five days after Yanukovych ran away from anti-corruption protests?
Better communication
This should be a no-brainer. It sadly is not. Not enough importance is being paid to this vital area. There’s an old adage, “if a tree falls over in a forest and nobody sees it, does it make a sound?” and it is the same with communication, “if comprehensive anti-corruption mechanisms are put in place and nobody knows about them, has anything been done to combat corruption?”
Domestically, the authorities need to do far more to communicate with the citizens of Ukraine. Sadly the remaining attitude of many who still populate the political classes in Ukraine is that the only time communication with citizens is necessary is when there’s an election coming. There needs to be a regular, structured, dialogue between those in power and those who put them in power.
Explanations need to be made of what Parliament is doing, new laws need to be explained in lay person’s terms and the reasons for those laws need to be justified to the people by their benefit to the people or the state being made clear. This cannot happen soon enough, it is bordering on criminal negligence that this has not happened to date.
Internationally Ukraine needs to be doing more. It is sometimes right to take the higher road, some of the verbal or written attacks on Ukraine are really not worth responding to, they do not deserve to be dignified with an answer, but the reality is that as well as the unprovoked physical confrontation Ukraine is facing there is also an information war and it is (also) being fought with foul methods.
Unfortunately a non-response to the wave of information emanating from Moscow simply leaves the Kremlin narrative unchallenged. Of course, most sensible people can see the lies and smears put forward in blogs and in polished Kremlin funded outlets for what they are, but it is a fact that some of this stuff sticks in the conscience as well.
When a Western journalist uses the term “civil war” to describe what is happening in Ukraine that is a direct result of Moscow’s repeated attempts to assert that is the case.
How hard should it be to challenge, methodically, the distortions put forward by a Ukraine obsessed Russian media?
Not that hard in reality, a cursory glance at any article on the Sputnik website will offer a treasure trove of easily debunked myth and demonstrable twisting of reality, so why is this not being done?
Democratic practices
Far from being a “Party of War” as the relentless Kremlin media falsely insists that the President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk tandem is, Ukraine has made every effort to find peaceful solutions to the conflict in the Donbas.
There is much debate right now about the elections that are to take place there. There is even debate about whether elections should go ahead at all.
And then, if they do, would the result be that Putin succeeds on installing his proxies into the fabric of Ukraine’s political system?
Firstly, yes, elections need to go ahead. But not on any terms, under the right conditions. The elections specified in the Minsk II Agreement are an essential step towards resolving the conflict in a civilized manner, these elections were made a provision of the Minsk agreement because the people need to be allowed to be heard, certainly they are not being heard right now, the people deserve to be represented, and they are certainly not being represented now.
Before the start of the conflict the people now in power, nominees of the Kremlin who regularly pop off to Rostov or Moscow for instructions, had never been heard of.
And, the people now in power were local replacements for what were initially Russian citizens who were appointed to serve as the leaders of these newly created entities. Where are the real leaders of the communities of eastern Ukraine?
The elections must go ahead. A failure of the armed gangs holding the Donbas to ransom to allow for those elections will be another obvious breach of the agreements reached in Minsk.
The elections should be open to anybody who wants to stand, as long as they are local to the area. The elections should be held according to Ukrainian law and should be monitored by the OSCE, both of these are key conditions contained in the Minsk Agreement.
A fair election will be the end of the conflict, because the people of eastern Ukraine will not vote for anybody who proposes continuing of armed conflict for any reason. This is why the Kremlin proxies sitting in Donetsk and Luhansk will do everything that they can to halt any genuine democratic process and this is why the rest of the world must insist on it.
International solidarity
Ukraine is a victim of aggression. Ukraine did nothing to Russia to provoke this aggression. Russia has no reason to be sending tanks and ammunition across the Ukrainian border to kill and maim Ukrainian people. Russia continues to deny involvement only and precisely because their actions are completely unjustifiable, but Russian involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine is an undeniable fact. The international community needs to make a stand, now, because enough is enough.
In a 12-month period from two small monitoring stations out of a border of 450 kilometers, the OSCE has observed 20,012 Russian citizens dressed in combat fatigues crossing the border into Ukraine. Are we expected to believe that Russia could not stop this, has no control over this?
There is irrefutable satellite evidence of Russian shelling from inside Russia to Ukrainian army positions 12 months ago.
Russia continues to send convoy after convoy of trucks into Ukraine and there is no discussion of any of these convoys being inspected by a neutral international body like the Red Cross? At the same time, throughout a 15-month conflict one party has never run out of ammunition despite no ammunition being produced anywhere on the territory it occupies.
The red line is now. The red line is not another escalation, or another strategically important settlement being occupied or decimated like Debaltseve.
Enough already. This war kills people every single day, one more day of war is one day too many.The international community is strong when they are united.
It is essential that the international community makes a united stand now to insist that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity can no longer be violated by these convoys of trucks. If the ammunition dries up those who oppose Ukraine will run pretty fast as they will have no way of maintaining their illegal hold on power.
It must be the combined and unified position of world powers that the evidence of Russia’s aggression is overwhelming, and that there is a price to pay for these actions. No more illegal shipments into Ukraine, Russian forces must withdraw from Ukraine, Ukrainians have to get on with electing their own leaders and must be allowed to do so in a free and fair and unhindered manner.
