One of the most interesting aspects of the Russo-Ukrainian War arises from those less directly connected to its violence. In particular, states, peoples, collectives, institutions, enterprises and NGOs--those comfortably sitting in the audience watching what for them surely is theater that is both real and because it is not immediately felt, abstract. It is watching television or reading novels. That is how the Russo-Ukrainian War is experienced by cultures whose masses have been taught to consume experience indirectly through visual, oral, and print media--in cyberspace and through interaction with their screens. That applies with greater force to the even more detached nomenklatura that services the institutions in which elites can sit around, or travel about, have their little Oscar Wilde aesthetic movement stylized discussions, and leave the work to those much lower on the hierarchies of power, class, and caste. Having permitted the situation to reach its current point they are hardly in a position to bray about it, much less to export their own bad choices and failures onto the Ukrainian people. It is that lack of ownership that marks the current cultures of cyber-television-remote war fantasies (the worst possible lessons to draw from the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s) around which the policies of apex powers are crafted.
That, put in a much nicer way, was the point President Zelenskyy sought to drive to the residents of an outpost of this world style in his address to the university community of Chile. The address, Russia deliberately deepening crisis of cost of living in many countries, that is why we must jointly resist its aggression (17 August 2022) made several important points.
1. Colonialism is not just a wet (duscursive) noodle that identitarians and developing states can use to flog a little guilt from the (quite guilty) centers of former colonial empires. Colonialism comes now in a post-global style--one manifestation of which is the effort to re-colonize territories now liberated. That is an important insight as relevant to other parts of the world as it may be to Ukraine (and Georgia, Moldova, etc.). There are all sorts of ancient empires (now headed by people with little connection other than discourse and occupation of what had been the home territory of the now disappeared ancient imperial peoples) that are perhaps eager to engage in projects of re-colonization. That this may be undertaken under the discursive tropes of anti-colonialism just makes the effort more interesting.
2. The Russo-Ukrainian War began with the invasion and conquest (re-colonization) of Crimea. The international community has blood on its hands for that--as much as it has to answer for the Georgian invasion. Again, a generation that grew up with the fantasies of Realpolitik applied via models and screens and paid for with the blood of dependent peoples--that is what the Crimea represented--the first partition of Ukraine; the current war undertaken to ensure a second partition. The Americans--and NATO, bear more than ther share of responsibility for this. And they will pay for their detached irresponsibility and television fantasy game approach to the ordering of a world they built after 1945 and then effectively abandoned.
3. Part of that price is the "discomfort" the pampered masses of apex post-colonial empires (liberal democratic and Marxist Leninist) now oink about. European financing the Russian war machine; Americans mired in a recession that will not say its name; the potential collapse of the real estate market in China. IN the words of Mr. Zelenskyy:
But the leadership of Russia chose terror, not an agreement. They chose what they did in Mariupol, in Bucha, not peace. And when Moscow saw that the world would not turn a blind eye to Russian atrocities, they wanted to bring the whole world to its knees. That is why the food crisis has become so acute. That is why Russia is deliberately destabilizing the energy markets. That is why Russian policy is deepening the crisis of the cost of living in many countries for mercenary motives. And this is why we must jointly resist Russian aggression. When a state turns energy poverty or hunger into a weapon, it is a blow to everyone in the world. When a state tries to conquer another because it wants to be a colonizer, it is a threat to all who value their independence. And when people are killed simply because they are, because they belong to their people, because they do not give up their homeland, it is a threat to humanity as such. (Zelenskyy remarks, supra)
Pix Credit Sacrifice Scene from Movie Apocalypto (2006)
And yet, this is precisely what those who view the war as a "game"--quite remote from the direct effects on their own peoples have crafted. Russia can choose terror because its sponsors in China, and its opponents in Europe and North America find it useful, or passively find it not worth the effort to counter (other than through the second order sanctions programs, and the distressingly slow weapons feed to Ukraine). The liberal democracies have made it possible for the Russo-Ukrainian War to be turned into an economic war on the West, and an instrument ot move the developing camp closer to Russia's sponsor. In the process they use their choice to then pressure the Ukrainians to concede (as their domestic populations bleat in discomfort). Partition remains very much on the table--and the sacrifice of the Ukrainian people is still, like the sacrifice scene in Apocalypto still very much a work in progress. This is an example of the passive-complicity. Passivity in this case produced the space within which what had been unthinkable in 2002 became acceptable (despite the rhetorical flourishes) in 2022.
The full text of President Zelenskyy's address follows.
Russia deliberately deepening crisis of cost of living in many countries, that is why we must jointly resist its aggression – address of President of Ukraine to university community of Chile
17 August 2022 - 21:33
Dear Mr. Rector!
Dear students and university teachers who joined our conversation today!
Dear journalists and everyone present!
I am grateful for the opportunity to address you and tell you what is happening in Ukraine and why the Russian war against our country is still going on. Why there is no peace.
A full-scale war, a full-scale Russian invasion of the territory of Ukraine has been going on for 175 days. For 175 days, millions of Ukrainians have defended the independence of our state.
But not only independence. This is a struggle not only for the state and not only for the opportunity of our people to independently decide their future.
Indeed, the primary motive of Russian aggression against Ukrainians is purely colonialist – the Russian leadership wants its domination over Ukrainian land and over our resources. And for a long time it was heard in Moscow that they would not restore the Russian empire without seizing the territory of Ukraine.
However, it became a much deeper struggle than any imperial or geopolitical intentions. Russia is literally waging a war against the lives of our people, against the very right to life of Ukrainians.
And this war started not 175 days ago. On February 24 of this year, Russia switched to massive aggression – to attacks from the north, from the east, and from the south at once; all our ports on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov were blocked; massive missile strikes were launched throughout the territory of Ukraine.
But it was a continuation of the war. The war that began in 2014. It began when Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula, ignited the confrontation in Donbas, which claimed thousands of lives. They were thousands.
Therefore, when we talk about Russia's war against Ukraine, we are talking about eight years and 175 days. And when we talk about the victims of this war, about Ukrainian losses, we do not start the story from February 2022. We start it in 2014, when Ukrainians began to be killed simply because they were Ukrainians.
For the Ukrainian flag. For a pro-Ukrainian position. For defending the Ukrainian territory. Even simply for the suspicion that a person supports the Ukrainian state.
Today I want to tell you about one such person. About a guy who would have turned 25 this fall, and he would probably be a lot like you right now.
His name was Stepan Chubenko. He was from the city of Kramatorsk in Donbas. Bright young man. He was remembered as kind and very active – if he had entered a university similar to yours, he would probably have become one of the student leaders. Perhaps he would not have betrayed his dream and chosen the path of a sports career – and he would have been able to become the goalkeeper of one of the teams you know.
I ask you to look at these photos now – that's the kind of guy he was.
He was killed on July 27, 2014. He was killed by militants – one of those whose hands Russia used to wage a hybrid war in Donbas and whom it is now using in the full-scale war.
They detained Stepan when he was returning home. They saw a yellow and blue ribbon on his backpack – the colors of our flag. And that was reason enough for them to grab the boy. He was beaten for several days, tortured, and shot.
Only in the middle of August of that year, weeks after the murder, Stepan's mother managed to find out what happened to her son. But she was not given his body.
Only in November 2014 it was possible to bury him.
Stepan's mother has the last text message from him: "I'll call you later, I love you."
His killers hid in the territory of Russia and Crimea occupied by Russia. They received sentences from the Ukrainian court. But the terrorist state Russia protects them from being prosecuted.
Them and thousands of other such murderers.
Those who shot people simply because they were Ukrainians. Simply because they were Ukrainians in Ukraine.
Those who shot men and women in the back of the head for the mere suspicion that the person was defending our state.
Those who shot at residential buildings, at schools and hospitals point blank from tanks.
Those who used artillery to bombard peaceful cities.
It started back then – in 2014, and 175 days ago it reached the maximum scale that the Russian army, Russian mercenaries from the so-called military companies, which are de facto part of the secret services of the terrorist state, are capable of.
Russia really wants to seize the territory of Ukraine. And it needs this territory without Ukrainians.
The destroyed Mariupol and dozens of other cities and villages of Ukraine, the Bucha massacre and other cities in the occupied territory are not exceptions to the general Russian strategy, this is what it is – the Russian strategy towards Ukraine and Ukrainians.
Tens of thousands of our people are kept for months in the so-called "filtration camps" set up by the Russian military.
Thousands of Ukrainian children were deported from the territory entered by the Russian army. They are taken to Russia, and Russian officials are trying to do everything so that these children lose all contact with their families and simply forget who they are.
Monuments and museums that simply remind of Ukraine are being destroyed on the occupied territory. They destroy books. They do everything so that people are forced to give up their national identity, their aspirations, dreams, and obey violence and robbery or die.
Ukraine has already lost the lives of tens of thousands of its people in this war. Very small children – one-month-old babies, who were killed by Russian missiles, shells and bullets. Teenagers. Men and women. Elderly people.
Russia does not care who to kill and who to abuse. Everyone is equally its target. And these are not excesses of war. This is its conscious policy.
Therefore, we have no other choice but to fight for the lives of Ukrainians, so that in Ukraine they are not killed for a yellow-blue ribbon on a teenager's backpack. And this struggle can last only until victory.
I can't count how many times before February 24 I suggested to Russia to end the war and negotiate peace. In different formats, through different mediation.
It took many years to negotiate.
But the leadership of Russia chose terror, not an agreement. They chose what they did in Mariupol, in Bucha, not peace. And when Moscow saw that the world would not turn a blind eye to Russian atrocities, they wanted to bring the whole world to its knees.
That is why the food crisis has become so acute. That is why Russia is deliberately destabilizing the energy markets. That is why Russian policy is deepening the crisis of the cost of living in many countries for mercenary motives. And this is why we must jointly resist Russian aggression.
When a state turns energy poverty or hunger into a weapon, it is a blow to everyone in the world. When a state tries to conquer another because it wants to be a colonizer, it is a threat to all who value their independence. And when people are killed simply because they are, because they belong to their people, because they do not give up their homeland, it is a threat to humanity as such.
Can you stay away? Can you stay indifferent? I don't believe that.
That is why you are here today, because you value the truth.
And I'm not asking too much of you. I ask you to spread only the truth – spread the truth about this war in your country and in your region. It is necessary to oppose Russian propaganda.
Demand full accountability for Russian murderers and executioners. Every war crime must receive its verdict by a competent and honest court.
Support sanctions against Russia – because the aggressor must pay the highest price for aggression.
And most importantly, value peace, value life, value your freedom and always, when you have such an opportunity, help defend peace, life and freedom by protecting those from whom they want to take it.
I am very grateful to each of you, thank you for your attention!
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