Like many others, I have become totally engrossed with the implications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
One week after the invasion we have seen nothing yet. The future for Kyiv and the other cities of Ukraine is that of the martyred cities of Aleppo in Syria, Grozny in Chechenia and Misrata in Libya – cities reduced to heaps of rubble, cities defended by warriors become desperate heroes, who punch holes in the walls separating houses so that the defenders could move around without being seen by the sharpshooters or the tanks.
In these three localities there was one common factor – the Russian factor. In Syria the Russians were helping Assad, in Libya they were helping one side in the civil war and in Chechenia they were, just as in the Ukraine, defending the old Soviet empire from being broken up.
For that is the reason for the invasion of Ukraine. For the Russians the Ukraine does not exist as a country, as an independent state. It is simply ‘the Ukraine region’ as it was in Stalin’s time. The invasion aims to remove the Ukrainian government and to bring back the Soviet empire.
After it may come the turn of the Baltic States, Poland and the other ex-communist countries.
So far, the invasion seems to have been blocked but one city has already been lost and others may be by the time this article gets printed.
Just as happened in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the Russians seem to have sent raw recruits telling them they were going for some manoeuvres without telling them they were about to invade a sovereign state. Then came the usual consequences – unmotivated soldiers, mistakes and wrong directions, and deaths that someone must explain to the grieving mothers.
The Russians have superior firepower, not just in the air but also on the ground and, of course, superior numbers. The task facing the Ukrainian defenders is an almost impossible one.
They have courage, true, indomitable courage and the desperation of those fighting with their backs to the wall. Their State is a newborn one and had to face innumerable difficulties as it broke down the vestigies of the old Soviet regime.
But this invasion has united the country in a way nothing else did. There are different language areas in the country – Ukrainian speaking and Russian speaking – but all feel angry and vengeful about the invasion.
This invasion has created the nation if nothing else did.
This is why this invasion (and please stop calling it the Russia – Ukraine war when it’s an invasion, not a war) is Putin’s worst mistake and he and Russia must be made to suffer the consequences.
In the three cities I mentioned at the beginning Russia lost but masked its defeat by further foreign adventures. It has not learned anything. Hopefully now the sanctions put in place by Europe and the US will have enough bite to hurt.
Not if Malta can help it, it would seem. Lost in the throes of an election campaign both sides do not have time for the Ukraine. Only one mass event was held, mostly by Ukrainian expats, whereas other cities such as Berlin held vast crowds. The bell of Notre Dame in Paris tolled and a special Ukrainian Mass was held in the cathedral of Cologne. But nothing in Malta except the bishop touching the Ukrainian flag at an Ash Wednesday Mass.
As for the sanctions Malta did implement the European directives but with all the enthusiasm of a cold fish. The prime minister announced that Malta’s airspace had been closed to Russian airlines when this was a pan-EU decision and affected private planes as well. So too with the decision banning SWIFT for Russian banks.
The worst case regarded selling passports to Russian oligarchs. This was defended tooth and nail by various ministers until a clear order forced the Maltese government to do a U-turn. What about PN MPs still selling passports?
This coolness will long be remembered by the Ukrainian people. To be soft-pedalling on Russia at such a time shows how out of sync we are with the leaders of Europe. Thank God we have Roberta Metsola to even things out a bit.
[email protected]