As Ukraine and its people prepare to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of the country’s independence on August 24 – a day that should be the occasion for great celebrations of Ukraine’s remarkable history and its promising future – there are storm clouds gathering over our ancestral homeland. Reports from various sources indicate that not only is the war in Ukraine’s east intensifying, but that Russia has deployed surface-to-air missiles (SAM) in Crimea. In addition, Russian forces are reported to be massing along the border with Ukraine.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council noted on August 17 that, in the previous 24 hours, combined Russian-separatist forces fired on Ukrainian positions 96 times, employing over 500 mortar rounds and over 300 artillery rounds; three soldiers were killed and six were wounded in action. The Central Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Defense cited reports that a SAM battalion from the 60th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian armed forces was deployed within the territory of Ukraine. The well-known security correspondent Bill Gertz of Washington filed this information: “The Pentagon has identified eight staging areas in Russia where large numbers of military forces appear to be preparing for incursions into Ukraine… As many as 40,000 Russian troops, including tanks, armored vehicles and air force units, are now arrayed along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia. Additionally, large numbers of Russian military forces will conduct exercises in the coming days that Pentagon officials say could be used as cover for an attack on Ukraine.” The correspondent noted: “The military exercises are an ominous sign. Similar large-scale Russian exercises were conducted near Ukraine a month before Moscow carried out the covert military operation to take over the strategic Black Sea peninsula [Crimea] in March 2014.” President Petro Poroshenko was quoted as saying that the likelihood of an escalation of the conflict “remains significant” and said he cannot rule out “a full-scale Russian invasion.”
Clearly, the situation is worrisome. But the truth is, we’ve been there before. Many times. And Ukraine has survived and overcome.
Therefore, we believe the words of the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt (he’s leaving soon for his new assignment in Greece): “I think having survived 2014 – the invasion of Crimea, the shootings on the Maidan, the collapse of the hryvnia and the financial system – Ukraine can survive anything if it got through 2014.” And we believe that justice and truth will ultimately prevail, and that the U.S. and the West will continue to stand by Ukraine in the face of relentless and ruthless Russian aggression – whether on the battlefield or in cyberspace. Most of all we believe that Ukraine will continue to move toward Europe and that the new generation of Ukrainians born in a newly independent state will lead the country to a bright future.
Twenty-five years after that historic August 24 – a quarter-century marked by many detours, setbacks, human casualties and achievements – we wish Ukraine and its people peace. That is foremost. And we wish them fortitude and success as Ukraine continues its slow but steady progress toward establishing a democratic, law-abiding state, manifesting the civilizational choice made most emphatically in 2013-2014. It was a choice courageously made and defended by the Euro-Maidan movement that became the Revolution of Dignity. It was clear then, as it is now, that Ukraine and Ukrainians want to return to Europe, their rightful home. Yearning for European values, human rights and rule of law, they have taken control of their destiny. And that is what we must celebrate above all else.
Slava Ukrayini!