A Country of Maniacs, A Country of Murderers - February 25th 2024

February 26th 2024

Today marks the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion or Ukraine and two years since Yuriy signed up to the army. He tells a story of a European reporter who managed to escape a checkpoint...

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TRANSCRIPT: (Podbean app users can enjoy closed captions)

  It is February 25. 

One European journalist of Russian origin worked in the occupied part of Donbas since the beginning of occupation, from the summer of 2014. He was fluent in Russian, obtained all permits from the occupiers to stay in the territory they controlled and negotiated with almost all warlords. They highly valued this reporter because they believed that with his help, they could legitimize the occupation of part of Ukrainian territory in the eyes of Western readers. 

The reporter had problems only once. During a routine document check at the checkpoint the occupiers found a photo under the cover of his passport, showing the reporter completely naked, embracing another naked man, his boyfriend. This European was gay, and in the eyes of a drunken occupier at the checkpoint, this was the most terrible crime. And these occupiers faced a dilemma: on one hand, they had a gay man in front of them whom they had already declared illegal, on the other hand, they needed this guy very much for propaganda work. And he found a way out.

"He's my brother. My brother and I were fooling around and someone took a photo of it." The reporters told the occupiers, "Oh brother? Great brotherhood is sacred." The invaders rejoiced because the reporter found an excuse that gave him justification to let him go. 

Everyone knew it was a lie. Everyone understood everything. But it was convenient for everyone to pretend that these were indeed naked brothers in the photo. This lie was beneficial to everyone. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, when these checkpoints with drunken occupiers appeared in Crimea, in Donbas, moscow told everyone that these were some local insurgents who bought machine guns, cannons, and even tanks somewhere in a military equipment store. The world knew Moscow was lying, but it pretended to believe it because it was more convenient, it was more profitable for everyone. 

This lie led to a great war that started two years ago the World continued to trade with Russia, sending it billions of dollars, which went to armaments, propaganda, preparation for a full scale invasion and the destruction of Ukraine.

The voices of reason crying out that one cannot cooperate with murders, cannot give them the opportunity to strengthen and enrich themselves were ignored. Moreover, everything was done not to alienate the Russians. The Ukrainians were not given weapons, forced to negotiate with occupiers, and told that the main thing was not to anger the Russians. 

Today marks exactly two years since I joined the Army, yesterday marked exactly two years since the start of a full scale invasion- an invasion that would not have happened at all if the world had the courage to acknowledge that Crimea was occupied, and not voluntarily joined Russia, that the Donbas is not controlled by local insurgents, but by units of Russian army forces. Lies unwillingness to see reality, readiness to believe blatant lies, to avoid facing the unpleasant truth. All of this has led to a nightmarish war. 

Unpunished evil always comes back. That's the rule. Russia, a country of maniacs, a country of murders seized, Donbas, and Crimea, tortured thousands of Ukrainians, but the world preferred not to see it, forgave everything and Russia went further. It was allowed to do so.