Eight years ago, when Ukraine celebrated the next anniversary of the declaration of Independence, we wrote in the same “congratulatory” column that this is the most terrible August 24 in the entire recent history of our country. Crimea was already groaning under the fifth occupier, the east was burning, Russian troops began an open, non-hybrid invasion of the Donbass, which led to the Ilbay tragedy. The soldiers who had just marched in parade formation along Khreshchatyk were sent to the front as part of the marching units. Many of them fell…

It seemed to us that it couldn’t get any worse, that the most terrible thing was unfolding before our eyes. Could we have assumed that these were just flowers, and truly bloody “berries” await the Ukrainian nation in the future? Alas, none of us are visionaries.

And then the fateful year 2022 rolled around, and Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine, the likes of which Europe had not seen since the Second World War… For six terrible months, the carnage has taken tens of thousands of lives, and there is no end in sight. But the tests are just beginning.

And yet, Ukraine has endured and continues to fight, paying for its freedom with the blood of its sons and daughters. Unfortunately, independence rarely comes for free. And apparently, we have been in a lot of debt for it since 1991.

We know that this is a weak consolation, but the enemy pays an even more terrible price for treachery and cruelty. New and new battalions of the Russians are drawn up to the east and south, new and new warehouses with ammunition and fuel, new command posts take to the air; more and more graves with a “cargo of 200” (those who managed to collect in the fields) are sent to the cities and villages of the huge nepotimperii; “claps” are being heard more and more often in the once peaceful Russian regions; the economy of the aggressor country feels worse and worse.

The vaunted Russian fleet, the object of personal pride of the Moscow tsar, was driven away from Ukrainian shores, suffered terrible losses and is now only able to fire at us occasionally with missiles, the supply of which is melting, remaining under the cover of coastal air defense systems and shuddering at every extraneous sound – suddenly the terrible “Neptune” flies or the insidious “Bayraktar”?! The Russians, who came to the captured Crimea to sunbathe and splash in the stolen sea, run away with horror, creating wild traffic jams on the Kerch Bridge.

Ukrainians turned out to be an incredibly resilient people, toothy, capable of phenomenal self-organization and genuine mobilization at a critical moment. What does it say, if even President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was a classic “Little Russian vulgarian” in the worst version, and when a roasted rooster pecked at a famous place, suddenly exploded, turning into an evil Bandera citizen? Apparently, this is something written on the cortex.

If you read Russian propagandists, there is no nation as scary as Ukrainians. Somewhere I even got acquainted with a huge longrid, telling why the SBU is the true heiress of the Soviet KGB, and their FSB is a pale shadow of it.

Yes, we are terrible! We are strong! Although, of course, all this is exclusively because we are fighting for our lives, for the right to exist on our land, and they are vile robbers who have entered someone else’s house. Paradoxically, the criminal is always more afraid than the resisting victim, which is why he is more cruel: cruelty is the flip side of cowardice.

But let’s not forget one more important point on this important day. What are Ukrainians fighting for? Independence is great and good, but independence in itself does not mean true freedom. No, Ukraine is primarily fighting for values, one of which is fundamental, democracy.

The struggle for it is unfolding not only on the fronts, but also deep in the rear. Alas, there are fewer victories here than at the front.

Democracy, as is known, is not a state, but a process. This means that rights must be constantly fought for. And it’s not just about something global like elections, but also about little things. Unfortunately, the full-scale war gave officials of all stripes an excellent reason to curtail the rights of citizens in various areas. We have already written about “anti-alcohol” police raids on Odessa retail outlets in the days when the dry law was in effect – with groundless confiscation of goods (which were neither returned to the owners nor seized for the benefit of the state, but simply dissolved in “law enforcement” warehouses) . About the closure by authorities of publicly important information that cannot help the enemy in any way – from the full names of local council deputies and information on taxes and fees to cadastral data.

This is largely due to the fact that the current laws and by-laws that regulate the wartime regime were written at a time when no one, even in their wildest dreams, could imagine that they would be in demand. They have a lot of gaps and inconsistencies. And a legal vacuum, as is known, breeds lawlessness. What do unscrupulous citizens with powers, and often people without them, use?

Even in the most safe, from a military point of view, regions of the country, the “right of an automatic machine” has become a common phenomenon, when an armed AK “teroboronovets” in beach slippers, not hiding his happiness at the fact that he is sunbathing at a resort, and not in the trenches of the Kherson Region, behaves , like God, assigning the functions of counterintelligence.

A vivid example: the recent detention at one of the checkpoints near Zatoka of the front-line and criminal correspondent of “Dumskaya” Georgy Ak-Murza. He spent some time without a phone and was forced to answer questions from questionable persons who had difficulty handling weapons.

Later, when, after the intervention of higher forces, our employee was released, it turned out that the soldiers did not act of their own free will: this TrO brigade has real proscription lists of journalists – the employees were ordered not only not to let them in, but to intimidate them as much as possible. Isn’t this nonsense? And what will happen next?

It is clear, a bend, but the bends must be straightened. Diseases should be treated in the early stages, without starting. I really want to hope that Ukraine, being at the crossroads created by the Great War, will choose the right turn.

Because if not freedom, then what are we fighting for?

One of our singers has good words: “The angels of the will are called Ukraine!”

You know, Ukraine is worth fighting for!

Glory to Ukraine! Glory and eternal memory to the heroes! Happy holiday, brothers and sisters!

Author — “Dumskoy” editorial office

DEATH TO THE RUSSIAN OCCUPIERS!

(C)DUMSKAYA.NET 2022