When Russian soldiers occupied Borodyanka in February 2022, one of their first acts was to shoot the town’s monument to Ukrainian national bard Taras Shevchenko in the head. This symbolic display of hostility toward Ukrainian identity captured the essence of the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin.
Today’s invasion is the latest chapter in a far longer history of Russian imperial aggression against Ukraine. For hundreds of years, generations of Russian rulers have sought to suppress Ukrainian national identity and force Ukrainians to abandon their quest for independence. Russia has used everything from language bans, targeted killings, mass deportations, and settler colonialism, to artificial famines and wave upon wave of ruthless russification.
These efforts continue. I recently returned from Izyum in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, a town that was under Russian occupation for much of 2022 and remains close to the front lines. The scars of occupation are everywhere, with large parts of the town in ruins and nearby villages still surrounded by landmines. Along with death and destruction, the Russian army also brought school textbooks, military newspapers, and other propaganda tools glorifying the Russian Empire. Russification was obviously a top priority for the occupying forces.
The local residents we met during our recent visit recalled how the most violent Russian troops had seemed to sincerely believe that by killing Ukrainians they were saving Russia. Nevertheless, those who lived through the occupation did not express fear. Despite facing desperate living conditions and constant insecurity, there was no sense of despair. Instead, they were surer than ever in their identity. We are Ukrainians, they told us.
Vladimir Putin provided ample indication of his intentions during the buildup to the February 2022 invasion. In a remarkable summer 2021 essay, he argued at length that Ukrainians are actually Russians (“one people”), while portraying independent Ukraine as an artificial and hostile entity. This document was widely interpreted as a declaration of war on Ukrainian national identity. It was soon being distributed to Russian soldiers, with the aim of convincing them that it was both necessary and justified to apply the harshest possible measures against anyone who insists on identifying as Ukrainian.
Once the invasion began, it was immediately apparent that this was a war against every aspect of Ukrainian national identity including language, culture, and heritage. This genocidal agenda was spelled out in a high-profile editorial that briefly appeared on Kremlin media platforms in the first days of the invasion before being quietly deleted once it became clear that the triumphant tone of the article was premature. Employing the lexicon of imperial conquest, the author credited Putin with solving the “Ukrainian question” for future generations, and trumpeted the restoration of Russia to its “historic fullness.”
As the invasion unfolded, advancing Russian troops were soon putting the Kremlin’s imperialistic ideology into practice. In a chilling echo of tsarist and Soviet crimes against humanity, Ukrainian community leaders, activists, and patriots were hunted down and abducted, while hundreds of thousands of people living in occupied areas were subjected to forced deportation. Those who remained were confronted with blanket russification and pressured to accept Russian citizenship.
The Russian invasion has also targeted Ukraine’s national heritage. Hundreds of cultural heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed including museums, galleries, churches, and places of historical importance. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian artifacts and priceless national treasures have been stolen and shipped back to Russia, where they have in many cases been repackaged as Russian relics. Significant numbers of Russian academics and museum curators have acted as accomplices in these crimes.
Today’s war on Ukrainian culture is reminiscent of the Stalin regime’s campaign to destroy an entire generation of Ukrainian cultural leaders during the early decades of the Soviet era. This doomed generation of 1920s and 1930s Ukrainian poets, writers, and artists has come to be known as the “Executed Renaissance.” Like their Soviet predecessors, Putin’s invading army has also targeted contemporary writers, musicians, and artists as living symbols of Ukrainian cultural identity.
In a very real sense, Russia’s total war against Ukrainian identity and culture is actually an admission of failure. It reflects the fact that Ukrainians have resoundingly rejected the Kremlin’s so-called “Russian World,” recognizing it as a ploy to subjugate Ukraine. This has left Putin with no option but to resort to force.
Russia’s invasion recently passed the two-year mark with no end in sight. But while nobody knows when or how the war will end, it is already apparent that Russia will not succeed in erasing Ukraine. On the contrary, the invasion has helped fuel an unprecedented consolidation of Ukrainian identity that many have likened to a national coming of age. Putin believed Ukraine was weak and would soon collapse under the overwhelming weight of his invading army. Instead, Ukrainian national identity has been strengthened in a manner so profound that it may only become fully apparent in the decades to come.
Danylo Lubkivsky is director of the Kyiv Security Forum. He is the former Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine and ex-Chair of Ukraine’s UNESCO Commission.
When I visited Borodyanka in September 2022, I also looked at the damaged bust of Taras Shevchenko and thought the same thing; the roaches want to erase Ukrainian identity. But, more important in making this awareness to come alive were the destroyed apartment blocks in the vicinity. They were bombed by roach aircraft. Those roach pilots saw exactly what they were destroying. Not military objects, but civilian ones. In a country that they invaded for unjustified reasons and thought to be able to defeat at any moment. They didn’t give a rat’s äss about the civilians in those buildings, the women and children. They might even have had fun at it.
“In a very real sense, Russia’s total war against Ukrainian identity and culture is actually an admission of failure. It reflects the fact that Ukrainians have resoundingly rejected the Kremlin’s so-called “Russian World,” recognizing it as a ploy to subjugate Ukraine. This has left Putin with no option but to resort to force.”
That’s true. But, paradoxically and disturbingly, the ruskie mir has found a home in many minds of goobers across the Western world. We all know the more prominent ones in the US, Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, Britain, and so on. Others are those, for instance, who wear very dumb teeshirts at Trump rallies. Too bad we can’t send all of them to mafia land in exchange for leaving Ukraine alone.
“But while nobody knows when or how the war will end, it is already apparent that Russia will not succeed in erasing Ukraine. On the contrary, the invasion has helped fuel an unprecedented consolidation of Ukrainian identity that many have likened to a national coming of age.”
Also true. There are even citizens of foreign countries who’ve discovered their Ukrainian roots and identity … and are proud of it.
Mafia land is a failure just like the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Pol Pot of Cambodia, and other evil regimes, it just doesn’t know it yet. And, mafia land will also disintegrate, and there’s nothing the fascist mafiosi can do to stop it. It’s only a matter of time.
This year, a vote for Trumpkov is a vote for rewarding genocide.
There now can be little or no doubt that Trumpkov and putler intend to reward Orban for shilling for them with Ukrainian land.
I wish the Democrats would dump Biden as their presidential hope. Having someone younger and better suited would make a Trump win less likely.
My wish, too, Mr. Ofp! But, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of the Damn Party establishment and its commitment to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. That was apparent in 2016, when they ignored all the warning signs in the battleground states, and it seems to happen again. Old Joe Biden only has a chance for reelection if he creates new excitement at the Convention by chosing a new VP for the ticket. Someone younger and more popular. That could be the winning move to make his second term look less risky. Voters want an assurance that the country would be in good hands should Biden drop dead. Alas, I’m afraid this old bonehead will ignore the writing on the wall and stubbornly continue with effing Kamala Harris, who’s as unpopular as he is. And that’s the road to defeat, I’m afraid. 😕
This raises the question of why conduct polls all the time when no one draws any conclusions from them.
Terrible and shocking to read. In response to genocide, Biden promises no US troops in Ukraine; ever. Well that’s really helpful eh?
RIA Novosti published a genocide handbook that amplified putler’s earlier “Mein Kampf” hate and genocide essay. Both should be enough to hang the entire putler murder gang.
As for His Holiness Pope Tankie the First, he badly needs excommunication for recommending showing the white flag to savages.
Biden is not the sharpest tool in the shed, as we’ve seen too many times already.
Only those who are also damned with a cold heart, small brains, and without a lick of integrity refuse to see mafia land for what it is; a criminal, evil shithole.
As for the pope, the old jerk should be sent to the trenches and made to speak with the victims of roach atrocities to help remind him what Ukraine is dealing with.
Hmm, I used to like Pope Francis and still believe he meaning sell, even though misguided (who knows what news they feed him in the Vatican? Russian moles there?), but I support your suggestion. Indeed, seeing the consequences of RuSSian terror first hand should be an eye opener to Francis. To wave the white flag would be like surrendering to the Antichrist. And in no reasonable interpretation of catholic faith can this be allowed. ☹
Be it as it may, a person who occupies a certain position, especially a very high one, should be able to gather enough information before making a major announcement to the world in order not to make an ass of himself. Or, have competent people who can help him or her in this regard. Such a person can cause a lot of damage when he or she talks through his or her ass like he did.