Volodymyr Kukharenko

Helping translation companies to automate business and project management | ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕤 𝕋𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕤𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝔹𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕄𝕒𝕟𝕒𝕘𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕞

Protemos  National Technical University of Ukraine ‘Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’​

Ukraine

Dec 14, 2023

58% of Ukrainians support the continuation of the fight and do not want any negotiations with Russia EVEN in case if the West stops helping (source: https://lnkd.in/dpkThPmp )

We understand that Russia has 3.5 times more people and many times more GDP (mainly financed by oil and gas that the West still continues to buy). We know that the balance of power shifts to them if we are left alone, but we will still fight.  Why is that? Does it make you think that we are a bloodthirsty nation or a nation of suiciders?

The answer is counterintuitively simple: we want to live. And we know that we have more chances to survive if we fight. Because if we lose, our current losses will be just a drop in the ocean of blood that will flow. They want to destroy us as a nation, completely, and convert us into Russians. So those who insist on being Ukrainians will be eliminated, and it means killing millions.

If you think I am exaggerating, let me remind you what happened after we lost in 1919.

In 1933, they took the food away from people and over 10 million Ukrainians died from hunger. My wife told me a story about how her ancestors buried salted pork of their pig in a coffin to hide it from the commies, while a real “tenant” of the grave was buried in another place. Some people were caught eating the diseased relatives to feed the surviving ones. My great-grandmother survived it at the age of 13, and I remember her crying every time when crops were just a bit less abundant than the previous year. She was afraid that hunger would return, and we as kids were laughing at the absurdity of this idea (“How is it even possible to have hunger in fertile Ukrainian lands?”).

In 1920-1930ties they killed most of the prominent Ukrainians: writers, poets, artists, scientists, and anyone else who stood out of the crowd. We call it the “Executed Renaissance”. My great-grandfather was a villager who was working on 2 jobs to feed his 5 children, and in 1938 he was executed for “connections with Ukrainian nationalists” together with his 2 brothers, and his 18 y.o. daughter died because she could not overcome the stress of her loss. And after killing our intellectual elite, they started saying that we are a “nation of peasants”. Still, those surviving “peasants” were leading their space program…

In WW2, Ukrainians were used as cannon fodder against Nazis, and general Zhukov was saying “The more of them die the better”. My other great-grandfather perished in one of those penal units.

Now let’s get back to today. Look at Bucha massacre (2022) photos:  https://t.ly/B4TFu . This is just one of many places where they were executing people by the lists. Yes, they had lists, and Ukrainian language and history teachers were among the targets. The whole of Ukraine will turn into this if they take over.

That’s why we will fight. Better die fighting than be quietly slaughtered like cattle. But we all want to live. That’s why we need weapons.

https://kiis.com.ua/?lang=ukr&cat=reports&id=1331&page=1

Ever asked yourself how long would your country stand if Russia attacked it and you had no military support from the USA and neighbors? No military bases, no weapons supply?

The smaller countries will be taken out fast. NATO plan implies the occupation for several months before the liberation. But even the bigger countries would have troubles. Do you know that Germany has artillery ammunition just for 2 days of fight? Several years ago Poland had a real plan to retreat behind the Vistula river and hold the front there. On the whole European continent, only the United Kingdom and possibly France could counter Russia with their military.

And apart from the size of the army, there is a state of spirit. Would your citizens be ready to sacrifice their lives for freedom or will they act out of “life is the highest value” logic? Maybe I am wrong, but I think that Eastern Europeans are more likely to fight than Western Europeans. Simply because Poland, Romania, Finland and the Baltics have a very good idea of what Russian occupation is like, they have emotional memory that would ignite them to resist. But what would happen if Russians magically come to Germany somehow bypassing Poland through a portal? Russians have “take Berlin again” post-WW2 sentiment, and it’s only getting stronger.

Europe, you are weak now, just take it as fact. And if Ukraine was not standing in their way and USA was not protecting you with their bases, troops, and weapons (including the ones given to Ukraine), how long would it take for Russians to take you (especially if they got Ukrainians into their army as they mistakenly expected)?

So build your defense, and help Ukraine which is holding the line for you and restore your military production capacities. Arm Eastern Europeans and fortify their borders with Russia if you want a peaceful life in Western Europe. If you want never know what the war is really like. We Ukrainians were naïve and did not believe it may happen, gave up our weapons, now we are paying in blood for this mistake. Do not repeat our mistakes.

And stop trading with Russia, or you will sell them the rope on which they will hang you (this is what Vladimir Lenin literally said 100 years ago). You can find oil, gas, and other resources elsewhere. They produce nothing, even the oil and gas are extracted by Western equipment. Their economy may wither even without fighting if you show the will, you do not even need to use guns. But if you prefer to trade with them as before, your future may be much grimmer than just high fuel prices.

But I believe that together we will stand, and together we will win. Just face the reality and everything will be fine.