This month marks both the ninth year of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, which began on February 20, 2014, when Russia’s “little green men” invaded Crimea, as well as the first year of Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022 and which – according to the Kremlin and several Western pseudo-experts – was supposed to last about three days.
On April 12, 2022, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, called the atrocities that Russia is committing during this war against Ukraine “genocide” and added: “I called it genocide because it became increasingly clear that Putin is simply trying to eliminate the very idea of being Ukrainian. »
Two weeks later, on April 27, 2022, the House of Commons of Canada unanimously passed a motion recognizing that “the Russian Federation is committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people”.
Other countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Republic of Ireland and the Czech Republic, have also recognized this genocide through acts of their parliaments.
This modern day genocide began in the 90e anniversary of another genocide committed by Russia against Ukraine, the Holodomor, when the Kremlin starved millions of Ukrainians to death.
On December 9, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Genocide Convention, and since then 152 countries have ratified it and pledged to “prevent and punish” genocide.
Procrastination
Over the past year, many of these countries have helped Ukraine defend its territorial integrity, but – as a retired US general recently pointed out – the US response to the urgent appeals of the Ukraine for the delivery of arms to help defend itself was: “No, no, no… yes. »
The main reason for this procrastination and hesitation on the part of NATO member countries is that their predisposition to support Ukraine has been overshadowed by their desperate efforts to “ do not allow climbing of the war beyond Ukraine’s borders.
This short-sighted approach ignores the fact that on February 22, 2022, Putin declared that a “special military operation” would be launched against Ukraine to address his obsessive perception that the United States and NATO would otherwise conduct a pre-emptive strike on Russian missile systems and that Ukraine would serve “as a stronghold for such a strike”. Moreover, in his State of the Nation Address on February 21, 2023, Putin blamed the West for starting Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine, adding that Russia was using force to Stop.
This clearly demonstrates that Putin sees the United States and NATO as imminent threats and that Russia will go beyond Ukraine’s borders if Ukraine cannot secure them.
Unfortunately, all delays by NATO member countries in delivering needed weapons to Ukraine have been fully exploited by Russia to cause enormous human suffering in Ukraine and massive destruction of its towns and villages.
Indeed, on January 3, 2023, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Chmyhal, told a government session that the damage caused by Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine already exceeded the staggering sum of 700 billion US dollars.
Surprisingly, despite Russia’s repeated genocidal acts against Ukraine, the resolve of the Ukrainian people to defend their country has grown stronger, as well as their belief that Ukraine will restore its internationally recognized 1991 borders.
At this point, NATO member countries must not only recognize the heroism and remarkable resilience of Ukraine’s armed forces and its people, but also provide Ukraine with all the weapons necessary to win the war. as quickly as possible and limit additional human suffering.
Hopefully, the President of the United States’ historic trip to Ukraine on February 20, 2023, will pave the way for the international community to stop hesitating and take immediate, bold and decisive action to bring about an early victory for the Ukraine and to restore peace, security and stability in the world.
* Eugene Czolij was president of the Ukrainian World Congress from 2008 to 2018.