Testimony: war in Ukraine | A Canadian lawyer at the heart of the “gladiator fight”

Feeling the call from the field, MP Paule Robitaille took up her old journalist’s notebook to document the war in Ukraine, a country she often visited while living in Russia. For this third text, she went to meet Dan Bilak, her former classmate in Montreal who has become the standard-bearer of the Ukrainian government abroad.

Dan Bilak arranges to meet me in front of the residence of the Canadian ambassador, whom he knows well. I haven’t seen him since McGill Law School in April 1986. I remember a laughing young man, a social beast who always had a good party, who could talk as much about the Canadiens’ last game against the Maple Leafs than a Bach concert. Brilliant, he was promoted to a certain future. A specialist in finance law, he opened the offices of a large Canadian law firm in Kyiv at the start of independence in 1991. It was an opportunity to return to his roots, Ukraine being the country of his ancestors. He found love there, he found a country. Thirty years later, it’s still there.

He takes me to a Crimean restaurant. “Crimea, this peninsula that Russia nabbed from Ukraine in 2014,” he takes care to recall. The menu is inspired by Tatar, the Turkish minority expelled by Stalin from Crimea, returned over the decades and now, for the majority, exiled since the Russian occupation.

“Shall we take the Genghis Khan plate? How are you? That should be enough for both of us. And then comes to me the image of this Genghis Khan, Mongol emperor who began with his soldiers the bloody invasion of the Slavic territories centuries ago, this Golden Horde which subjugated its inhabitants, leaving an indelible mark in this corner of the world. I cannot help thinking of this present bloody invasion, of this barbarism perpetrated by the Russian army.

This carnage, this madness, we did not imagine it so excessive, says Dan Bilak, but we knew that the Donbass conflict was not going to remain at the status quo.

So Ukraine was modernizing its army, a Soviet relic, to bring it into line with the West and accepting all invitations to train with NATO countries.

However, last fall, even within the Ukrainian government, many did not believe in the Russian invasion. She was going against all logic. A madness that would weaken Russia and its army and weaken the power in place. Obviously, Putin has his reasons that reason ignores. He invaded. Hence the slow and then lightning reaction of the Ukrainian army.

Dan had seen it coming. Since 1^er last January, the finance lawyer turned government consultant swapped his tie suit for fatigues. He helped set up a territorial defense unit, a military reserve, in his suburb of Kyiv. He who knew nothing about military strategy became keen on it. He unearthed an experienced officer and enlisted his neighbors in a tough training camp. He is now an active member.

In his early sixties, while his old buddies began retreats in the comfort of their homes on Lake Memphremagog or Georgian Bay, he decided to serve his country.

CNN, FOX News, CBC, CTV, on all English channels, he speaks for the Ukrainian government. He describes the current conflict as a match against Goliath. “The Russian strategy is one of scorched earth. Buildings and civilians are pulverized. We fight with heavy artillery as during the Second World War. The Russians are throwing missiles and shells at us. And we respond the same way. A gladiatorial match. A war of attrition. And it’s who will fall first. They have the advantage of the quantity of material and men. We have the strength of free people who defend their country. »

The front in Donbass worries him. It is estimated that 100 Ukrainian soldiers per day fall in combat. The balance sheet is hardly better on the Russian side which would have lost as many men in three months as in nine years of war in Afghanistan. We remember that the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan contributed to the collapse of the USSR. What would be the impact of a Russian defeat in Ukraine? “Give us what we need and we will fight for you. Vladimir Putin and his regime will fall! »

Suddenly, he looks at his phone almost moved: “Biden has just signed a check for 40 billion to Ukraine, that’s 60 billion in all. It’s big, but we need more. Canada has already donated half a billion dollars and this week pledges to send 20,000 artillery shells. But how many shells do we use per day? The Ukrainian state has become bulimic. “We have no time to waste. One quickly calls for multiple rocket launchers, tanks, planes, etc. »

Europe discourages Dan Bilak. “Europe is financing Putin’s war. Oil and gas purchases are 1 billion per day. Ukraine wants a total blockade and entry into the European Union.

And when will all this end, Dan?

This player, this skilful negotiator, answers firmly: “As long as they don’t give us back the Donbass and the Crimea. No compromise. Until victory. »

And the nuclear weapon?

“Putin will not use the weapon of mass destruction because it would mean an escalation of the conflict, NATO entering the war and he knows he has no chance. But hasn’t Putin shown that he defies all logic? “Putin is a bluffer. Any compromise is a sign of weakness. The West must have the courage to stand up to it. »

An hour later, we had swallowed the whole huge Genghis Khan plate. A sure sign that anything is possible.

I leave my friend, admiring his determination to break everything and convinced that he will hold out.