If you ask me how much freedom costs, I will answer you that freedom is priceless. Like all my compatriots, my brothers and sisters, my Ukrainian people, we know very well how much freedom costs and what price we are ready to pay. And the others, are they ready to pay the same price?
Posted yesterday at 3:00 p.m.
February 24, 2022, the date when the whole world woke up, not by an early morning awakening that prepares us for a new day, but rather by echoes of bombardments from the other side of the planet. With these echoes, we have not only reminded ourselves that peace is fragile, but we have also questioned the validity of all the international institutions in which we trust so much. International law: threatened or limited? Guarantors of peace: protectors or spectators? Questions to which we still have not found the answer. Indeed, the Security Council – guarantor of peace – could not authorize military action because of the Russian veto. The non-application of the NATO pact to Ukraine, Russia’s non-ratification of the International Criminal Court and Russia’s non-recognition of the jurisdiction of that Court show very clearly that international law has exhausted all its limitations.
Let’s go back to the year 1994. Ukraine had the third nuclear arsenal in the world at that time. Strong, no doubt… Shortly after, the great powers of the time signed the famous Budapest memorandum with Ukraine, by which it obtained guarantees of territorial integrity and security, in exchange for the denuclearization of the country. Russia, signatory of this memorandum, does not hesitate, in 2014, to invade Crimea and two regions of Ukraine, while the guarantors of peace remain “concerned” and rather silent, without imposing the right to protect the Ukraine which was expressly guaranteed to him. Neither more nor less like the current context of the war.
Today, Ukraine and the Ukrainian people are synonymous with truth, resistance, freedom. Like no one else in the world, they protect the democratic values that are so dear to us.
Studying international law and international relations at UQAM, for me as for other young specialists in this field, we still have to re-study the major theories of international law and its limits. From now on, we are in the obligation to establish a new order of laws which will be able to guarantee peace not only on paper, but also in reality. Ukraine, in handing over its nuclear weapon, trusted in this international law, in the treaties it signed. However, “this same right” could not protect the integrity of its territory and save the lost lives of several thousand people who left too soon.
Since I am part of this brave free people, it remains for me to continue this battle with all the means possible to me. Despite the fact that it is a difficult time for my Ukraine, I have confidence that we will win this war, because for us the greatest value is our freedom and now you know what price we are ready to pay.