Why I’m back in Ukraine

I started to write this post while travelling to Ukraine for the second time this year. I published it while in my flat in Lviv, where I will spend the next 5 weeks. During this period I will share snippets of everyday life in Lviv, from shopping to volunteering, going to a cafe or a museum. Next week on 24 August is Independence Day of Ukraine, so I will assume that there will be a significant country-wide attack on the day. Most likely it will be on the night between the 23 and 24. Although considering the Ukrainian presence in Kursk, russia, that might not happen. We’ll see.

Now, going back to why I am back in Lviv, I should start with when I booked my tickets. I was considering going for a longer period since April and I booked my flight to Poland after russia’s attack on Odesa on 29 April. That day 4-years-old Zlata was killed, she and other 4 people were killed in a russian attack. A dog was killed too, taken for a walk by his young owner. This image stayed with me. I grew up next to the Black Sea and I used to walk my first dog on the waterfront when I was a teenager.

This girl, hugging her dead dog, could have been me and my dog… could have been any of us if things were slightly different.

The main reason why I am in Ukraine is simple: russia is waging a genocidal war against Ukrainians. I am not using genocide lightly, but intentionally, just as expert historians do – Timothy Snyder, Olga Onuch, Rory Finnin. These days the term genocide is used most of the time wrongly, from a white dude saying that the white people are “genocided” because black people or immigrants are taking his job to every death of a civilian in an armed conflict being called a genocide. Civilian casualties are a tragedy, there is no doubt about this. The caveat is that some civilian casualties are within accepted frame of warfare and all countries have a number of acceptable civilian collaterals when dealing with terrorism or in war. It’s sad, we can question the morality of it, but it’s the reality. Other civilian casualties are war crimes, when civilians or civilian infrastructure are targeted intentionally.

an example of war crimes

Genocide though has a very specific meaning and it’s primary characteristic is the internationality of the act. Genocide is the systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of a national group. A child taken from their parents by a state and raised in another culture, in another language, with a distorted history is component part of a genocide. Attacking women with the intent that they will not be able to get pregnant in the future is another example of what happens during genocide.

Both those examples are things that are happening in Ukraine. Thousands of children are taken from Ukraine to russia and are taught to hate Ukraine. This is why the so-called Children’s Rights Commissioner for the President of the russian Federation, Maria Lvova-Belova, has an ICC warrant for her arrest, alongside putin, for “unlawful deportation and transfer of children”. Estimates varied, but it’s clear that there is a mass abduction of children from the occupied territories.

Furthermore, in the occupied territories the russian authorities are burning Ukrainian books, are teaching only in russian, and a version of history which is not real. The russian teachers say that Ukraine is not a country, that it doesn’t have it’s own language, that it was always a part of russia. The children are made to sing the russian anthem. As for the adults, without taking a russian passport they loose access to medical treatment and medication such as insulin, they can lose their homes as a new property registry is created by the russians. The russian administration forced Ukrainian children to write letters to russian soldiers and anybody who refuses has their grades lowered. Ukrainian children are taken to camps where, by the Chechens, they are taught to fight and have to shout “Allahu Akbar”.

All this is a genocide because it’s intentional, it’s state policy, and it erased the Ukrainian identity even if the person is still alive.