“The solution to broken hearts is not to break more hearts.”
“Hmm?”
“It is always to listen to the forests, to the commanding gods in the rim of the woods.”
“Holy shit Benedict, where did that come from?!”
“I’m depressed! Did all the wrong elements in Ukraine and the West pressure their citizens into war?”
“I assume the angle here is: Ukraine could have complied to Minsk and there would not have been an invasion…”
23.02.2022 - 24.02.2022
https://www.rada.gov.ua//meeting/stenogr/show/7966.html
https://www.rada.gov.ua//meeting/stenogr/show/7969.html
https://www.rada.gov.ua//meeting/stenogr/show/7972.html
https://www.rada.gov.ua//meeting/stenogr/show/7985.html
Both their computers were now opened, and they had resumed their efforts.
“The 23rd obviously was a very different day in the Rada. All hands on deck. No long soliloquies. The mood is galvanising against the enemy and the talk about fifth column (pro-Russian deputies or just people who tries to advocate for peace and cooperation) is on the rise. Now they are closing ranks, and it is about to get much worse in the coming days.”
“23rd and 24th February:”
“Reactions. Brief expressions of anger and defiance.”
“Funding the military is the first major thing on the agenda. The speeches are predictably short and patriotic.”
“Small arms for civilians is the next big thing on the agenda.”
“Later that evening there are two brief extra meetings.”
“Further funding and …”
“State of emergency declared on the evening of 23rd.”
“Martial law introduced on the 24th.”
East versus west
“My mood-swing before was just this: The possibility that only a few people drives the fervour to the boiling point. I see that reflected in the different temperaments expressed during the 23rd of February. The closer to Donbas they live, the more they hope it won’t end in war. The aggressiveness with which a Deputy immediately rules out negotiations and demands full attention to the coming (unavoidable) war is proportional with the distance to the action.
For instance, this Artem, who later voted for exclusion of pro-Russian deputies, is clearly a patriot, but still, you can sense his nervousness over the war-ecstasy in the Rada”
Artem Chornomorov
I would like to say one thing: I am a representative of the Mykolaiv region, with me are colleagues from the Kherson region, representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk, we are the shield that stands now.Therefore, I want to say one thing, dear friends: we really do not see any motives for a step forward right now, but I urge that there will be no step back either.
“Serhiy Shakhov calls for not just readiness to defend but tangible aid and help to the Donbas regions who have withheld eight years of fighting already.”
Serhiy Shakhov
What are we fighting for: for territories or for human hearts and souls, for people who have been hiding under tables on their birthdays for eight years in a row from a balloon explosion ?
[…]
Today the enemy says that nobody needs Donbas, and the Ukrainian government swallows it today.
Why is there no help today for children and schools, kindergartens, which are under shelling, and the children have not yet been taken out?Those territories of the “L/DPR” are being taken out, and we don’t even understand what borders the enemy demands from us. We don’t understand and they don’t tell us what is happening there today.
“Contrast this voice with Iryna Volodymyrivna Gerashchenko who is mad at the deputies for not seeing clearer earlier that the war was always approaching - and that really saddens me now that we have seen how the Russian leadership watches the political temperature and takes that into account. The shrillest voices could easily have driven the situation over the edge.
Or how about Oleksiy Horcharenko who makes a fiery war speech. When listening it feels like east and west are worlds apart.”
Oleksiy Horcharenko
We are waiting for you with " javelins " and weapons in their hands. And if you come here, you will never leave here, we promise you that.
Welcome to hell!We can tell you that, and you will die here,die like lousy dogs, if you come to our state. And your generals, who throw you into this meat grinder, will be the first to run away.So now drop your weapons, go home to your children, to your women, you have nothing to do here. This is not your land and never will be!
“One could argue that in the first case fear wins over pride. In the second the opposite.”
“You could just as well argue that in the first case, the guy from the east is less integrated in the belief system of the westerners.
Nevertheless, on the whole, come 2024, and between 50-75% of Ukrainians are still ready to hang tight to deal with the war for as long as it takes.”
“Compare east and west: It is obvious that there is a difference.”
“Conversely, these are the statistics for how many are ready to make concessions.”
“Still a difference, but east and west are much closer now. After three years of war, many Ukrainians are still against territorial concessions.”
Maurice and Benedict examined the many-faced will of the people. Sometimes things added up, other times it didn’t.
“You know what I think, when I see those surveys?”
“No, what?”
“That the average Ukrainian makes a lot more sense than the shrillest voices. Their desires are simple and honestly expressed in bar charts.”
“You know what I think?”
“No, what?”
“We are back again where we started. Understanding Ukraine means understanding their world, and from that vantage point, Russia looks insane. Understanding Russia means understanding their world, which puts Ukraine in a very bad light. And the West love to favour one story over another. World views preclude each other, we can’t see anything but ill intent from the opposite side.”
Maurice was thinking. Benedict knew the liberalist in him wanted absolutes in the universe. Relativism didn’t suit him well. But intellectually he was fearless, so Benedict suspected he was ready to entertain any idea.
Do Ukrainians even like Russians?
“If we trace the conversation in both Duma and Rada, it becomes clear that both camps walk in circles that in effect escalates everything. The harder Russia tries to apply force, the more Ukraine closes ranks. The harder Ukraine insists on what to them is a rightful position of spiteful defiance (“we are better than those Muscovy animals”), the more worried the Russian elite becomes as they can see the Ukrainian armed forces grow each day in strength, an army controlled by a leadership whose cultural vendetta grows every day.”
“Russians don’t understand how preciously important it is to Ukrainians to have Russia stop talking about them as compatriots. They are fundamentally different. They are not in any respect similar to or in family with the Russians.
But is that chauvinism? The »Muscovy« myth and the »mongol successor state« myth.”
“It’s hard to say, and in any event completely meaningless to even try to discuss. Look here… The attitude towards the Russian people changed following actual events. This is how Ukrainians feel towards Russians:”
“The problem with discussions about world views and psychological states is that they assume the reality of something that may not be anymore tangible than thin air. Shouldn’t you, the Marxist, be telling me that?”
Benedict laughed at hearing Maurice invoking sub- and super-structure.
Civilians dying
“World views are also places of cognitive safe-zones. Rada deputies spend most of this day trying to overbid each other when it comes to arming civilians. Soon civilians will turn up dead by the thousands.”
“I know your angle, Benedict. Civilians carrying guns become combatants.”
“If you send in armed civilians against an invader, is it really any wonder that they are slaughtered?”
“Shouldn’t you ask what international humanitarian law says? I tried confirming your view with the Geneva conventions. It wasn’t obvious, because the IHL reserves ‘combatant’ for people with special rights. To be treated as war prisoners for instance. So usually plaintiffs in an ICJ trial tries to achieve ‘combatant’ status so they can accuse their enemy of breaking IHL in the way they treated them. "
Do civilians picking up arms lose their protection against direct attack under IHL?
Civilians are protected against direct attack unless, and for such time, as they directly participate in hostilities. Parties to an armed conflict must take all feasible precautions in determining whether a person is a civilian and, if that is the case, whether he or she is directly participating in hostilities.
“… Splendid. Now Ukraine can contest with all the bigot’s self-righteousness that none of their citizens would ever dream of attacking in a way that could constitute anything but selfdefense and the world would agree because they have chosen sides.”
“And Russian tanks can shoot on anything that moves because they can always refer to a conviction that most civilians they have met so far carries a gun and is actively participating.”
World views were indeed looming over both their heads. It felt hollow and sickening.
“It’s a complete package, isn’t it? You are handed out values, enemies, alliances, everything in one handful, and you immediately begin to elicit emotions according to schedule.”
Political realism
Apparently Benedict felt he wanted another topic on the table.
“What is your attitude to socialism, Maurice? Is it that countries like US are allowed to put pressure on their borders until they react, and should they fall, tough luck, because in the end, they were on the wrong side of history?”
“No, international law must prevail.”
“International law is blind to regional associations like NATO. In fact, I tried finding relevant law applying to international organisations, but it was scant. Apparently everybody has an opinion on whether a tank can cross into another country, but not whether the entire Western hemisphere can stockpile tactical nuclear missiles on Russia’s border. That puts NATO’s Open Door policy in perspective.”
“Aha. So that was your angle. Well, in that case I am in favour of prioritising rational, sensible people in rational, sensible countries.”
“You consider European Solidarity or Voice rational and sensible? How many times have we not stared at their ramblings in public and simply discarded them as sound and fury of drunkards?”
“I don’t recall. Numerous times. But I respect that they may just happen to have been elected by people of a similar mind. Wait a second…”
Maurice did his due diligence.
“European Solidarity, Voice and Fatherland rank high in the minds of the Ukrainians. Are you surprised? Servant of the People, on the other hand have a fairly low star. It would seem that the moderate mandate that allowed Zelensky off the television stage and onto the real one, has largely evaporated. I know you hate to entertain the possibility that Ukrainians in general abhors Russian influence, but the statistics prove it.”
“Now you know why I loathe democracy. It’s a haven for jingoistic populists. But you raise an important question.”
“Which is…?”
“Assuming that enough Ukrainians want to fight: Are we really doing them a favour by handing them the weapons to keep on fighting for years on end?”
“You mean, if they want suicide, shouldn’t they be allowed to kill themselves?”
“I mean, Ukrainians live just as much in a bubble of reality as the Russians do. Agreed, it’s their life, their choice. But as just noted, you get the whole package, including their crazy rambling of Russia wanted to conquer Europe.”
“And warcrimes?”
“That is another matter. I say it because nothing is as potent in the battle for reality as inhuman actions. It immediately invokes grand narratives of Russian soldiers and government as pure monsters. But again: What is manipulation and how can we talk about fact apart from myth - the subconscious overloading of meaning on top of those facts?”
“We can’t very well swipe actual crimes under the rug. Fact is fact.”
“Is it? Not seldom does the picture change when looking close enough. While I too laud international humanitarian law for its attempt at absoluteness, I am not about to blind myself like the law has to. The law must look at murder as a severe crime. But the rest of us are obliged to look into the circumstances as well. Perhaps it was by chance that person 1 managed to kill person 2 and not the other way around. In war, a lot goes on on the ground that is easy to disregard when media myths must be established.”
Maurice looked at him. He knew what that look meant. Maurice was a moral absolutist. Perhaps Benedict ought to be as well.
They stepped outside.
“You know, Benedict, a year ago, I would have completely thrown out your rubbish thinking. I may still do. But until then, I need to unravel the entanglement between emotional manipulation and factual actions. Exactly because I hold my ethical truths so dear, I want them to be untampered with. I will judge what is right and wrong.”
Benedict looked dumbfounded.
/PARADOX