This is an all-Russians war. Not just "Putin’s war"
Since recently, such statement became widespread in the world’s leading decision makers’ rhetorics: allegedly, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is "Putin’s war". According to this logic, "ordinary Russians" should be distinguished from war criminals.
No one explains, however, how the facts of war crimes, committed by these exact "ordinary Russians" in Ukraine, fit into this semantic construction.
The information operation with a poster on Russian TV brought its fruits – particularly, in Europe. The case may or may not make Western societies believe that the so-called "good Russians" can work as propagandists for years, – the fact is that the number of foreign companies grasped the "good Russians" narrative as a chance to stay in the Russian market.
And so the double standards stories flourish. Simply put, the "ex-propagandist" Ovsiannikova’s case created a stimulus for the following message to be spread worldwide: "you should lift the sanctions off but we will continue killing Ukrainian children."
Specifically, it was sad to hear that President Joe Biden believes the so-called "ordinary Russians" do not support the war – as he stressed in his "historical" Warsaw speech. It was disappointing to hear him claiming it is "Putin’s war". It seems to be a huge mistake saying this. (In case we are not looking for any hidden messages behind the President’s words, of course).
It is understandable, however, that such rhetorics may serve as a wrap for certain political objectives and messages, tailored for different audiences, as well as the messages, addressed to political elites. Although, it should be admitted that the Western leaders stay way far behind the time in terms of reacting to the current events. By contrast, the events develop way to fast. Furthermore, it is not about the speed of the reaction: searching for "good Russians" makes no sense overall – nor today, nor yesterday.
Firstly, the polls data show that the vast majority of Russians do support the war. For instance, the statement is proved by the research results (posted on Ukrainska Pravda on March 18). The results demonstrate that 71% of Russia’s population supports the war against Ukraine. Moreover, the indicator is growing.
The intercepted conversations between Russian soldiers and their families and colleagues, as well as the reports from the streets of Russian cities, allow us realising the depth of the society’s moral decline. Although I would abstain from calling it society at all. That is precisely what gave the rise to Putin. After all, it is not important what the "tsar’s" name is.
Hence, there is nothing about humanism when talking about "the people of Russia who should not suffer because of the imposed sanctions". For some, the idea serves as a cover for making dirty money, for others – as shifting responsibility. Yet another group takes it as an information operation means to ease the sanctions pressure, even though it is realised they will continue committing genocide.
Secondly, hundreds of thousands of soldiers who take part in the war against Ukraine continue giving and carrying out criminal orders. They bomb peaceful Ukrainian cities, kill the children, rape women, loot, and murder civilians just in the streets. They do this because they feel impunity, because they have honed the hatred.
The empirical fact is, there is no "Putin’s war" – there is an all-Russians war. Or at least, it is supported by the vast majority of Russians.
They do support the genocide of the people of Ukraine. Hence, Putin is not the cause, but rather the spawn of the nation.
It is them, the Russians, who brought him to power and approved his previous crimes. It is them, the Russians, who for years have been serving as a "greenhouse" to cultivate the virus of ruso-fascism, imperial revanchism, savagery, and archaism.
The failure to recognise the fact that the entire country and the nation as a whole are engaged in the war is just as unproductive as claiming that there is one single person at war against Ukraine. Moreover, a failure to accept the objective facts excludes the very opportunity to make a fair historical and legal assessment of this war and evaluate the proper punishment for all war criminals. It also blocks the way for the attempts to understand the real causes of the war.
As a consequence, such a failure will – sooner or later – but inevitably it will cause recurrences. For Russia, a defeat will become a great humiliation, for which, eventually, it will try to take revenge. And so, there will be another war – sooner or later there will be one. That is why now, we cannot allow the world and ourselves to neglect a realistic assessment of the situation.
Given the circumstances, the burden of achieving this awareness is, to a large extent, borne by us, Ukrainians. In particular, it is our burden to enable the formation of this awareness by the world. This seems particularly clear in the background of sincerely deplorable behaviour of some European leaders who are still trying to keep connections with the war criminal and butcher.
Some of the European politicians went too far by claiming that a possible collapse of Russia shall not take place. Well, today it is not up to them to decide.
The West was not happy about the USSR’s collapse either. The thing is, one cannot rewrite history as wished. But this is another story. Just don’t tell me it is all fantasy. You know, the borders of what is possible have expanded significantly during the last few decades.
Oleksandr Solonko
