Olena Belozerska: why this war will and should continue

This is a very important text that I nurtured for a few weeks. Please don’t be lazy and read through to the end.

People who are far from the front line and are used not to trust the official sources are seeking to learn from those who are "geographically closer to the truth": whether the truce is really observed, or the officials are lying and the fighting keeps going? I'll tell you what really is going on.

The fighting continues, the officials and controlled by them media are trying to conceal the activity and the number of losses. But… Compared to what it was before - for example, in the spring or even in August - fighting does not exist. Armor piercing artillery is used very rarely, mainly small arms, grenade launchers, AGSs are used, much less are used the 80th mortars. Scouting groups, ours and theirs, are moving back and forth.

A marked intensification of the fighting has been observed after the Putin's speech at the UN, but not enough time has passed in order to be able to talk about the full return. Almost all volunteer organizations - such as the "illegal" UVC RS and the legalized "Azov", "Donbass", and others - are removed from the front line and cannot break in there - all the ways to the front line are secured by the reliable checkpoints, often completed by the former "Berkut". Across the country volunteers get arrested - while not massively, but the trend is clearly visible. On the front line there are Military Forces of Ukraine only. Let someone from there tell you about the moral and physical condition of most of them. I know something, but I don’t have a moral right to tell.

It is forbidden to open a fire - under any circumstances. It comes to the fact, that even shootings in landfills are regularly prohibited - not to provoke someone inadvertently.

The military law enforcement service intensified incredibly. They control virtually everything, and most importantly - they do not let volunteers to the forefront and seek not to have any fighting.

Recently not far from us an enemy scouting group snuck into our territory, opened fire and wounded one soldier. The group was destroyed by the Armed Forces Battalion located there. The boys have not yet returned from the assignment, while the battalion commander got in serious trouble for the confrontation.

Actually, now those who want to fight for Ukraine are the most persecuted and humiliated categories of people. They have to lie and hide like criminals. Everything else - including drinking on duty - is allowed. The main thing - not to fight.

Of course, the volunteers continue to fight - illegally. About the extent and mechanisms of this phenomenon I will tell after the war or after the change of government. On the other side of the contact line are the same processes. “Kolobky” (collaborators) are being replaced by the Russian troops. They, as more disciplined, oversee that no one without an order opens fire toward the Ukrainian side.

So, as of today, October 1, we can say that the Minsk agreement on mutual ceasefire is satisfied on about 90%. Our government did everything for it. We, the volunteers and conscious members of the Armed Forces, failed to prevent this, because we did not go and could not go to an armed uprising against the government, and all the other methods have failed.

The present situation is a disaster for Ukraine.

I understand how hard it is to take. When you see that after the Saur-Mohyla, Ilovaisk, Debaltseve, and DAP our boys finally started to die much less, and you are told: no, this is wrong, the war should go on, and our boys have to keep dying again.

It used to be easier. "Separs violate the truce and fire on us, so we have to shoot in return." In reality, of course, both sides violated the truce - in equal proportions. Now both sides barely break the truce, so to explain the need to fight with the excuse "they fired first" is not possible anymore, and we have to say simply and honestly: this war must continue and finish with victory, not reconciliation.

Because the historical mission of this war, which is being increasingly called the Liberation War - once and for good, or at least for a few generations forward, to close the Russian question for Ukrainians.

Just as after the terrible and bloody World War II for several generations of Soviet and even post-Soviet people the word "enemy" was consistently associated with "Nazi invaders" - after this war the Enemy for Ukrainians on a genetic level has to be the Russian Empire, "the gatherer of Russian lands".

After this war from the minds and the Ukrainian realities once and for good have to disappear: "TC" (“The Taiga Union”), "Tri-united Rus", "The Second Official Language", Soviet street names, alienated Parliament, and the fifth column claiming rights either to the leadership, or to the opposition. If that happens - thousands of our boys died not in vain.

What is needed for that?

1. Victory. Although even defeat in this sense is better than reconciliation. After victory over Hitler, Soviet veterans did not start to treat German Nazism any better. After losing to Stalin, UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) veterans and their grandchildren did not start liking the Soviet regime. Remember also, there had been three dissections of Poland and still there was a subsequent uprising.

Our President was cunning consciously when he said that we have only three options: either to take Moscow by storm (for which we do not have enough forces), or give away our territories to the Kremlin, or by all sorts of peaceful and diplomatic means gradually reintegrate the occupied Donbass into Ukraine. Thus he took the listeners/readers up to the conclusion that apart the third way nothing else is left to us.

But we have had and still have the first way, deliberately distorted by the president. No need to go to Moscow, only to the border. There is a fairly decent chance that with losing the war for the Donbass, Russia, overwhelmed by the sanctions and military spending, losing their ideological rod, to which it was holding for so long (average Russian agrees to endure poverty and limit his rights and freedoms for the sake of the greatness of the state, under which he means primarily the territorial increase), will begin to collapse in the near future. But even if this does not happen - Russia can no longer pose a threat to Ukraine, because it will lose its traditional support - the fifth column on the Ukrainian soil.

2. Honoring soldiers. We must return from the war victorious. We need a victory parade in Donetsk and memorable photos from the border - all divisions. And solemn demobilization. And once a year to wear uniforms, and meet with the fellow soldiers to remember the past days. And children and grandchildren will talk about us in schools and as relics will cherish our patched uniforms and torn elbow protectors. Otherwise ... You know that many of my colleagues have already started talking about how to go fight in other hotspots? When the war ends in nothing, "thank you all - all are free" - the psyche of a soldier does not accept this, because too high price has been paid. And then grenades explode in peaceful cities, and the best guys lay down their heads who knows where and for whose interests.

What we are offered instead?

Reconciliation – agreeing to the objectives and conditions of the enemy is cowardly presented as peace. That is: the gradual return to the before Maidan situation, impaired by the rivers of shed blood and by the shattered economy. Election in the occupied part of Donbass. Putin’s bastards in the Parliament. Endless swings between the EU and the TC, bribed generously by Putin. Funeral of the newly born unity of the state and the nation.

So I imagine the secret auction, which might be taking place right now. "We will not allow Givi and Motorola in the Ukrainian Parliament!" - says Petro Oleksiyovych pathetically. "Then we will not allow Yarosh and Tyahnybok in the Ukrainian politics" - respond the opponents. And an exchange happens. The West is approvingly watching: everything is alright. A compromise.

But this is not the worst. We are no strangers to the corrupt government trying to destroy us. Same as humanity is no stranger to the fact that not every war ends in victory for one party and surrender for the other, it also happened when the parties had fought, and later concluded a reconciled peace, and this is normal. The worst thing is that this vile "reconciliation" will not happen with Putin, who has not pleaded belligerent, but with our "kolobky" (collaborators). And then - just as the history of Maidan and the first year of the war are already being rewritten - they will rewrite its results. If we do not make peace with Putin, and with our collaborators, this war will go down in history not as a Liberation Ukrainian-Russian war, as we call it, but as a Civil war - called so by our enemies. It will not go down in textbooks as a great victory, but as the great tragedy of the Ukrainian people as a tragic mistake, when some villains (probably, oligarchs) angered brothers and the brothers began shooting at each other. Fortunately, after a year and a half of bloody war the brothers reconciled thanks to the wise father Poroshenko (or anyone else who at the time will be appointed by the official propaganda to be the wise father). The brothers gave each other a hand, and vowed, never again!

So I imagine how I am giving a hand to the brother Motorola.

What shall we do?

1. First of all, to understand that we must not transfer the Ukrainian-Russian problem to our children. This issue should be closed here and now.

2. To return to the active fighting as much as it’s possible. A great offense from our or their side will not happen now - because of their lack of strength and our Poroshenko. There will be mutual shelling and attacks on villages and small towns. As a part of this tactic we have to get back small towns around megacities. Cities - into a full blockade, only allow out refugees and let in only people who are going to pick up relatives. Fully support exit and removal of people - it’s the easier to fight with less civil population.

Those who do not come out will not die of hunger - there will be the remains of the Russian humanitarian support, plundered by the militants.

3. Actively wait for the change of the regime, and then briefly introduce martial law, without which victory is impossible. And during the coming spring, in the interval between the mud and the heat, properly provoke “kolobky” to significantly disrupt the Minsk agreement, and then clean up the cities by tanks.

4. Put all ordinary fighters and small commanders under amnesty, regardless of whether they were actually fighting or just standing at the checkpoints. No investigations to the extent of each participation! For our law enforcement agencies, entirely built on corruption, such investigation will only bring fabulous enrichment to the investigators, prosecutors and judges, recognizing all militants as innocent, and imprisoning several dozen of unfortunate addicts and homeless people who have nothing to pay. So - amnesty to all, except for the organizers - those who had received money from Russia for destruction of Ukraine, and those guilty of torture, executions of prisoners, and so on. These should be punished to the fullest. It is also a good idea to imprison "volunteers" from Russia for a long time, but it will not work - they will escape over the border. Those who have been caught and will be caught during the military actions after the war to be exchanged for Savchenko, Karpyuk and others.

5. Not to sign anything with the “kolobky”! If on any document at the end of the military actions, on one side stand a signature of a Ukrainian official or military, and on the other - a signature of someone from “kolobky” - we agree that this was a Civil War. ATO means ATO. When surrounded criminals are being offered to give in, no one signs anything with them. “Kolobky” must lay down their arms under the promise of amnesty, period. For them, even this is too much, because usually only a fair trial is being promised.

6. And finally, learn to make competitive Ukrainian products in the field of culture, literature, education, and media. But this is a topic for another article.