True independence

Could it be otherwise? No, it could not. Ukrainians faced a real historical inevitability, moreover, an inevitability that Ukrainian society for decades did not want to accept, did not want to believe in. Ukrainian independence is a direct and clear consequence of the aging and disintegration of a cruel, misanthropic empire, which, however, does not want to accept its collapse. What remained of the empire tried to "return" Ukraine almost from the first days of our independence. At first - trying to drag us into new interstate associations, which in Russia were seen as a prototype of a new union state with the capital in Moscow. Then - propaganda, bribery of elites, and energy blackmail. Then - the transformation of Ukraine into a disabled country and the occupation of part of our territory in 2014. And when it didn't even help - a big war. As you can see, the Russians act consistently and logically. And yes, we can convince our enemies for as long as we want that influence in the modern world is determined not by territory, but by economy, science, and innovation. The people, who throughout their history were exclusively engaged in "collecting" other people's lands, will never understand this anyway. Even after this war, when we defend Ukraine, if the Russians live in wealth and we live in poverty, they will still consider themselves defeated and us as winners. Because even now, as in the Middle Ages, they fight for the land. For someone else's land.

Did Ukrainians understand all these alphabetic truths at the time of the declaration of independence? No, they didn't understand. Many still do not understand, they believe that sooner or later they will be able to come to an agreement with their neighbors. The idea of ​​the coexistence of "fraternal nations", constructed by communist propaganda to justify the re-occupation of Ukrainian lands a hundred years ago, still determined the consciousness of the majority of citizens of the newly independent country. In 2014, against the background of the occupation of Crimea and the war in Donbas, they came to the conclusion that "we will never be brothers." But in order to prepare for the decisive battle, this understanding was not enough.

The historical truth is that independent democratic Ukraine and imperial Russia cannot coexist on the political map of the world. For us, Ukraine is our country, whose independence we protect. For Russians, Russia without Ukraine is just a bleeding scrap of their "real" state. There is simply no place for historical and political compromises here. 

So what to do? To realize that we will not be able to win in a long and uncompromising struggle with the empire, moreover, armed with a nuclear arsenal? Not at all. The People's Republic of China and the Republic of China in Taiwan should not be on the same political map either - but have coexisted for eight decades. Eight decades ago, the communists wanted to destroy democracy and development on the Korean peninsula, but South Korea exists and thrives. Israel had no place on the map of the Middle East, but it won and is now even negotiating with those Arab countries that wanted its destruction.

The Empire understands only one language - the language of power and historical inevitability. In this war, the war for our true independence, we must defend the state sovereignty of Ukraine. We must realize that the main allies of Ukraine for many decades are the civilized world, the army, and the navy.  To join NATO - first of all to NATO, this is our main task, a matter of survival. We must join the EU as well. Our state policy must be aimed at building a democratic state and a self-respecting modern nation. Once again, a nation that respects itself and its own cultural, scientific, and historical achievements. We must learn to be proud of ourselves. We must learn to stop being ashamed of ourselves, to stop feeling the shameful colonial inferiority complex. And this means that as a result of a reasonable state policy and a conscious choice of free people, the Russian language must disappear forever from the streets of our cities and family life. Once again: the Russian language must disappear forever from the streets of our cities and from the family life of Ukrainians. Enough!

And this means that Ukraine must become a country facing the West, as once small Portugal was a large country facing the ocean, not the continent. The West is now our ocean, our salvation. Our true independence is the future in the civilized world.